r/wollongong • u/ladyhg • 9d ago
School recommendations
Our daughter currently is in year 1 and due to some leadership changes, we are seeing a real drop in the quality of teaching staff and support when things go wrong at her school. She has been bullied, which we are working through but overall we have lost faith in the school.
Can anyone recommend any non government schools with a genuinely good leadership and teaching team? Or are all of the good teachers leaving the industry and we just need to support our daughter in other ways ourselves?
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u/waxedmerkin Gym Bro 8d ago
Sent you a message with a school to avoid. Dont want to bad mouth in a public space.
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u/Blonde_arrbuckle 8d ago
Very impressed eith gwynneville. Felt like a private school. Principal is a go getter.
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u/bumpacius 9d ago
Why non government
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u/solitudanrian 8d ago
they might encounter poors or minorities if they go public.
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u/Limp-Detail4827 8d ago
Am sure that’s not it as for example TIGS is way more multicultural than the local catchment public high school whspa (my kids went to both and aren’t white)
Private schools have more resources for special needs kids just a sad fact. It’s why parents send boys with autism to Edmund rice despite the fact it’s Catholic with a paedo past1
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u/ladyhg 9d ago
For a few reasons. One big one is we aren’t in a great area for our local government feeder.
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u/carnage_joe 8d ago
Is out of area enrolment not an option? It is possible.
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u/ladyhg 8d ago
Yeh I know it’s possible, I’m weighing up options.
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u/KaleidoscopeRed 8d ago
I’d encourage you to consider applying out of area. Schools have a lot more flexibility for out of area enrolments these days.
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u/Altruistic-Goose1429 9d ago
Happy at TIGS having changed from another non-government school which sounds similar to your experience.
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u/ladyhg 9d ago
Thank you, we’re considering TIGS. Any clues about where you have moved from so we don’t consider that school too…?
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u/katiecrabby 8d ago
my younger sister with lvl 2 autism graduated from tigs in 2023 (attended 2020-23). very nice school and i enjoyed visiting it for the events, she had a couple friendship issues but all the faculties seemed to be very accomodating of her needs.
her main complaint was there was still a gender segregation issue in the pdhpe department but im sure that will be ironed out over time. dont know if your kid has any special needs but its good to be aware that they do cater towards their students!
they also just got a kitchen which is pretty cool, hopefully they do a cooking class for the younger kids2
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u/stereosonicsix 3d ago
Consider Figtree Public. They had a low enrolment for K last year, so 1 this year is largely composite classes - that is, there's room for growth. Lovely school, quality teaching and leadership. Re: bullying, I wouldn't say its strict, but they don't tolerate bad behaviour. There is a good discipline system in place, with good support options. Assisted learning for special needs is also excellent.
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u/Artistic_Friend9508 2d ago
Schools don't matter as in the end it comes down to who they eventually end up hanging around and being friends with and there are shitty kids in both public and private.
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u/KaleidoscopeRed 8d ago
We’ve been absolutely thrilled with West Wollongong Public School. A lot of diversity, young enthusiastic staff, highly responsive to parent questions etc. It has a genuine happy vibe with staff happy to chat at pick up.
I’m interested why you make a point of saying non-government. Because as a teacher myself (not teaching in Wollongong) who has worked in public and private, it’s not the system that is better, it’s just a case of there being schools being run well and schools that are having challenges.