When we moved here the choice of which school to send our dd to was easy. One school had hours I didn't like, one had discipline problems and the other was perfect! It was a simple choice.

We are moving in a week and I have no idea which school to enroll our dd in. She will be entering grade 2 in the fall. One school is a K-7 Public School. There are two grade two classes and the enrollment in each is 23 students. The other is a Catholic School (provincially funded so no tuition costs). It is a K-12 school. The grade two class will have 28 students with support for LA and Math (I'm assuming that means a TA in the class during these subjects). I just don't know whick school to send here. I like the fact that she would receive instruction on First Communion during class time. Also, the church doesn't provide any other instruction so if she doesn't go to this school we will have to attend church in a community other than the one we live in so she could attend Sunday School for this instruction. However, the class size worries me and I'm not sure I like the K-12 setting.

Any suggestions????

By Karen55 on Saturday, June 28, 2003 - 02:48 pm:

Wow! Paula, IMO, a lot has to do with the schools in particular, not whether they are K-7, or K-12. Is there any place you can check their *ratings*? I'm not familiar with the school systems in your area. The only experience I have to go on is what's in the area in which I live. I chose to move to this parish primarily because of the public schools here. They offer a wonderful enrichment program of arts, music, and special ed programs for learning disabled or gifted students. The private, catholic school in my area doesn't offer comparable programs such as those. However, in the catholic school, there IS religious instruction, which there is not in the public school. Our class sizes were between 25-30 in most classes, most years, but our school system has a very active parent volunteer program and tutoring program, as well as a No-tolerance discipline program. The public schools here have an excellent reputation, whereas in neighboring parishes, the private/catholic schools are considered to be better schools. I think if you could find out more about each school in regards to particulars and check their reputation, you will be able to make a decision easier.

That being said, I would welcome opinions from parents with younger kids. Things change so quickly in the education systems, and my last one just graduated high school, so I may be way off base with my thoughts on this.

By Paulas on Saturday, June 28, 2003 - 08:38 pm:

Here is the Catholic school link: http://www.gpcsd28.ab.ca/stm/

Here is the link to the public school main page:
http://www.prsd.ab.ca/

And to the particular school we might attend: http://www.prsd.ab.ca/ee/index.html

Here's a link to the public school achievement test results. The problem is that it is a division report and does not provide individual school results. http://www.prsd.ab.ca/Plans%20&%20Documents/achievements%20diplomas.pdf

Here is a link to the results for the Catholic school. The results are on page 29.
http://gpcsd28.ab.ca/reports/annualresults.doc

By Paulas on Saturday, June 28, 2003 - 08:39 pm:

make that
http://www.gpcsd28.ab.ca/reports/annualresults.doc

By Kaye on Sunday, June 29, 2003 - 02:53 am:

I think the first thing you have to keep in mind is this: you can always change your mind in a year! Public vs Private...overall I would say that private schools have a higher percentage of good teachers that love their jobs (they have to because they get paid a LOT less). Public schools as a whole offer more choices, but this really shows up in middle school and high school. I grew up in a k-12 school. I can say that really I never thought anything about it. Our school was really small, so we just had one class per grade level, so on classes like Am. History, we often took those with another grade. They offered algebra 2 and geometry on a rotating schedule, so again multigrades in there. We did not have a band or a music program at all really. The upsides, I knew my teachers really well and became friends with them (I still get Christmas cards from a couple of them). There was no stress in transistion. I knew the building inside and out, I could find my classes (ah college was fun). In elementary, this really was a perfect setting. A smaller setting means you don't slip through the cracks. In high school it lacked some. I didn't feel really prepared for college, for example my first college class was history, there were more people in that auditorium class than in my whole school k-12 in my home town. This is overwhelming! Academically I was fine, but college is so much more than academics. Personally I think I would lean towards the catholic school for grade two and then reconsider at a later date, whatever that natural transistion is in the public school. I did read your catholic schools info letter, their reading plan (DRI) is a great plan, lots of schools are using a similar one with really great results!