Switching schools

James and Margaret (age six next week) will be changing schools in 2010.

We’re not unhappy with their current school (Suttontown), just with a decision of the principal regarding their class for next year.

South Australia is unique, in our experience, for allowing children to start school during the year.

In Victoria and Western Australia, children start prep at the beginning of the year if they are old enough at a cut-off point, which I think is around April.

The twins were born in December, which means they qualified for a full year of prep (called reception in South Australia) in any state.

In South Australia, children who turn five during the year start school at the beginning of a term, right up to the final term of the year.

As a consequence, there are new children coming into a class all the time.

Juliet was a “reading mum” at Suttontown this year; the only one in fact. She listened to children read their designated books.

She observed that having new children enter the class throughout the year was quite disruptive to the teachers and the other students who were more advanced.

Perhaps because of its unique system, South Australia combines classes across year groups. At Suttontown, that means there is a Reception/Year One class, a Year 1/2 class and so on.

Having completed a whole year in R/1, we assumed that Jim and Maggie would progress to the Year 1/2 level, however that was not to be.

The principal decided to keep them in R/1 next year.

Juliet received the information earlier this month and handled the discussions, so I’m reporting second hand, but the reasons didn’t make sense to us.

The principal said the twins were not being “kept down” and they would have “leadership roles” in the class next year. Leadership at age six!

What bothered us was that James is very advanced for his age, especially with reading. His class teacher said he is two and a half years above his age for reading, which means he’s at the level of an eight year old.

We were concerned that keeping him in a class with five-year-olds, who are just starting school (and progressively starting throughout the year) would be detrimental to his development.

There was a danger, in our view, that he could become bored at school and suffer behavioral problems.

As for Maggie, she cried when she heard the news. All her friends were going up to the next year level and she was devastated to hear (from the teacher, not us) that she would be staying in R/1.

The principal made it clear to Juliet that his decision was not negotiable.

In the 20 years that I’ve known her I’ve never seen Juliet so upset or angry.

I looked at it dispassionately and decided immediately that we would switch them to another school.

I originally considered the Catholic primary school, but the fees were just too expensive for two children, about $1600 a year each.

Given that public education isn’t free in South Australia, we could not afford the private school fees while the older children are costing us a substantial amount to have them enrolled at the state high school.

So I suggested to Juliet that we enrol Jim and Maggie at Mount Gambier North Primary, which is actually the school we are zoned to.

We are on the border between Gambier North and Suttontown, but chose the latter last year when we arrived because we thought the small-school environment would be better after our positive experience at Porepunkah in Victoria.

Suttontown has under 100 students, while Gambier North has about 250.

Juliet went to Gambier North and asked for an appointment to see the principal, who agreed to meet her straight away. Juliet phoned me at work and I went there immediately for the meeting.

We didn’t criticise Suttontown to the principal, but asked her opinion of how she would manage a child who is advanced for his age at reading.

She said peer stimulation was the best strategy; that it’s important to group gifted children together so they challenge each other.

This confirmed our view it would have been detrimental to James to keep him in a junior class with predominantly beginner students.

We completed the enrolment paperwork that night and actually feel relieved now we made the decision.

We think the new school will be better for Jim and Maggie for a range of reasons: peer stimulation, closer to home, more students, greater sporting and music options, and after-school hours care if needed.

Everyone we’ve spoken to about this agrees we have done the right thing.

We weren’t sure how the twins would react, but we told them this morning and walked with them to the new school.

James was initially reticent, but by the time he saw the school he was hooked. Maggie embraced the idea immediately.

One of their current classmates is also switching schools for different reasons, so they will start the year knowing at least two other children.

It was interesting talking to the Gambier North principal about twins. She thinks it’s a good idea to separate them at some stage, but agreed to keep them together in 2010 because they are starting at a new school.

We’re all looking forward to it.