Schooling In Maribyrnong

It has been quite a while since I stopped blogging, I just felt the urge to share something I read on The Age a few days ago. It's about Maribyrnong Secondary school and how the school is the most improved in Victoria in term of median VCE score between 2003-2012. I am writing this piece because one of the main questions that pop up in people's mind when they think about buying a house in Melbourne western suburbs is the quality of the public schools here.

 http://www.theage.com.au/national/education/at-maribyrnong-college-build-it-and-not-only-will-they-come-theyll-excel-20121219-2bnah.html

Sure we don't have a top performing (academically speaking) public high school this side of town yet (unless you are talking Parkville or Essendon, which are really North rather than West) but things are improving.

I have always been a believer that the inner west area is going through a gentrification process, and gentrification will naturally lift the standards of the local schools and it's good to see some concrete numbers to back that up. Of course, being a designated specialist sport school helps too.

The school has since become a strictly zoned school except for those who are accepted into the specialist sport academy. I am quite confident that the next ten to fifteen years will see Maribyrnong's academic achievement improve even more.

The article also has a VCE result table for 2012 for all Victorian schools. There are some rather interesting factual data there. The other one that caught my eye is how Footscray City College in the much maligned suburb of Footscray actually has the same VCE median score this year as Doncaster Secondary in the eastern suburb of Doncaster (an area very popular with Eastern Asian migrants). Make what you will of that.

Anyway, my son is only three so perhaps I shouldn't analyse too much into high schools at this stage. We should be thinking more of primary school for now. One of our nearby primary schools has a 'Play To Learn' program for preschool kids every Friday morning in their school library during school terms. Wenty and Rafa have gone to that a couple of times with a friend/neighbour whose kids are attending that school. It's probably a toss up between that primary school and a local catholic school for Rafa when he starts school in a couple of years time.

In the meantime, the kiddo has started child care part time at a nearby not for profit child care centre. He only started there in August and first two months were a nightmare in term of him getting sick frequently as it was the first time he had been exposed to all the germs that are shared around by the kids in child care and the weather was still quite cold. Thankfully, the last couple of months have been good as his immune system starts to get used to it and the weather gets warmer. Wenty has been impressed by the carers there too. She finds them very caring and engaged. We should really just enjoy his preschool years for now than think too far ahead.

That's it for this post, oh and this doesn't mean I am back to blog regularly. I just don't have the time and energy to do that any more. I may do a random post once in a blue month if there is something I really feel the urge to write about.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone out there in advance!