Kingsford Smith School reviews?

One incident this year.
Weapons brought in from outside influences but related to some students.
Notes sent home, asked children what happened, some person brought a machete into school.
Another incident and on going…
Kids being assaulted as principal says it’s not bullying when they are being slapped and then punched.
Verbal abuse, many suspensions and no expulsions as principal has ever expelled a student.
If a child is naughty in one class, option to send to another class to wreak havoc. System was not working, so they changed this and supposedly act up once and your out of class or detention for one recess.
Verbal abuse continues certain students still abused. It’s all true. I am one of the parents with children here. Three have been bullied and hurt over the years. Friends have moved out and back to closer schools to them, we don’t have much choice as “in area” and just want little troublesome students out! As suspensions should not be soooo many before removed or not welcomed back! Hopefully new year and students moved on. Parents may be nice, but their parenting skills need to DO something with their child!!

farq said :

but none of my neighbours send there kids there.”

WRT a thread on education, is this irony or satire?

What is wrong with Kaleen?

I haven’t heard a lot about KSS, if it’s for high school though, steer clear of Kaleen.

My street is only a stone’s throw from the super school, but none of my neighbours send there kids there. Everyone drives their kids to aranda/hawker/florey.

The super school was about saving money and releasing valuable school land for resale to private developers (ala Higgins school being sold off for cr$ppy units).

Thankyou for your replies, they have been really helpful. They’re both also pretty on par with the other feedback I’ve received.

There’s a bit of a mix, but the positives are usually associated with the newer facilities as well as the good standard of the preschool, early primary school, and especially the high school.
Middle school seems to get a bad rap for dealing poorly with bullying etc..this could have to do with the schools restorative policies, which I understand would shy away from punishment in favour of mediation and reaching a good outcome for both victim and perp. Maybe these policies aren’t implemented very well by the school (in that they’re leaving victims at a disadvantage), or maybe it feels unjust to some of us parents who grew up in a more retributionalist school setting. It’s hard to tell, but there is definitely more than just one family who feel that the school ignored complaints about such things.

Thanks so much for your detailed responses, I appreciate it.
BTW, my little one will be in Kindergarten next year. We have been rejected from three surrounding public schools. Definitely too poor for private school. Still undecided on KS but we’re a little closer now.

My brother went there for a short period of time. He seemed to have enjoyed it very much. New facilities with decent teachers. There were always the bad eggs but it wasn’t a major issue at all.

Hi Georgie,

My daughter attended preschool there last year (2013) and it was better than I expected. The preschoolers are separated from the rest of the school in a fenced off area. The classroom and facilities are all very new so are in good shape, and the teaching staff were great. I certainly had no complaints about the school for the time she was there.

That being said, my wife did speak to a few other people whose kids had some bad experiences once they were in the higher grades (years 4-6) such as bullying, physical assaults, etc. that the school allegedly ignored. Maybe there was no evidence or the parents were overreacting, I’m not sure what the full story was but either way the parents were pretty unhappy with the way the school handled their complaints.

Happily for us, we moved house this year and no longer attend the school. I am not sure how old your child is, but they should be okay in the earlier grades. Based on my wholly unscientific anecdotal evidence the problems only seem to start once they get to 9 or 10 years old…