Schooling megathread - private or public?

[taemo]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

It's hilarious that the campus chat section has transitioned from our schooling to our kids.

in 10-20 years, watch our for Best Retirement Home thread in Real Estate section?

[me_dennis]

anyone here have experience with Master's? It's supposedly a top rated school in Alberta, but with how selective they are with the admissions process, I don't know how much I trust the Fraser Institute ranking.

[bjstare]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

anyone here have experience with Master's? It's supposedly a top rated school in Alberta, but with how selective they are with the admissions process, I don't know how much I trust the Fraser Institute ranking.

I know people that went there who turned out ok, and work with people currently sending their kids there. The people with kids there now have nothing but great things to say, and if you need the before/after program they tell me it is second to none. My plan is still to move to springbank and send our kids to school in Rockyview, but if we don't get that done in time, Masters will be the one we shoot for. It helps that it's a fraction of the cost of other private schools.

[Tik-Tok]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

Jokes aside, all things considered I don’t really have strong preferences to either system. That points to public being the better option because it’s “free”.

Under a voucher system, I would not choose the public system over private if my dollars weren’t already sunk into public. Nothing about public school is worth what it costs.

@killramos Now that you have a crotch-fruit, and need to start thinking about these things, I suggest you sign your kid up to one of the Charter schools here like FFCA. If you decide not to send him/her there when the time comes, you don't need to, but they'll never get in if you don't start applying now (and renew the application every year).

[killramos]

Yea we are pretty into foundations but not super stoked to leave it up to chance.

[you&me]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

anyone here have experience with Master's? It's supposedly a top rated school in Alberta, but with how selective they are with the admissions process, I don't know how much I trust the Fraser Institute ranking.

My wife graduated from Masters. We have friends that send their kids there currently and other friends that previously sent their kids there (and now go to our school). Our kids go to a different private school.

The pricing is definitely attractive (relatively), but the friends who've changed schools found it was clear why - it seems that class sizes are not really much smaller than public schools and quite a bit larger than some of the other private schools. That's going to be an issue for some families and not a big deal to others... YMMV.

All-in-all, I don't think you can go wrong. There are a number of fundamental differences between the main private schools, which will all appeal to the different priorities of different families. I would suggest looking at several schools to assess which is the best fit for your family.

[ThePenIsMightier]

Some might say, that Catholic School is private school, that's completely publically funded.
Others might say, that between 40-60% of the students at Catholic Schools, are not Catholic.
And yet still, there are even others who might say that one could donate a shit-pile of money directly to their kid's school and receive a massive tax benefit for it (because charitable/church contribution) and end up with one's name on a plaque in a wing of such a school.
I imagine that such a person's kids still get bullied at school - but only once. And I also imagine that such a person's kids get some attention if their teachers are wandering a bit too far from the curriculum.
I'm not certain, though.

[benyl]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

Yea we are pretty into foundations but not super stoked to leave it up to chance.

FFCA is great as they teach foundational knowledge (like times tables) early and drill that knowledge in. No fucking “new math” bullshit (from what I have heard).

For me, the school you choose for grades 1-5 are the most important. One on one and foundations. If your kid gets bored in grade 1-5, they have no hope in JH and HS. They will likely never learn a good work ethic unless they are challenged in 1-5. That’s the time your brain gets wired. If it easy and your lazy, that’s likely how you will end up.

Our big reason for moving out of Aspen was to be walking distance from the “private” school.

The funny thing about our school is that the nerds bully the jocks.

[killramos]

That is Westmount in your case?

Personally I think our ranking is Foundations > Masters > Public ( we live between 2 really top notch public schools walking distance which is good for elementary but I worry about the JH and HS’s in our area ). Also trying to consider where STS might fit in there.

[bjstare]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

That is Westmount in your case?

Personally I think our ranking is Foundations > Masters > Public ( we live between 2 really top notch public schools walking distance which is good for elementary but I worry about the JH and HS’s in our area ). Also trying to consider where STS might fit in there.

I also know a few people who are sending/recently have sent their kids to STS and they have great things to say. One of them sent/sending all five of his kids there

Although if I was spending $100k/yr on school for my kids, I'd definitely have some confirmation bias, so take that endorsement with a grain of salt I guess.

[killramos]

Honestly seems like a better investment than the average University education these days.

[Euro_Trash]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

@killramos Now that you have a crotch-fruit, and need to start thinking about these things, I suggest you sign your kid up to one of the Charter schools here like FFCA. If you decide not to send him/her there when the time comes, you don't need to, but they'll never get in if you don't start applying now (and renew the application every year).

We've had our daughter on the FFCA wait list for a couple years as a coworker said the exact same thing. Biggest problem with FFCA are the locations - we just moved to an area with a Catholic school with great ratings so we are debating between that and FFCA/Masters/Clear Water. Does anyone have thoughts on Clear Water? Definitely sounds like it has a large focus on faith (not a subject to discuss in this forum) but curious on sum of parts.

[asp integra]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

We've had our daughter on the FFCA wait list for a couple years as a coworker said the exact same thing. Biggest problem with FFCA are the locations - we just moved to an area with a Catholic school with great ratings so we are debating between that and FFCA/Masters/Clear Water. Does anyone have thoughts on Clear Water? Definitely sounds like it has a large focus on faith (not a subject to discuss in this forum) but curious on sum of parts.

RE: Clear Water. They just opened a brand new building for K-6 at the start of this year. It's constantly in the top ranked schools in Calgary alongside Webber and Masters.

[Tik-Tok]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

Personally I think our ranking is Foundations > Masters > public

Throw a TLC school between Masters and Public. It's still public, but is a little more like FFCA than general schools.

[killramos]

Yea I am generally pretty open minded, but both me and the wife want our kid as far away from the CBE as possible if that’s in the cards.

If I could guarantee we get into FFCA then that’s probably what we could do but again I hate leaving it up the chance.

[Euro_Trash]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

Yea I am generally pretty open minded, but both me and the wife want our kid as far away from the CBE as possible if that’s in the cards.

If I could guarantee we get into FFCA then that’s probably what we could do but again I hate leaving it up the chance.

It's been said but just get your kid on the FFCA list now - my kid is not even 3 and she's been on the list for 2 years so we have the option when it's time.

[you&me]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

Yea I am generally pretty open minded, but both me and the wife want our kid as far away from the CBE as possible if that’s in the cards.

If I could guarantee we get into FFCA then that’s probably what we could do but again I hate leaving it up the chance.

My wife has quite a few friends in the CBE and CSSD... Before we even had kids, we knew we didn't want our kids anywhere near those organizations.

[killramos]

Yea it’s on the to do list for the week

- - - Updated - - -

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

My wife has quite a few friends in the CBE and CSSD... Before we even had kids, we knew we didn't want our kids anywhere near those organizations.

My wife works for the CBE lol. Dumpster fire.

[benyl]

I'm weary of rankings. There is a lot of outside factors that aren't taken into account. Demographics plays a huge role. Many students do well when their parents have money for extra curriculars, enrichment and tutors. It isn't necessarily a reflection of the quality of the teaching. We've had some not so great teachers at our school.

Private and "Private" schools tend to attract people with the means to propel their kids to do well, even when they are typically average.

It's really about the school working for the child. Any kid can do well at any school if they have support.

We knew our kids needed more support in the realm of personal development and executive function. Academics would be the easy part. That's what really drove our choice.

[dirtsniffer]

Any value in this site?

https://www.compareschoolrankings.org/

Apparently I live close to a high performing public school. Should I still be avoiding at all costs? ~$8k for masters doesn't seem too out of reach, but still a big chunk of cash.