Schooling Central

Hello Everyone.

I'm new to this forum and new to the whole "Gifted and Talented Children" community, so please accept my apologies if I am about to ask a very old and tired question, but...

My son was recently assessed to be very, very clever ("borderline gifted" according to two different child psych's) and we are looking at changing his school for next year. The main reason for the change is because of dissatisfaction with his teachers' and the principal's attitude for the last two years, but that is another story for another forum!

Anyway... we are looking at primary schools in the Dandenong/ Waverley area and I am in need of some guidance or feedback regarding schools that have specific "programs" for high achievers.

A couple of schools I have found on the web are: Camelot Rise, Glen Waverley and Rosewood Downs, Dandenong North. They both sound pretty good, but then again, many schools say they have programs to "cater" for these students. I suppose I just don't trust their claims after our recent experiences.

Would anybody be able to give me any feedback or direct me to a trustworthy, independent source of information regarding these or any other primary schools in this region? My son will be in Grade 2 next year and while we are Christians, we do not mind if he is at a private or government school - we just want him to be educated in a positive and nurturing environment.


Thanks in Advance, Kate

PS~ I tried the "Find Schools" link on this website, however I kept getting 0 results??

Hi Kate, welcome!
I can tell you that Camelot Rise is certainly well known for its gifted programme ( I do however know one person who was not particularly happy with it...) There is one review on this site that is not too positive. I was able to get it on the find schools function just now.
I agree that it is hard to separate the talk from the walk. BTDT!!!
There is an organisation called CHIP that offers an assessment of what school might be best... did your child psychs offer any advice?
CHIP also offers an after school or weekend programme for gifted kids.

Can you go and have a look round at the schools and see what you think?

So sorry to be not too much help... but good luck....

Thank you happymum.

Your response was very helpful. I had forgotten about the details of the psych report, which includes some ideas for follow up actions. The whole process has dragged out a bit because I have had to negotiate with my son's father, his fiance, and my new husband, plus organise my wedding earlier this year. None of these things were a negative influence - it just made it a longer process than usual.
Anyway, thank you again for your suggestions.
Kate

Hi Kate and welcome to the forum,

We have some experience at Camelot Rise as our son went there although I have not yet written a review in the database. I was actually waiting until some time had passed after we left before writing a review just to let things settle but I should probably get onto it now. We were not entirely happy with the school but I do want to stress that many people at the school are exteremely happy there (at times I was baffled by how exceedlingly happy parents were!). We had issues on several different levels which I don't really want to drag out on a public forum, but one thing I will say is that the Prep to year 2 classes have open classrooms which means there are four classes operating under one roof with only low bookshelves to divide the rooms. Our son is not particularly good at auditory processing at the best of times and we felt that the noise generated in the open environment did not enhance his learning experience.

I have heard that Camelot Rise is reaching capacity and it may not be so easy to get in now from out of the area. We have moved our son to another local school (there are several in the area which are supposed to work well with gifted children - see Glendal, Mount View and Essex Heights (not that I have direct experience with these)) although I think that some of these schools are also zoned. Our son hasn't actually started at the school yet so I can't give you any feedback on the new school.

Good luck in your search and come back and tell us if you find a school that suits your son's needs because it can be very hard for people to find this kind of information (as you've probably discovered).

Annabel.