Secondary School Advice Wellington

[Aussiefamily]

Hi . This is my very first post. We are a family of 5 including 3 boys aged 14,12 and 10.

It is seriously looking like we are going to be moving to Wellington by September. We currently live in Perth, Western Australia

My husband will be working in Petone, Lower Hutt

We have been looking at schools and we are surprised by the amount of single sex schools. It isn't as common in Australia.

My two oldest boys are in high school here and attend a private Catholic school. We are open to good public schools though, we just don't have a great one near us so pay for private education.

We are thinking Churton Park may be a good fit for us and Onslow College would be the local secondary school.

Does anybody know much about this college??

These are the things I am after:
* good support for learning difficulties as my 14 year old has dyslexia
* teachers who really care about their students
* support for different pathways other than NCEA
* class numbers that aren't too large
* nice environment which doesnt tolerate bullying

Any other suggestions are also welcome!!

Thank you!!

(Sorry it was so long. This Mumma Bear is quietly freaking out &#128540

[olinzld]

Hey!
I am currently a teenager residing in Wellington, so I know a lot about the secondary schools here.

For public secondary schooling, Wellington College is your best bet. However, if you are living far away from the city centre then you are unlikely to be in the zone. There really aren't that many good (in my opinion) secondary schools that are not single sex apart from Onslow College, which is a good option too. For integrated schools (half public and half private) there are many options. If you are (I think) catholic then St Patricks College and St Patricks College Silverstream are pretty good. Hutt International Boys School (HIBS) is also another viable option. For private schooling, there is only one real contender; Scots College. Unlike (I believe) all the other boys secondary schools in Wellington, Scots offers the IB system as an alternative to the NCEA system which the students can choose to do at Year 12 as the public/integrated schools only do the NCEA system.

The class size can range from small to large classes depending on the subjects, the school's resources and timetables. I know that some schools offer help for people with dyslexia, but teachers here a very supportive and one friend from Australia said that they are a thousand times better here in terms of the public system. As with any school, the environment changes with each year and you cannot really tell until you are in there but I have not witnessed much bullying in general.

Good luck

[ChrisMwn]

Your principle issue is zoning. It will depend very much where you live as to which state school you might have access to. If you are living in Churton Park, you may well be zoned for Newlands College? St Pats College Wellington has been mentioned. it is a very good school and caters well for boys who have an interest in sport, art or culture. it is a "state integrated school" and you'll find the fees are vastly different from what you might be paying at a Private Catholic School in WA. Fees for St Pats are c$1000 a year. You'll need a "preference certificate" confirming ties to Catholic Church. PM me when you have made 5 posts and I can offer further comment. Apart from an alternative pathway, SPC meets all of your requirements.

[terraluv]

Hi all! we will be moving in to Wellington this coming July.. and I'm currently looking for my 13yo son new school. We will be staying near Tawa College but we still want to try if he has chance to go in to Newlands College even it would be out of our future zone.
I appreciate, your inputs, if Tawa College is a good school or Newlands College is worth to try also?

Thanks!

[nzfrog]

Same thing here, I subscribed to this thread as I want to know more.
From the different threads I read in this forum Onslow and Tawa seem to be good options rather than Newlands.
We would like a public school and have option for IB or CIE but public schools that accept girls do not offer IB or CIE (only boys can have CIE at wellington College from what I saw....), so if we stick to Public Schools and have girls then we have no other choice than NCEA which is also recognized for studies abroad so that should be fine.
So now we are hesitating between Onslow and Tawa and our two girls will arrive by year end 2017 to start college and high school 1st february 2018.
It's really hard to decide...

So if anyone arrives earlier than us and can update this thread with their fresh experience with Onslow or Tawa or Newlands, that would be really great
Thanks in advance