Private, Independent, Selective

I'm going like crazy. I'm still undecided whether I should let Wiji start Kindergarten next year. In Australia, schools have different "school-age" definition. While most schools will accept children into Kindergarten if they turn five on or before 31st of July in that year, some schools I visited have a cut-off that falls on the first quarter (Wiji's birth month is on the 2nd quarter of the year).

Last month, I received an Enrolment Acceptance Return Slip from St. Michael's Primary School. It's a low-profile private Catholic school in our parish funded by the Catholic Education. Fees start from $2,000 a year. Wiji can start Kindie with them by next year because their cut off date is end of July.

Two years ago, I attended the Open Day of Redfield. It is an independent school for boys. "Independent" is a private school which is not funded by the government. In short, SOARING school fees out of the parents' pre-tax money. Their fees start from $7,000 a year. I was notified last year that he is enlisted to start Kindergarten in 2008. Wiji cannot start Kindie with them next year because their cut off date is end of Feb.

Based on my computation, Wiji's child care/preschool fees over the last three years has come almost close to $10,000 a year. It's as if I've been sending him to an elite school already. :))

Should I go for St. Michael's Primary next year? Then, transfer him to an Independent School by 2008? But what if Baloni and I can't sustain the very high fees in the long run? Imagine, four years from now, we'd be having two school-aged boys!!!

When my boys are all grown up, I don't want them to think that we didn't do our best to give them the best education. Ahhh, these schools are giving me a headache.

But then again, if they'll do very well, they might just have the chance to get into a selective school. Now that's synonymous to our Philippine Science High School. And I wouldn't have to worry about their school fees - only uniforms.

Oh by the way, I was cheking the price list of St. Michael's pre-order unitform. Que horror! Mahal pa sa wardrobe ko. Hehehe! Just exaggerating! But you know, because we have 4 seasons, they have separate summer uniforms and winter uniforms.

I'm still unsure if it's a good idea to start him early. But I just want to give it a try. He'll be attending an orientation next week. And we'll see how he will fare. I'm still not confident that he can look after himself.

Anyway, that's my OZ-Types-of-School 101 for you.