Dear All

Looking at possibly moving to the Fulham Gardens area of Adelaide. Won`t know for sure until we get there. Looking through the "suburb" area of the website it appears to have a very nice and well thought of primary school. Have spoken to the head teacher there Mr Max Rayner who was very helpful. Hementioned that the school doesnot have a zone so you can live anywhere in the region. I am also led to believe that the school has small class sizes.

Therefore my question is, if there isno zone and the school is well thought of why do not more parents try and get their kids in there?

I have emailed the head teacher to see what his thoughts are on it but i just wondered what others thoughts would be?

Many Thanks in advance.

Andy

Hi Andy,
My friends (Gils from The Mann Clan and Jackie from Stejac) both have kids there, and are both relatively pleased with it . From what I have heard , the reason for the low numbers is that the school had a bad reputation prior to Max and has only recently started to recover from this , although everything is fine now .
You should ask them their opinion , Im sure they wont mind.

Wishing you luck
Julie x

Ps my kids go to Fulham North , (where the kids from Fulham Gardens moved to !) which is almost full to capacity now , a problem in itself :doh:

Thanks Julie,

I was not aware of there being any problems with the school. What was the reason for the bad reputation. As i said i have asked the head teacher the same question and i will be interested to hear what he says.

I presume that you are happy at Fulham North with your kids. Perhaps i shoud try there if i can get them in.

Many Thanks again.
Andy

Trying to remember what the original problem was, think it was the previous principal's unfortunate attitude and rumours that got out of hand.
Max has been there for 4 years now and has really got things moving in the right direction. We chose small class sizes because my 6 year old was moving from a Northumbrian school of 90 and would have got lost in a bigger school in amongst the ordinary anxieties of emigration.
He loved the school, principal and class teacher immediately but still took the full first term to find his feet and PLACE in the pecking order!!!! I love the family atmosphere and have joined the staff for brilliant professional development( I'm an unregistered teacher).
Andy(swift6) moved his kids from Fulham Gardens to Fulham North because they found it lacked the hustle and bustle of a larger school.
Juliew and I are forever comparing the 2 and we cycle past Fulham North which is at the end of our street. We were really undecided what to do when our youngest started in January but feel we are part of the Fulham Gardens school community and with that comes a fondness and loyalty that is difficult to fully describe. Think you'll know immediately you take a tour of each and I would strongly suggest you add Henley Beach Primary into the equation. Another dynamic principal and a good crowd of parents.
Looking forward to meeting you, check out Zootz on a Thursday morning and you'll get all the inside knowledge from different schools.
Gils

Hello Gils,

Thankyou for the insight. Sue(Quaverwave) also PM`d me regarding Henley Beach Primary and could not recommend it highly enough. As regards to Fulham Gardens and it being a really small school with small classes.My little girl goes to a primary school in England with 150 plus in her year alone. Her class size is over 30 although there is a teaching assistant to help out. Perhaps Fulham Gdns might be on the small side for her. Out of interest are there any good primarys in and around Lockleys.

Thankyou

Andy.
p.sAre all Primary schools non zoned or just Fulham Gdns.

Hi , the zone only kicks in once they reach full capacity. From what I understand there arent many primary schools with zones , it does tend to be the senior schools .

Julie


PS there are 2 primarys in Lockleys . One is fairly big and the other small, but sorry cant remeber which is which . I have had involvement with both and they both seem good schools .

Bubble has kids at one of the Lockleys schools , Im sure she will pass on her opinion.

julie

Hi,

Lockleys & Lockleys North are fairly close to each other but on different sides of Henley Beach Rd. Lockleys North is the larger school with around 500 students and is zoned whereas Lockleys has around 160 and is'nt. There is also St Francis which is a catholic primary on Henley Beach Rd, also has quite a large enrolment - around 450 students. All of them run out of hours school care programs.

Paige is enrolled to start at Lockleys North next term, and took a real shine to the place and her new teacher during her transition visits and can't wait to go every day (me too :lol: ) So while I can't give you an experienced opinion yet, I have been left with a good first impression.

Paige's kindy were also invited to a fun day at Lockleys which I went along to, and again, staff & students had a great attitude, but it is a smaller school.

The majority of kids from the preschool here fan out to these three schools.
I've put their links below if you fancy having a nosey :)

Lockleys

Lockleys North

St Francis

HTH

Desiree
:D :D

Thankyou to all who replied. It appears to me that if we pick any school in Lockleys,Fulham Gardens or Henley Beach then we can`t go wrong. Which is nice to know when looking for a rental.

I have already contacted Max Rayner at Fulham Gdns and Shane Misso at Henley Beach andi will probably try the lockleys schools as well when i get time.

Thankyou all for your time, your help has been greatly appreciated.

Andy