Do you have a child at Brighton or Marryatville Secondary Schools? Both offer specialist Music programmes, but I can't seem to find anyone with a child at Marryatville. Does anybody know how the Schools compare?

It's a bit of a tricky one, as I can't afford a Reccie and will be moving into the area close to the intended School. Music is a key factor for my daughter, but although there seems to be stuff posted on Brighton, I've never seen anything on Marryatville. Surely someone must have a child there, or know someone that does. Really keen to find a School which is pupil-orientated, friendly and supportive, whilst expecting them to get on with some serious work! (Got one like that here).

Any thoughts on the comparative Music programmes also appreciated, although I guess I may not find this on here.... but you never know...

Thanks guys :)

Claire.

Hi Claire,
I dont have any kids in Marryatville , BUT it had been recommended to me by my son's teacher and the principal at his school !

His Teacher has a son there, and says that it is an excellent school , achieving excellent academic results. She lived in the Western Subs near to us but moved house in order to get him into the school !

Sorry not much else to say , except that it is oversubscribed so deffo have to live in the school zone !

Good Luck
JulieWx

Both schools have good reputations. I think Brighton is a bit more musicky because they do stuff like the rock eisteddfod too, I think they've won for the past few years.

Thank you both

Seems both Brighton and Marryatville are very good, then. I got the feel from their websites that Marryatville is more traditional that Brighton and wondered if this were true. Certainly I also need to look into the Eisteddfod (?) as well.

Brighton have been incredibly helpful and I've been told is easily accessible from Flinders Uni, where I'll be working. Just like the idea of being in the hills, really. Won't want to move areas twice unless I can help it, so need to get this right. Not sure how easy it is to get into the Uni from Marryatville, so will chek that out too, but your comments are very highly appreciated.

Music is one of the reasons for the move, so this is key :cool shake: :dance:

Claire.

Claire, if you want to get your daughter into Brighton you won't be living in the hills... you really do need to live in their zone to stand a chance there, with at least a 12 month rental to show them.

Seaview has a music programme too though not as prestigious as the other two, and would be easier to get into. It's contemporary music they teach there for the concerts etc - though the individual lessons can go in the direction of the child's interests. Might be worth a comparison along the way.

I don't know about music specifically but Charles Campbell school has a performing arts speciality as well if you haven't looked there. You can live in lovely Athelstone then!!

Diane

Brighton seems to have more of a choral focus, although their orchestras and bands are very good and of high standard. Marryatville has more of an orchestral/band focus, from what I have heard.

Elaine,

Marius visited Brighton when he was on his recce. He was told that they take about 30% of the children on their specialist music programme from outside the "catchment" area based on auditions which are held once a year (I think). I'll go and dig out the prospectus. It's been decluttered and filed away far out of public view!

Claire,

Marius was extremely impressed with Brighton when he was there, probaby most of all the few schools he visited. Definitely fulfils your criteria. It concentrates very much on singing, but other areas of music are wlel covered. Marius was treated to a little concert when he was there. Didn't have time to visit Maryattville though. Our daughter is very into music as well, especially singing, and is doing quite well in it, so we're looking seriously into this area. Want to live in the hills though, not at all interested in being near the sea...so we'll have to see what happens. Plenty of time though


Annette
:dance:

Thank you everyone for your input.

Just looked at the difference in rental prices when you move 1 street out of the Brighton School Zone! Goes down by $100 a week!! I really could do with knowing whether daughter can get onto programme before we get there.

Sophie (daughter) lives for her Music, if you took her instruments from her I think she'd be had up for murder.

She is very demanding of my time to teach her piano (I was a piano teacher), and accompany her on her flute/viola/singing. As a result she is fairly advanced on a couple of instruments, and now trying to develop her voice, whilst my own work is suffering. Add to that all the runing around to various ensemles outside School. It would be great to have this done at School.

It's really hard because I want to have a house to move in to when we arrive. I guess it would be good to find out about the Schools around Brighton or Marryatville and move into their catchment. If she gets onto the Programme, she would have automatic entry to either School. Marryatville have a system in place for overseas applicants, but I will ask Brighton if they do the same, as this would solve the problem.

Does anyone know how far Marryatville is from Flinders Uni, and is it near the Hills??

Thanks all

And Good Luck

Claire. :D

Hi Claire,

Marryatville is about 10 minutes drive from the Adelaide foothills. There should be a map in the FAQ section on this site. Travelling distance to Flinders University during out of peak hours would be about 20-30 minutes dependant on route taken.

Marryatville by the way is an older, leafy,affluent eastern suburbs area. Median house prices are around the $500,000 mark.

All the best with your plans.

Jet

Claire,

Have a look at this, it's the application brochure for the music programme at Brighton. Auditions are in November.

http://www.brightonss.sa.edu.au/bss_webpag...on_Brochure.pdf

I'm pretty sure you'll be stung with high fees if you enrol as an international student. Also, you'll need to be on a temporary visa to qualify.

Also, if this is an option, Scotch college provides performing arts scholarships of 50% of the school fees. If she's as good as she sounds, I think she should have a good chance of getting in on special merit programmes to whatever school you choose really.

Annette
:dance:

Thanks Jet and Annette

Had a look at the map and at the application form. It helped alot. I had the impressions that Marryatville was nearer the hills, as you say. I also discovered that Marryatville take overseas students of the basis of reports etc. and ask for videos for interstate applications. So I sent an e-mail to both asking if they would be prepared to give me an indication of the likelihood of a successful application on the basis that I get my local friendly sound engineer to do a video recording for them and also get reports. Will await their responses.

I get the impression that both are good Schools and that may be the best option is to keep my options open at this stage. I'll also look into the performing arts school, thanks.

With thanks for everyone's time

Claire. :D

Brighton does more choral stuff than Marryatville, but they both do the same amount of instrumental stuff (I went to the Musicorp festival a few times). Orchestra, junior orchestra, string groups, symphonic band, concert band, senior/junior jazz stage bands, etc. My friend's daughter (ex student) tells me that they both have year level ensembles and choirs too, and lots of small ensembles. You should be safe either way :)

http://www.rockchallenge.com.au/ (Rock Eisteddfod)

And you should be able to pick up Adelaide Eisteddfod brochures at music shops, might be worthwhile her entering in the specific solo instrument categories for her age group :)

Thanks so much Dooby

Nice to have found someone who knows about this. The local festival competition here is run by the Rotary club and is coming up next month, so practicing for a flute solo at the minute. Sophie's also got another piece to play at the Colchester Institute Music Shool concert week after next, then her Grade 5 in July!! In between that there's bands, viola and choirs!! Now you understand why I want a School that con sort it all out!! In fact I'd go as far as admitting that the specialist Schools is one of the reasons for immigrating!

On the basis of feedback on here, will wait to hear from them both and decide on that basis where to move. May be a good idea to let "the house" decide the School. There seems to be a better selection of 3-bedroom houses around Marryatville than in the Brighton catchment, but think it will depend on what is available when we move.

Thanks again

Claire

Hi Claire

We are having much the same dilemma.

My daughter is currently doing her grade 4 violin and also studying piano. She really wants to keep going with this and looking into the special music schools over there was like her dream come true.

Our problems going to be the fact that we're not going to be able to afford to live in their catchment zones (thanks to price of house dropping rapidly :( ) and as she is only 9 will need to look at primary schools which are feeders first, again can't afford to rent/buy in their zones.
Our next thought was that she could use the scholarship route when the time comes to move up to the senior school, but then we've got to think about the fact we'd be moving her away from all her friends. She is a very quiet child who does not make friends very easily at all so really don't know which way to go now.

Have heard back from Seaview High about their music programme and they indicated they are more rock than orchestral but do also study different instruments within the school. However vioiln is not one of them :sigh: .

I'm sure everything will fall into place once we get there and start visiting schools but at the moment just so frustrating with not even a clue as to where to start looking.

Good luck with your decisions.

Terri.xxx

Yep Terri,

Have the same problem. There's absolutely no way we could ever afford to live in the Maryattvillle school area, Brighton is more possible, but the gardens are totally non-existent for anything we can afford, and we don't want to live by the sea. Funnily enough the area around Kensington, Maryattville etc. was Marius's absolute favourite when he went over. He took lots of video footage there, it looks gorgeous.

We'll have to look into auditions etc. , but don't have the energy for that now.


Annette
:dance:

Hi Annette

Don't know if this helps and may save you a bit of time. I've been in close contact with both Marryatville and Brighton recently. These two really are considerably better in tems of their music programme. You don't have to stay living in the zone once the child is in the School, although to get into Brighton you have to have a 12 month tenancy agreement in the zone. If the child gets on the programme you DON'T have to live in the zone at all.

Brighton have been extremely quick and helpful at getting back and talking to us, whereas although Marryatville have been slower they have agreed to assess Sophie by way of a DVD ahead of time. Brighton have also agreed to the DVD approach to give us some initial feedback. Clearly if she's got no chance it would be best to know now. Have now got it ready to send next week, but we're busy writing out a composition to send at the minute. Marryatville do more ensemble work than Brighton, but Brighton have fantastic bands and a nationally recognised Choir.

I have also had correspondence from a future colleague at Flinders Uni in Adelaide who has 5 children. One has been through Brighton, the second is still there and two of the others will also go. He is delighted with it. Happy to pm you a copy of his e-mails on the subject if it helps.. send me a pm. From what he says if your daughter is already Grade 4 at nine, I really doubt that there would be a problem, so living in the areas wouldn't matter.

I gather that both are good Schools. I have found Brighton much more reponsive in terms of speed, but possibly found Marryatville slightly more flexible.

The music Schools are one of the main reasons for migrating for us, so weve been into this in some detail already. Just hope it helps.

Claire.

Wow Claire,

Thank you so much for all the information.

I have to admit the more I look into the schools situation, the more confused I am becoming! I don't know what to think anymore. My daughter is doing very well in singing, but is neglecting her instruments a bit because of that, so I'm not sure whether to try for a music school, or rather go for a performing arts school, as she is also very into dance and drama and does quite a few hours per week. Then again, she is excellent in languages and art and has won prizes for Art, French and German for the last three years running. This could be used to get her into the excellent and internationally renowned Adelaide High School.

On the other hand, I'm thinking is it really going to make such a difference to her future, or will it be better to find a really great and beautiful place to live where we all feel happy and where we can afford to live comfortably and will she be sucessful anyway in whatever she eventually chooses because she feels settled, relaxed and not pressured into performing because the whole family has had to move to an area which they might not have chosen as a first choice (even for 12 months).

Sorry for the rant, but there are just so many things on my mind at the moment that I wish someone could just come and wave a magic wand and make all the decisions for me!

Annette
:dance: