I’ve been a principal for decades. Here’s how to choose a school for your child (it’s not the one you think)

November 11, 2026 — 5:00am

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Every year, parents of year 6 children sit at kitchen tables attempting to answer an inconvenient question. Is our local school good enough for my child?

I’ve spent 32 years as a teacher, principal and system leader. I’ve sat with hundreds of families nervously weighing this decision. And there’s something those parents deserve to know that isn’t in the brochures they’re clutching.

There’s zero wrong with the parental instinct they’re in the grips of – every good parent asks questions like this. But this particular question has been engineered, over decades, to point parents in a particular direction.

It leads towards waiting lists and unmanageable fees. It coaxes parents towards the school that feels like a utopian promise.

I don’t blame those families for a moment. But they’re making one of the most consequential decisions of their child’s life in a system that has been deliberately tilted against the option they’re walking past.

The fast-growing private schools offering an alternative to mainstream education

Let me tell you what the research says makes a school good. It isn’t the uniforms or the facilities. Nor is it the student cohort’s socio-economic, religious or ethnic composition. It’s definitely not their latest capital works project or even their median ATAR.

The consistent predictors of good life outcomes for children are a relational culture where students feel known and safe; teacher quality........

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