I encourage you to personally tour the school and meet the educators and students, form your own opinion and leave a comment here.
Best of luck with your search for the perfect school!
PODCAST EPISODE 5
Private school culture at a public girls school at Canterbury Girls School
OCTOBER 9 2024
EPISODE DESCRIPTION
Kate is a mum of three girls who currently go to Canterbury Girls Secondary College. In this conversation she shares her thoughts about why she chose girls education, why she loves Canterbury Girls and how her girls with different personalities have fitted into the culture at the school.
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💡 Did you know Canterbury Girls School is in the top 100 Melbourne schools? See our top 100 schools article
PODCAST TRANSCRIPT
Crystal: Hi parents, today I’m chatting to Kate. Kate is a very experienced parent of three girls, two of whom attend Canterbury Girls Secondary College in Canterbury, Melbourne. Canterbury Girls Secondary College is fairly unique because it is one of only five public all-girl schools in Melbourne. It has about a 100-year history, and it seems like it has a great academic record too, with its website boasting of some impressive academic results. According to Canterbury Girls’ website, the 2023 dux scored 99.95, their median VCE score was 32, and 28% of ATARs were over 90 – very impressive. I’m keen to chat to Kate about what it’s actually like to have your girls study at Canterbury Girls. Hi Kate, and welcome to the Melbourne Schools Podcast.
Kate: Hello, thank you.
Crystal: Oh, thanks for chatting to me. There’s been a lot of questions in the group about Canterbury Girls, so I’m actually really keen to chat to you about your experience with your kids there.
Kate: Yeah, I love it. That is the short story. It’s like a private school that you don’t have to pay for, really. It feels like a private school in a lot of ways. I went to a private school, and I don’t have the budget to send three daughters to private school unfortunately, and I feel like this is a really fantastic school that has all of a lot of the cultural and academic attributes of a private school without the excessive fees.
Crystal: Wow, what a great testimonial to start off with, because I was thinking Canterbury Girls is in an area where there’s heaps of private girl schools around, aren’t they?
Kate: Yes, so it’s an interesting area because it’s in like a boomer area. A lot of the people who live in that area, since in the City of Boroondara, you know, inner city leafy suburb, and so a lot of people are a bit older, therefore not sending children to school. And it’s also a very wealthy area, so the people who are in the area are sending their daughters to private schools, which means that the school does take kids from outside the zone. I’m outside the zone by about 5 kilometers, and because it’s on the Lilydale train line, I believe there are children coming up that train line from suburbs like Croydon, Blackburn, Mitcham, all those areas because it’s very accessible by train. So you’ve got all these kids kind of traveling into the area, and therefore my kids have friends who all live far away from me.
Crystal: So you’re in this… yeah.
Kate: So that’s always good. So yeah, it’s a funny demographic. I think the school isn’t physically a big size because it’s in such a dense area, there’s not a lot of geographic area. Some of the buildings are a bit old and dated and that kind of thing. So when you’re touring a private school, you’re going to see these amazing Olympic swimming pools and really fancy buildings. Canterbury is not… does not have that, so it doesn’t look that as pretty, but I think the culture is very strong.
Crystal: Oh, that’s really interesting. How many kids are at the school? Do you know?
Kate: Oh, I’m not off the top of my head. You’ll have to fact check it’s around a thousand. Some reason I have that in my mind. In my Year 9 daughter’s… there’s five Year 9 classes plus the SEAL, so five Year 9 classes.
Crystal: Five Year 9 classes, yep.
Kate: Plus SEAL. And the same for my Year 7 daughter – five classes plus SEAL.
Crystal: Yep. So it’s actually not that huge.
Kate: Well comparatively, because I know some schools like, you know, have 2,000 to 3,000 kids, so this is actually relatively… well not small, but medium-sized.
Crystal: Yeah, I guess I don’t really know what the other schools have. That’s really interesting that you say that it’s not tightly zoned. For having such a great academic record, you’d think that people would be fairly keen to get into it.
Kate: Yeah, and I think the reasons why – that’s what the principal said in one of the information nights – were they were the two reasons: a lot of the locals are boomers, or they’re wealthy and they’re choosing private schools.
Crystal: Makes a lot of sense.
Kate: I believe, and I’ll have to check, I heard on the radio that the actual numbers have gone down a bit at the school, and maybe that’s a factor of people preferring schools with boys and girls. Possibly, or I’m not sure, but I do remember hearing on the radio not long ago that the actual student numbers are dropping at Canterbury Girls, which surprises me because I think it’s great, but I think with different opinions.
Crystal: I think the numbers are dropping at actually all girls schools is what I’ve heard, because there are so many and there are quite a few private girl schools around compared with private boy schools, and it’s a struggle to get… as I’ve heard, you know, recently – well not that long ago – one of the smaller ones actually closed down because of the lack of enrollment. So can you tell me a bit about your girls and what grades they’re in and what they’re into?
Kate: Yeah, so my oldest is in Year 9, and so when she was in Grade 5 or 6, we did the tours. We looked at a variety of local high schools, and what really impressed me about Canterbury at that time was the focus on the students. The students presenting… the principal just seemed very kind of calm, relaxed, very values driven, and her focus was all about the kids. So she got up and spoke for 10 minutes. The principal spoke about the students. It was seemed very student-focused, and then the students presented, and I was really impressed with the students hosting the tours. So they had the Year 8 students hosting the parent tours, which I thought was great. And I was impressed by the academic performance, so I could see that Canterbury Girls performs very well for a state school. So I felt like I was getting the academic outcomes of a private school, you know, the value-driven education. They offer a good range of subjects, those kinds of things. So that impressed me.
Anyway, so we applied and we got in, and I was concerned about being out of the zone, but I later realized that the school regularly takes people outside the zone, so felt very lucky to get in. And a lot of students are in the same position as my daughter. She knew one or two others, and they weren’t particularly close friends of hers, so she was very much on her own. She’s quite an extrovert, so I think she just sat down and started talking to someone – a bit like myself, really. So she’s settled in really well. They have a good program in Year 7. I think they do very well to encourage students to mingle with each other, make new friends, because there is a good number of kids who don’t know anyone. So I really appreciated that.
Crystal: How do they do that?
Kate: Oh, they send them on camp very quickly, which I believe is quite common for Year 7. They have a big sister program with Year 10s, they have a buddy program with Year 12s, and they just force them – if you’re partnering up in an assignment, you can’t partner up with the person you did the last assignment with, you have to find someone new. So just every day in classes, they’re being forced to mingle with others, which I think has been really good. And my daughter started playing saxophone, and she’s really enjoyed that.
Crystal: Did she start that at the school?
Kate: She started it at the school.
Crystal: Oh right, okay.
Kate: She’s getting really good, and she’s playing all the 80s power ballads.
Crystal: Oh wow.
Kate: Like “Careless Whisper” and “Baker Street.”
Crystal: Oh, that’s awesome. So good.
Kate: And she played in the Anzac Day March, so that was really great. So I feel like there’s some great opportunities, and the music program has been wonderful for her. So she’s made a lot of friends in the year levels above and below because she’s hanging out with all the other saxophone players. So I feel that that’s been a fantastic way of her connecting beyond her class friends. And they do really cool music events – they really get them to start performing from day one. So the Year 7 band, they have to dress in concert black, and the parents will come down, and they’ll play like a note. You know, they’ve been playing for two weeks, and that’s it. But it’s the idea is to just get them performing.
Crystal: I love that.
Kate: And this weekend, we’re doing… they’re doing like a jazz club in the school.
Crystal: Oh!
Kate: So they’re going to set up little tables, and all the kids who are in the Jazz Band are going to play. They’re going to have dim lighting, and you can bring food along, and you can sit around the Jazz table and enjoy Jazz.
Crystal: Wow, that’s going to be loads of fun. What a great event.
Kate: So that’s been excellent. She’s not a hugely sporty kid. The sports facilities at the school aren’t the best. Like, if you’re looking at a private school, then they’re not really there. They do have to walk across to a park to do some sporting activities. So if I had a future Olympic athlete, I maybe wouldn’t want… maybe wouldn’t expect the school to have top facilities. The child, however – I think my daughter plays sport outside of school, so she’s getting that elsewhere. She doesn’t need that from school, so that’s not a huge issue to me.
Crystal: Is your daughter quite academic? Like, is that why you chose a school that was quite academic?
Kate: No, I’d say she’s smart without being super-smart, you know? Like she’s smart enough, and I think she gets pushed in a good way. Like she had a big math exam, and she’s really studied, which I was impressed with. And she told me she doesn’t want TikTok or Snapchat because it takes away from study time.
Crystal: Amazing!
Kate: Oh my God, that’s good willpower there.
Crystal: No way. There’s no way a 14-year-old me would have said that. I would have been all over it, I’m sure.
Kate: So whether that’s her personal qualities or the school’s encouragement – because my Year 7 daughter is all over Snapchat – so it’s probably just to her credit more than the school. But she’s just one of those kids who… she’s probably a pretty easy kid. She wants to work hard, she wants to join in. She joins in on all the school activities, and she’s getting opportunity. So she certainly is not like… because she’s in Year 9, and she has friends at private schools like Wesley and Strathcona, she’s not doing some of those amazing Year 9 programs that some of those private schools do, like her friend at Wesley’s going off to Clunes in Regional Victoria and having this amazing experience. So she’s not having that experience.
So certainly, you know, it’s at the end of the day, it’s a state school, and they have state school resources. But I feel like the academic commitment is there. So next year, she’d be in Year 10. We just attended a seminar on options to start VCE, do a Year 11 subject in Year 10. So she’s interested in doing Psychology or Biology. So she’ll start her VCE in Year 10. So I think that’s good. So yeah, she’s really happy, and my Year 7…
Crystal: What about your Year 7? Like, is she a different kind of kid, or is she fairly similar?
Kate: She is. She is. She’s much more reserved. So she’s not going to just walk in and be friends. So she was very shy and quiet and needed push from mom and dad, like “You’ve got to talk to people, you’ve got to make friends.” But she’s done really well too. So I think that’s a credit to the school. And she didn’t enjoy the orientation day they had. Like, she came home crying.
Crystal: Oh no.
Kate: So that was really upsetting. And I… because she just… she’s that kind of person who just if things aren’t going well, she’ll really just go into her shell. She’s quite… she’s a bit of an introvert and just just a quiet person.
Crystal: Well, that sounds a lot like me. So when things aren’t going my way, I might just cry.
Kate: Yeah, yeah. But so we were quite anxious about her, but she’s settled in well. She’s obviously been doing Year 7 for a while now, and she’s got a nice group of friends.
Crystal: And she’s not one of those “friends with everybody” types…
Kate: Yes, yes. But she’s got a little group.
Crystal: Oh, that’s good. Great. Have you found that the school has been supportive of more like quiet kids or more reserved kids?
Kate: So, yeah. Haven’t had any kind of issues raised with anything like bullying or things like that. But there’s been a couple of things that have happened, and I’ve… I won’t betray the stories about my kids, but I’ve spoken to the school, and they felt very happy with how they’ve responded. I mean, teenage girls are teenage girls, and there was this a bit of a nasty rumor going around that came to my attention, and I reported it to the school, and they nipped it in the bud. So that was… and my child wasn’t involved. I just… it just came to me, and I thought, “Well, I’m going to make sure the school knows this is happening.” And I felt they responded very well. And when I did call, I got straight to the principal. So I like that. The principal willing to take my… you know, sometimes the principal’s so far removed. I rang the office, and maybe I got lucky that day because she was obviously not in a meeting or something, but I got straight through, and it was dealt with.
Crystal: Wow, that impressed me as well. Who is the principal?
Kate: That’s a good question. Dr. Mary Cannon is her name.
Crystal: Okay. And she’s been there for…?
Kate: I believe 15 years.
Crystal: Oh wow, okay. Do you have much to do with her day-to-day? Like, do the kids…
Kate: No, the point of contact is your year level coordinator for most of the bits and pieces. They use Compass, which I’m familiar with from primary school, and I can see whether their learning assignments are overdue. But then whenever I ask my girls about that, it’s always like, “Oh no, I’ve done that, and the teacher hasn’t entered it,” and I think, “Okay.”
Crystal: Right, yeah, there’s always an excuse.
Kate: So I can log in, and you know, I can see what they’re doing. I can see their assignments. So I like that. I’m not a huge helicopter parent, and I don’t really stalk all that very much, but if I wanted to, I could, and I like having the choice. So whenever I’m logging to Compass, I have a little sticky beak and see what’s going on. So that’s good.
Crystal: In terms of discipline, like, do you find that there is a culture of quite strong culture of discipline there, or is it pretty relaxed, you think?
Kate: Kids are pretty good, so they haven’t had cause to be disciplined. There’s been no detentions or anything yet.
Crystal: Maybe not your kids in particular, but just in general. I know some schools are really hardcore in that way, and some aren’t.
Kate: Like some of the…
Crystal: The other way around, yes.
Kate: So seem to be strict about blazers.
Crystal: Uniform?
Kate: Okay, they’re having an assembly, and if you don’t wear your blazer, you get detention.
Crystal: Wow.
Kate: That’s… there was talk this morning of “Make sure you wear your blazer, otherwise you’ll get a detention.”
Crystal: And mobile phones? Are they strict about those?
Kate: You believe…
Crystal: So no…
Kate: Crystal, I have them in class, so they’re not allowed to… no, okay. I have had the odd sneaky text like, “Mom, can you pick me up?” So they… I think the workaround is you go to the toilet, and you use the phone in the toilet.
Crystal: I understand.
Kate: Yeah. But I believe so. I’m not… you know, I’m… I’m realizing that I’m not paying enough attention to my children’s education with this interview.
Crystal: No, I think if everything’s going fine though, like, I mean, you don’t have any cause to worry, I think.
Kate: No, no. So why would you… why would you be, you know, more involved?
Crystal: So what, like… when you were saying before that people come from everywhere and are not just from the local area, how do you find the community there? Like, do you find that it’s harder to have a community around you, or…?
Kate: I think because of that, the… my daughters mostly hang out with their primary school friends, which are the local, which is more a local community.
Crystal: Mhm.
Kate: So that might be a negative if you want, if your child doesn’t, you know, doesn’t have those primary school connections because we’re a little bit, you know, as I said, 5 kilometers away. And if there’s a best friend that’s also five kilometers in the other direction, then… So there’s probably not as many, like, outside of school, you know, weekend, school holiday hangouts. There are a few, and also they’re a bit younger. But they, because they’ve got technology, they don’t need to hang out in person physically. Like when I was in Year 7 and 9, I was getting the bus to Chadstone with my friends to see a movie. But these girls are constantly in touch with their friends.
Crystal: Oh, don’t they… don’t girls do that anymore? I don’t know.
Kate: Oh, they do a little bit, not that much. But so my Year 9 and Year 7, they both hang out on the weekends. They’re getting the community from their primary school friends. So they’ve still got those connections, and that’s the sporting clubs they’re in. They’re in basketball, netball, and AFL. So it’s more… it’s more of the local community attached to the primary school that they’re still maintaining a connection with, which I like. But not all parents… I imagine if you lived a bit closer to the school, you might have a stronger connection. And it’s a bit different compared to primary school where there’s lots of events and things like that. But I always think I don’t know anyone, so I don’t know if I should go. But I probably, if I don’t go, I’m not going to know anyone.
Crystal: You don’t have as much adult friendships with…
Kate: Yeah, in secondary school.
Crystal: Yeah, I guess it’s very much like… I imagine the culture of a private school because people would be coming from everywhere to go to a private school too. Like people don’t necessarily come from the local area.
Kate: Yeah. And the parents are all hard-working, double-income parents from what I know, and not necessarily able to come to too many events. So we go to the music events. That’s always fun. There’s probably not… not a huge community around the school, but then I… that’s probably my fault for not getting… choosing not to get too involved with it, to be honest.
Crystal: Mhm. Do they have much to do with boy schools?
Kate: Yeah, so they have a relationship with a nearby private boy school called Camberwell…
Crystal: Camberwell Grammar?
Kate: I believe. And they do a couple of events like musicals and things with them. They do a few social events, like they had a Year 8 social and do a couple of events with that with the Camberwell boys, but not too much, no. So all the leadership positions go to girls. There’s no distracting boys in class. There’s a couple of girls who identify as boys at the school, but other than that, it’s all girls.
Crystal: Did you specifically choose girls education, like an all-girl school?
Kate: I think it’s a plus personally.
Crystal: Mhm.
Kate: Because I feel like there’s plenty of time to be distracted by boys later on, if…
Crystal: Yeah, later on.
Kate: The argument is coed schools are about preparing children for the real world, and the real world has both sexes in it. And my argument is there’s plenty of time for that, I think. And I believe, whether rightly or wrongly, I think the fact that all the leadership positions are girls, all the opportunities to shine are for the girls. I think that’s really positive. I went to an all-girl school as well.
Crystal: So, me too.
Kate: I enjoyed that personally, and I just think there’s plenty of time for relationships and all that sort of stuff that comes with boys. Like, my daughter’s friends have had a bit of boy drama, and then you’re having a boy drama, and then that boy is sitting in your class, and I think that’s really distracting.
Crystal: That’s true.
Kate: So at least if you’re having a boy drama, that boy is not…
Crystal: Not at your school.
Kate: Not at your school. But there’s probably enough friendship dramas and things like that anyway. And you know, not everyone is in relationships with boys either. So it’s not always preventable, but I like the fact that it’s all girls. And I think I went to an all-girls school, and I figured out how to talk to boys, etc. at some point. So I don’t mind the fact that they’re, you know, 17, and they can get out into the real world then. It’s fine with me.
Crystal: Yeah, yeah. It’s such a contentious, is that the word, issue – should girls have be only in girl schools or coed schools? Is it better? Which one’s better? I’m in two minds as well. I think my daughter would love to go to an all-girl school. My Grade 4 daughter is in primary school, and there’s some boys that are just really annoying.
Kate: Mhm.
Crystal: To her. And that, you know, they call out to her friends, and she’ll come home and say, “I can’t wait to go to high school where there’s no boys.”
Kate: Yeah, that’s the same with my daughter. She finds it annoying as well. So she thinks boys are… she’s always been a very anti-boy young lady.
Crystal: Right.
Kate: Sorry, my other two quite always friends with the boys and hanging out with the boys, but this one is just like doesn’t like them very much. A girl’s girl and just in that phase of not liking boys at all.
Crystal: Same with her. She just can’t wait to be rid of them.
Kate: Oh, lucky her. She’s got Canterbury Girls waiting for her soon.
Crystal: Yes, in the next few years. What would you say that you like best about the school?
Kate: What do I like best? I think what I said at the start was that it’s a private school culture and outcome without private school cost.
Crystal: Yeah, that’s a good one. What about anything that you dislike? Is there anything that you can think of that you don’t like?
Kate: We haven’t… the facilities, the physical facilities, the buildings aren’t particularly fancy. The sporting facilities are a bit limited, you know, having to physically walk across to a public oval isn’t ideal. If I had a really sporty child, I wouldn’t like that necessarily. My girls play sport. They’re good athletes, but that’s about it. And yeah, as you said, there is that… because we do live a bit further away, we’re maybe missing out on some of those community options, but that to me isn’t… isn’t a huge issue.
Crystal: Is there anything that I’ve missed asking you about?
Kate: I don’t think so. I think it’s a great school. I’m really happy there. I always think with your kid’s school, it isn’t a six-year commitment. You don’t have to send them there forever. If, if, for whatever reason, we wanted to move them, we could, and we have options. So I think that just gives us a more relaxed approach to go, “We’re not stuck at this school. We can always change if we want to.”
Crystal: Yeah, but it sounds like you’re pretty happy with it, so…
Kate: Yeah, very happy. And as much as my eldest is going into, you know, heading towards VCE, I’m feeling pretty supported, and I can see they do… I can see that academic commitment starting to show. And I can see the evidence of this is… this is clearly why they get, you know, the good academic outcomes they get.
One thing they have done, which I don’t love, is they’ve dropped a language, which is Japanese. They used to have Japanese and French; they’ve dropped that. So now it’s just French.
Crystal: Oh, really.
Kate: But you know, it’s a state school. They can’t afford to run everything. So my eldest does Japanese, and once that cohort, you know, get to the end, then Japanese will no longer be offered at all. But anyone who does Japanese can continue on with it, but the new Year 7s do not get the option. And my daughters do Japanese at primary school, so it was a really great continuation. And I do Japanese, and my sister is really strong in Japanese, so she teaches Japanese to them and things like that.
Crystal: Really! Wow, that’s a bit of a shame.
Kate: That’s a bit of a shame, but what can you do?
Crystal: All right, well, I think we’ve probably covered quite a lot.
Kate: Yeah.
Crystal: Well, thank you so much for sharing your experience. I think it’s really enlightening to hear about what happens within a school because you just never know. Like, you see these academic results, and you go, “Oh my God, that’s so impressive,” but what is it actually like? Like, what’s the culture like within a school?
Kate: Exactly. And you could talk to another parent there who’s had a completely different experience.
Crystal: Very individual, of course. Of course. But I think it’s still valuable to have your experience because everybody has their own opinion and their own experience.
Kate: I think if your podcast was around when I was looking a few years ago, I would have definitely found it really helpful to listen to, to hear from another…
Crystal: Thank you very much, Kate.
Kate: No, thank you. And thanks so much for spending the time with me.
Crystal: My pleasure.
Crystal: Thanks for joining me on this podcast. Remember that the content that you hear on this podcast is of a general nature and should not be used to make any decisions about schools or anything else. If you want to learn more about schools in Melbourne, make sure you visit the website www.melbourneschools.com.au. You can also join thousands of other parents in our community at Melbourne Schools Discussion Group on Facebook. See you there.
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