Transcript

Crystal: Hi parents, today I’m chatting with Archie. Archie is an ex-Haileybury student who graduated in, is it 2022?

Archie: 2023.

Crystal: 2023! I first came across Archie in the Melbourne Schools Discussion Group on Facebook. Someone had asked if compulsory Saturday sports at Haileybury had a negative impact on academics, to which Archie replied something along the lines of, no, I was sports captain at Haileybury and I got 99.75. And I thought, I have to talk to this guy. So, welcome Archie.

Archie: Thank you.

Crystal: First of all, what are you doing in the Melbourne Schools Discussion Group?

Archie: I don’t know, I like contributing a little bit to say, a lot of parents have a lot of questions, especially about selective school, select entry, I know a bit about that as well. Private schools, Haileybury, APS kind of system. The sporting thing is very controversial. It’s been controversial in school, outside of school, obviously. And yeah, I don’t know, I just happen to be in there, see what’s going on. Good to get a bit of context.

Crystal: Yeah, that’s interesting. Well, we welcome your contribution. Mainly, it’s parents asking about their kids, which is why I’m surprised to see you don’t look old enough to be a parent.

Archie: Yeah, we’re far away from that at the moment.

Crystal: Yeah, but obviously we welcome your contribution with the experience of Haileybury and obviously the private schools and APS and being a sports captain as well. So, yeah, congratulations on your wonderful ATA. That’s amazing.

Archie: Thank you. Yeah, it was obviously a lot of work, but paid off in the end.

Crystal: Yeah. All the while being sports captain in year 12?

Archie: Yeah, yeah, that’s it. So I played tennis my whole life, and year 12 was lucky enough to get that role. So obviously contributed heaps to the sporting kind of aspect of Haileybury as well, which is very time-consuming, but in my opinion, almost helped me in my academic journey.

Crystal: Yeah, that’s interesting because a lot of, I think that parent asked a question that is probably on a lot of parents’ minds. Because, you know, Saturday sport can be, sounds really time consuming. Like I have no experience of it myself, but it sounds really time-consuming to be driving your kids everywhere on Saturday. Like, do you think it’s worth it?

Archie: Yeah, it’s a big kind of question. So it depends also what team you’re in. So if you’re in a first team, which is like the better kind of school. So for tennis schools, first eight, first eight players play against other schools, first eight players, for example. You’ve got a lot more training. So we trained like Tuesday morning, Tuesday afternoon, and then Thursday afternoon, obviously sport on Saturday as well. But that is very minor in comparison to how much academic stuff you get.

Crystal: Oh, really?

Archie: Yeah, like so much more work than sport. Like let’s put it that way. It takes up two periods at the end of the day of your whole week. That’s consistent with every private school. I think even like Melbourne High and all that would have something similar, because they do play rugby against us, for example.

Crystal: So on Saturdays, you mean?

Archie: Yeah, on Saturdays. So not sure what’s going on over there, but hey, you should still have it. I think it’s almost like a curriculum kind of thing, probably. But yeah, it’s very time consuming, but very rewarding because exercise is super good for your mental capacity as well.

Crystal: Yeah.

Archie: In year 12 especially, we have so much work, you’re overwhelmed. Sometimes what you’re going to do is like see your friends, have a hit on Saturday.

Crystal: Well, before we get too far into Haileybury and Saturday sports, can you tell me firstly, what are you doing with yourself now with all your wonderful sporting experience and your amazing ATAR?

Archie: So I’ll kind of run out of time to play tennis. I’ve stopped playing tennis because it’s very difficult. When I was in school, I was playing like very high competitive level. Everyone was like homeschooled, all of that stuff. So I kind of tapered it up like the external. So obviously I played to school, all. But externally, I played a lot less because homeschooled, very hard to compete with when you’re doing BC.

Crystal: Oh really?

Archie: Yeah. So you kind of have to pick one or the other in that sense. But now I’m doing commerce at Melbourne Uni. And I’m also running a trading company called ATAR.

Crystal: Ah, okay. So commerce was obviously your first choice that you wanted to take?

Archie: Yes. I was looking to do commerce, law, commerce, jury stock, but you have to do it. You have to finish commerce before you can do jury stock anyway.

Crystal: Oh really? Yeah.

Archie: At Melbourne Uni, you have to finish, you can’t go straight into law.

Crystal: Oh, I see. So is that your ultimate goal to do commerce and then law?

Archie: Oh, I’m not too sure at the moment. A lot of things are going on. Honestly, my first primary goal is to continue writing ATLA in my tutor.

Crystal: Oh, okay.

Archie: That’s my first primary goal and then plan B is probably consulting or something along those lines.

Crystal: Okay. So in commerce, what’s your major?

Archie: I’m doing double major in finance economics.

Crystal: Oh, okay. Amazing, amazing. Okay. So let’s have a chat about Haileybury. How long have you been there?

Archie: So I’ve been there since pre-prep.

Crystal: Since pre-prep?

Archie: Yeah.

Crystal: Oh my God.

Archie: The whole journey.

Crystal: The entire journey.

Archie: Exactly. Because my brother was there as well. So I got to see.

Crystal: Your older brother?

Archie: Yeah, older. He’s nine years older.

Crystal: Oh, wow. Okay. So obviously your parents had a good experience with your brother.

Archie: Yeah. 100 percent.

Crystal: Yeah. Do you know how they chose Haileybury? Was there a thought process in it or do you live close by?

Archie: No, we didn’t actually live close by at the time. We lived in Mentone. So it wasn’t really like, it’s somewhat close to Keyesborough, I suppose. But I started for the Brighton campus. So yeah, we moved to Hampton, which is obviously close to Brighton campus. But that was not a factor at all in the decision-making process. It was more like the academic results.

Crystal: Okay. Yeah, when I think of Haileybury, I think my impression is that it’s very academic. But it’s also very sporty, like very amazing facilities. This is my impression. I’ve actually never been there. I’ve never been on tour there. But the impression that I get, I know some people who go to Haileybury, and this is my impression. So big school, very academic, amazing facilities, coaches I’ve heard are really good too, like the sporting coaches. Would they be all accurate, what I’ve said?

Archie: Yeah, that is completely accurate. Like, Cheesebra, for example, has something like seven ovals, three gyms, or even more. Olympic swimming complex.

Crystal: Wow.

Archie: 40 tennis court. It’s huge.

Crystal: 40 tennis court.

Archie: Yeah, yeah, it’s massive. Like, I’ve genuinely never seen anything like it. Like, it’s huge.

Crystal: That sounds like good enough for a city.

Archie: It’s like if you drive past Keeber, it’s like three kilometers long. It’s genuine.

Crystal: Wow. 

Archie: So yeah, obviously it’s like divided, you know, you’ve got your middle school, senior school, junior school, that stuff’s like somewhat divided, but it’s still massive nonetheless. Coaches there  are amazing. So especially for AFL football, we’ve got Matthew Lloyd and Scott Pendlebury and Nathan Jones. So probably three are, you know, arguably some of the best AFL players of all time.

Crystal: I’ve heard of them and I don’t watch AFL, so they must be quite famous.

Archie: That’s it. The coaching is very good, but it is select sport, so they do prioritize. Obviously, AFL and other sports are slightly above, in the sense of they pick which ones to prioritize.

Crystal: How does the size play into it? Like, it sounds massive, like you’ve just described, like this sounds like a, you know, a minor city. How does a student not get lost in such a big school?

Archie: Yeah, so when I first moved to Keesborough, I did get lost.

Crystal: Okay. Lost as in not like, you know, location lost, but like, you know, feeling like they’re lost in a crowd.

Archie: Oh, right. So, this is a great kind of topic, because what happens is on Tuesdays, so Tuesday the whole day and Thursday afternoon, all of the campuses come together at Keesborough. They get buses, you know, from City, from Brighton, from Berwick, and they all come together. We’ve got mixed classes between campuses, all of that stuff. There’s heaps of like activities together. So we do like, you know, house sports, all of that stuff, but it’s always mixed. So at the end of my kind of year 12, I knew probably almost every single person in year 12. And, you know, like it was all on friendly terms. So it’s not like, you know, I just randomly see this person. I know their name, but I don’t really know them. It’s great because it brings us all together. We all know each other. It’s all super friendly.

Crystal: So even from the other campuses, you would know people from the other campuses?

Archie: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. That’s because we all come together on Tuesday. You know, we all play sports together. So, for example, the first team is saying the best eight tennis players. You might have two from Brighton, two from Berwick, two from Casey, two from City. So, that’s another thing that sport kind of does, especially over such a big scale. Seven thousand or more students, seven campuses, all of that. 

Crystal: Seven thousand students all come together.

Archie: Yeah. Oh, it’s huge. It’s massive. So, 

Crystal: That is massive. 

Archie: Heaps of campuses are just part of that thing that, you know, develop friendships with the other campuses that you traditionally probably wouldn’t if sport wasn’t there.

Crystal: Yeah. Yeah. Even in your own campus.

Archie: So, most of it is in your own campus, right? Most of your study happens in your own campus. How many students would be at Keysborough, for example?

Archie: I don’t know. I couldn’t tell you.

Crystal: Okay. So, all together, there’s seven thousand. So, I imagine there’d be like, I don’t know, two thousand at least.

Archie: Yeah, probably. But that would be over obviously, years prep to 12. So, I have to fact-check afterwards. I actually didn’t look it up.

Crystal: Yeah. Okay. So, just within the campus, like how do you end up getting to know people? Because I think, is it like, is there a strong house system or something like that?

Archie: Yeah. So, a strong house system. So, this is, I’m speaking strictly senior school kind of here. There’s houses all throughout, but probably most people are interested in senior school kind of.

Crystal: Senior is in nine?

Archie: Yeah. So, seniors 10 to 12.

Crystal: Right.

Archie: At Haileybury, how it works is, you’ve got junior, which is prep to five, middle, which is five to eight, pre-senior is nine, and then 10 to 12 is senior. So, seniors, it’s all the same kind of house systems throughout anyway. But senior school, we had something like 10 houses that are all location-based. So, I was in Piegetter, which was Brighton, Hampton, those areas. Dickinson, for example, was like Mentone, Beaumaris, Edith Vale, those areas. Then you’ve got Akeman, Rendell, so many different kinds of houses. And then you compete against each other, you play with each other sometime. But that all happens on a weekly basis, throughout sport kind of periods. So, yeah, that’s how you get to know everyone from.

Crystal: So, it’s really through sport, it sounds like.

Archie: Yeah, exactly. So that’s how you get to know everyone, pretty much through sport. And through those select classes that you

Crystal: Yeah. And if you’re not a sporty kid, how do you fit in?

Archie: If you’re not a sporty kid, you’ve got house arts, house music, house dance, whatever you want. The music facilities are super, super good as well. Like amazing. And yeah, like there’s pretty much everything, drama, dance, music, whatever you want. That’s all incorporated into the housing as well. But I think the important thing is it’s a big breadth of stuff. So I am not a music person. I love music. I’m not good at it though. But I learnt it there. So like year 3, for example, when I was younger, we had to do compulsory music lessons, violin, cello, all that stuff. And then obviously, year 10 onwards, it’s more of a like fun thing. So in your house, you know, you compete against the other houses. House dance in year 12 was so fun. You know, 50 boys just jumping around on stage doing whatever. Hilarious. It’s the most popular thing. But you know, you make so many friends along the way. You don’t have to be good at anything, but you’re exploring the options. You know, I could be amazing at this, but you know, how do I know until I try it? That’s the kind of thing.

Crystal: I think that’s so valuable, actually. I think that’s really valuable when you’re in high school.

Archie: 100 percent.

Crystal: To have that sort of opportunity to be able to figure out what you’re good at and what you like. And yeah, so do you feel like it’s quite supportive in that way, in that you’re allowed to try things or you’re encouraged to try things that you might not be good at or you’ve never tried before?

Archie: Yeah, 100 percent. I think I’m very, very supportive in that sense, because wherever you go, pretty much, there’s great facilities for it. Whether it be sport, music, dance, whatever it may be, there’s someone there to support you or to guide you through that.

Crystal: How would you describe the culture at Haileybury?

Archie: I think it’s quite good. So it’s, I’m going to put it into a few words.

Crystal: That’s a great question.

Archie: 100 percent supportive. 100 percent. It’s supportive and high-achieving. So especially when I moved to Keesborough, my original A-type goal was to beat my brother, naturally. So he got a 95.5.

Crystal: Wow, you well and truly beat him.

Archie: Yeah. So that was my original goal. You’re 9, you’re 10, and I was content with that. Then I moved to Keesborough, and I’m like, damn, everyone here is so smart. It’s actually crazy how hard working these people are. They’re so smart. I need to up my goal. So you’re 10, I’m like 97. I want a 97.

Crystal: So you actually had an actual goal in mind each time.

Archie: Yeah. I didn’t think it would keep rising, but it did. So you’re 11 and you’re 28, and then you’re in the fourth. I was like, oh, I want 99.5 plus. And that was simply because I just saw so many people doing much better things than I was doing.

Crystal: Yeah.

Archie: Yeah. So you’re surrounded by insanely smart people, very smart. Like even I beat some people at our lives because I knew how to do the system pretty much. Like I knew how to be very good at English, which is obviously the top four and some other subjects. It’s where I got raw 50s in. But some absolute geniuses did worse than me, and they’re literally everywhere. Like the 99 plus range at Haileybury is like, there’s so many people that get there, and every single one of them is very, very, very smart in their own ways. So you’ve got a massive breadth of skill in that sense. So one of my friends, he’s very, very, very good at 994, something like that. He’s extremely good at media. Like one of the most talented people I’ve seen. Another one got a 99.5, extremely good music. But the interesting thing is they’re getting these scores and he did arts at Melbourne. The other one’s doing music at Melbourne. They’re not going into those traditional courses like law and medicine.

Crystal: Exactly, exactly. And I think that’s because they’ve been given the opportunity to explore that breadth a lot.

Archie: So how interesting.

Crystal: They became super, super skilled at that stuff. The music person in particular had heaps of support from Haileybury in terms of instruments, you know, like financial support, going everywhere, all of that stuff. And that kind of motivated you to do better.

Archie: So, yeah, you’re surrounded by all these high achieving people, and you just want…

Crystal: …to do better, pretty much. How does that happen that Haileybury has become this place for such high achieving people? Because it’s an open entry school, like there isn’t an exam that you sit to get in. Because I can understand if somebody says that, you know, Melbourne High or MacRob has a very high achieving cohort, but Haileybury doesn’t have that sort of selection process.

Archie: Yeah. So obviously, you do have a few people who aren’t as gifted, but like even they’re significantly brought up by these people. So I’d say the majority are very smart, and the people who are less high achieving are literally like shot up in ranking.

Crystal: Yeah, it’s who you hang out with.

Archie: It’s because you’re in classes with these people, and you feel very insignificant if someone’s doing this great stuff next to you. Like, oh my god, how are you doing that?

Crystal: I better up my game.

Archie: Yeah, I want to do that as well. So yeah, that’s why the median ATARs are so high as well. So along those lines.

Crystal: So even if you have even those people that I traditionally thought, you know, they do nothing, they don’t try at all, like, they’re still getting night in class and it’s crazy to me. Because, you know, the teaching, all that stuff, the people you’re surrounded with and the teachers are so good there.

Archie: Do you feel like there’s a bit of academic pressure then because of these high achieving people? Because I can imagine, like, you know, you can be inspired by people, but you can also feel intimidated, like if you’re not that great or like if you feel pressured that you need to be very academic because you’re surrounded by all these academic people. Is there that kind of pressure?

Crystal: There’s no pressure from students. I wouldn’t say that there’s, like, there is pressure from teachers. But it’s not like they’re not physically pressuring you, right? So they’ll say like, look, like, I’m here for you. Like, I’m here. Like, for example, my English teacher literally marked, like, a hundred practice exams. I stalked the guy throughout the whole school. He was trying to run away from me and all that. Not happening. He marked so much stuff. He’s such a dedicated teacher. He runs after hours after school. All of that stuff. Holiday sessions, whatnot. But it’s always, I’m here if you need me, but if you don’t want me, then I’m obviously not going to help you out. So you really have to be motivated yourself as well. So they’re going to be there, obviously, to give you some sort of pressure and direction, but I want them to be at the basic level for a teacher. You know what I mean? They’re not literally pushing you beyond your, like if they see that you’re struggling, you’re under pressure, they’re very understanding. But if they think that you’re just not working hard because you’re not trying, then they’re going to pull you up on it.

Archie: Exactly.

Crystal: Yeah. I’ve heard just from the grapevine really, that Haileybury teaches the level above or one or two years above the normal curriculum. Is that right?

Archie: Yeah, I believe so.

Crystal: Well, you wouldn’t know because you’ve been there from the start.

Archie: Yeah, I believe so. But there are advanced classes as well. So, year nine, I was doing advanced maths as opposed to normal maths. We have heaps of people. It’s not like three people doing advanced maths. It’s like four classes. And that’s like two years ahead, I think that one was, or one year. Even if you want to do like… If you’re very gifted, they’ll give you full as much as you want. So, in year eight, I was doing science. I was really interested in like a biology kind of thing. And the head of science paid for me to do it. University of Adelaide, like online degree thing.

Crystal: Wow.

Archie: I was like, oh, that’s sick. Love that. So, as high up as you want to go, the opportunities are there.

Crystal: Yeah. So, they really are able to… What’s that word? They’re really able to sort of stream. Is it stream or personalized learning? I think that’s the buzzword. They’re really able to personalize the learning for you.

Archie: That’s it.

Crystal: Yeah.

Archie: Because they do have that massive breadth of students. So, as you’re saying, it’s not so much true. You don’t have to start at this level. You can start here and all the way up to here, but you don’t need to be here and then incrementally improve kind of thing.

Crystal: And I guess because they have those sorts of resources. I mean, Haileybury is not a cheap school.

Archie: Yeah, 100%.

Crystal: Yeah. I mean, that is probably the difference, honestly, from having the resources to be able to personalize and not be able to personalize.

Archie: Yeah, exactly. That’s it.

Crystal: How would you describe the leadership at the school? Would you have much to do as a sports captain, I suppose? Would you have much to do with the principal?

Archie: So, the four executive leaders are your school captain, sport captain, and vice-captains. So, boy school and girl school are separate.

Crystal: That’s right.

Archie: So, you got four executives in each thing. So, as a sport captain, I manage sport and everything else over four campuses.

Crystal: Wow.

Archie: That’s not four campuses, all campuses.

Crystal: How many are there? How many campuses?

Archie: About seven, I believe.

Crystal: Oh, wow. I didn’t know that.

Archie: Yeah. So, those four work together. It’s not really like… As a sport captain, I did a lot of stuff that wasn’t sport. So, it was basically just those four work together to manage the campuses of your boys, respectively, for example. But underneath that, you have like 20 prefects, all your house captains, your house vice-captains, your individual sport captains, all of that stuff. So, leadership team are probably like 50 plus students, and they’re just individual campuses. So, you’ve got your Teesborough prefects, your Brighton prefects, your Barrett prefects, whatnot. So, student leadership, huge. You have meetings all of the time together on a Tuesday, for example, say like, what activities can we do? You know, fundraising events, all of that stuff, all the time to students. And then on Tuesdays as well, you’d have your executive teams meet. So, four boys and four girls met with the principal every week, say, you know, what are the students saying? What can the principal do? All of that stuff to make our school better.

Crystal: So, do you feel like because it’s such a big school, being in a leadership position, do you feel like you’d still have agency to change things? Like, would you still be able to suggest things? Because I can imagine there’d be like a big logistical component.

Archie: Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. So, as a student, you know, heaps of things, you can change heaps. As an executive leader, it was easy to suggest events, incorporate events, all of that stuff. And they’re almost instantly put in, like obviously logistically, it’s a bit hard.

Crystal: But they’re open to suggestions.

Archie: Exactly. They’re very, very open to suggestions.

Crystal: That’s interesting. Yeah. Because I can’t imagine it being difficult, like, you know, because it seems like it’s such a, you know, it needs to be very well run, that it needs to run to certain, you know, standards and criteria and stuff. But it’s good to hear that you still have, you still feel like you’ve got the agency to be able to make suggestions or change things or say this is not good enough. Maybe we should do this. Yeah, if that’s, if that’s the case.

Archie: Yeah. Obviously, we’ve got some important things that are out of our control.

Crystal: Yeah.

Archie: I think any school would probably be in acceptance of that, but you do feel as though you can suggest that’s important thing.

Crystal: I think that is important. Can you talk a bit about parallel learning at Haileybury?

Archie: Yeah. So up to year five, so junior school to year five is… So prep to year five basically is mixed classes. So you’ve got boys and girls in the classes. In year five to year 12, you are separate, so you’re parallel. In that sense, there are heaps of activities that you do together. You’re obviously on the same campus, so at lunchtime, you can do whatever. You’re in the same space, some classes you have together. So, for example, I had to eat liden for a bit, and that was a mixed class. Obviously, not only students do liden, it’s like a select entry kind of thing. So that was mixed. Smaller classes are mixed. Your sporting, again, that house system is really, really important here, where the girls have their houses, right? We’ve got our own houses, and occasionally every few weeks, we’ll do like one boy’s house and one girl’s house come together, and then verse another boy’s house and another girl’s house, and all of that stuff. So, heaps of things are mixed. Parallel learning, yes. So, in classes, boys, girls, except for obviously the smaller classes. But everything else, in my opinion, was one school.

Crystal: Did you enjoy that? Did you think that it was a worthwhile thing to do, parallel learning?

Archie: Yeah, I seriously do. Boys and girls learn in very different ways. It’s not necessarily the fact that… I think a lot of parents or a lot of people generally think that it’s distractions. But it’s seriously not that. It’s the way that they… Boys learn super differently to girls. Boys perform a lot better in different subjects to girls. Girls tend to perform a lot better in English, humanities, all of that stuff. Boys tend to perform better at maths, and that’s just statistically kind of driven there. It’s no personal bias or anything there, but they learn differently. You know, all boys’ class, you feel more comfortable expressing certain things, being uncomfortable with certain things, whatnot. I’m sure that’s the same on the girls’ side. It’s just, yeah, it’s not to do with distractions, but rather you learn differently, and that’s the benefit, I guess, that you see.

Crystal: Yeah, different kinds of support for different things.

Archie: Exactly.

Crystal: Okay. And then you still have the opportunity to do stuff together as well.

Archie: Everything except for classes is mixed, so it’s an opportunity for that.

Crystal: Yeah. It does sound like the ideal sort of setup.

Archie: Yeah. I agree with that.

Crystal: In terms of the well-being aspect of school, because I mean, I guess with Haileybury, you hear a lot about academics and facilities and stuff. But in terms of well-being, do you think that there’s much of a focus on mental health and that sort of thing at Haileybury?

Archie: Yeah. So heaps of external people come in to speak about mental health and all of that stuff. We have a well-being class every week as well. And then obviously, you’ve got your whole, you’ve got psychologists and whatnot that you’re able to visit at book appointments with if you’re feeling particularly stressed and stuff like that.

Crystal: Okay. Can you tell me what did you love about Haileybury? What was it that you enjoyed the most?

Archie: It really was that kind of breadth of just everyone. Like the amount of people that you meet and the amount of things that you learn from those people is just outstanding. Like my uni friends now, heaps of the Haileybury people, heaps of the economists at Melbourne. It’s a network that you can build for the rest of your life. So you meet heaps and heaps of people that are extremely high achieving, motivated, and you learn so much stuff from them. So it’s very united in that sense. So I feel as though I can talk to almost anyone in my year level on a friendly basis. Even if I haven’t spoken to them in a while, or even if we’re not necessarily friends, we’re still friendly.

Crystal: Yeah, because you have that connection of being ex-Haileybury. Do you find that it set you up well for uni? Like now that you’re at uni?

Archie: Yeah. So the traditional kind of stereotype is that, you know, private school kids tend to do worse at uni because they’re set up.

Crystal: Yeah. Yeah, I’ve heard that too.

Archie: Yeah. So they’re, you know, they’re very supported by teachers throughout their school and journey. And then from there, you know, uni is all independent. Lecturers don’t care whether you submit something or not. You’re just going to be busy. They’re not going to follow you up on anything. They’re not going to force you to read classes. They’re not going to email you. They’re not going to do anything.

Crystal: Yeah.

Archie: They’re just there to, you know, pay your fees and pass the subject or pay your fee and redo the subject and pay the fees again. It’s no like kind of, it’s nothing like school, basically. So that is the stereotype. But I think that applies to the students that were, again, those students that weren’t necessarily motivated, but were still getting 90 plus. So getting super high ATARs, but had no intrinsic motivation, that applies there. However, with students that had that intrinsic motivation, you know, saw their peers doing so well, wanted to be like those people, you know, improve in that sense. It’s completely different. So I’m doing quite well at uni. At the moment, I’ve got a 91 Wham, which is pretty good.

Crystal: Oh, I don’t know what that is. What’s Wham?

Archie: Weighted average mark.

Crystal: Oh, okay. That sounds pretty good.

Archie: Yeah, it’s quite good. But it’s all because of that kind of intrinsic motivation. They do help you develop that. As long as you have some sort of that there, it will help you develop it. If it’s not there, then they can’t do anything about that. And that’s just the nature of it.

Crystal: Yeah, yeah, I don’t think anybody can help you out with that. Can they? Yeah, if you’re not intrinsically motivated.

Archie: Exactly. That’s right.

Crystal: Yeah, that’s really interesting because I hear that argument all the time about private schools and how private school kids are more likely to drop out of uni.

Archie: Yeah, yeah. I wouldn’t necessarily say more likely. It’s just that it’s a bit of a shock once you go to uni and like, oh my god, like nothing is going on here. I’ve got no idea what to do.

Crystal: There’s not as much support.

Archie: Exactly. But even with, even as I was saying before, with the network that I’ve had from Haileybury, I’ve got like 20 people doing my course. So instantly I’ve got a group that people are looking to guide me through it and all of that. We’re all in the same boat. We’re all doing it together. So that’s a great thing, I guess.

Crystal: Yeah, I find that interesting, because I myself came from a private school as well. And even though I hear that, apparently there are studies out there that say that, you know, private school kids are more likely to drop out. I don’t know anybody who’s dropped out of, I don’t know anybody who’s dropped out of uni. In fact, most of my cohort are, you know, professional and like, you know, captains of their field now at my age. So yeah, it’s interesting. I’m not saying it’s wrong or the studies are incorrect, but just anecdotally, I think once you go through that really academic path, you kind of want to stay on it. Like, I mean, you’re not going to drop out and become a bum after you’ve got a 99.75.

Archie: Exactly. It’s what I like to call… Obviously, I’ve heard this from other people, and I love the phrase. It’s like a snowball. So what you’re doing in year 12, I think from like years, it literally starts from prep. You’ve got those kids that are reading heaps of books, whatnot. They’re starting to build their English abilities, they’re reading heaps, they’re writing heaps, they’re doing all this extra stuff that you can do. I was one of those people doing that stuff. And then in year five, I was doing like these UNSW staff that Haileybury obviously provides, you know, can do these competitions and whatnot. But it slowly kind of builds. And then by the time we’re at year 10, it’s like, oh, well, there’s a clear distinction between me doing this stuff and then people who hadn’t done that stuff. And then obviously year 10, it becomes a lot more pronounced and you got massive kind of people, you know, big distinct differences between people.

Crystal: Oh, really?

Archie: And then even after year 12, you see those people who do really, really well in ATAR, you know, uni is a completely different system. Technically, it’s a different kind of thing. It’s not like your ATAR contributes to uni, it doesn’t. You see those people continue to do well throughout uni. And that’s just because it’s like a snowball rolling, like you’re constantly kind of getting better and better because you don’t want, personally, to get worse.

Crystal: Yeah, well, you want to play the same game, like you played the game of school, right? You sort of want to continue playing this next game, right? Like you just want to continue to achieve, don’t you?

Archie: Exactly, that’s right.

Crystal: Once you get used to being at a certain level, I think that sort of sets you up when you’re a teen. Like it sort of becomes your identity in a way. That you are a high achiever and you do want to go out and achieve things. So, yeah, not sure about those studies.

Archie: Yeah, yeah.

Crystal: Is there anything that you didn’t like about Haileybury? Is there anything you can think of?

Archie: I’m trying to think at the moment. Sometimes, there can be a bit of an exclusive culture. Sometimes, very rarely, like… Yeah, I don’t even think that that can apply. That’s just gonna happen at any school, no matter what. You can’t have everyone be friends with each other.

Crystal: Yeah, yeah.

Archie: That’s just how it is, unfortunately.

Crystal: No, that’s fair. Do you think it’s an exclusive culture because of… I mean, is there a difference between, like, wealthy families and non-wealthy families? Because I think that’s a worry that parents have. Some parents, you know, send their kids to these schools when they’re not, you know, particularly wealthy, but they really value education, and they really value the academics.

Archie: Yeah.

Crystal: And I think some people worry that, oh, how am I gonna keep up with these really wealthy families that go overseas every holiday and that sort of thing? Do you think there’s a bit of a divide? Are they all not really? Would you notice it?

Archie: There’s no divide within students about that. There’s so many. I was at the scholarship as well. Each of the scholarship kids, not just obviously like academic or sporting scholarships, but, you know, like they’re very generous to, you know, if you’re under a tight financial condition, you know, your child’s performing well, they’re smart, they’re obviously trying very hard. They’re there to give you that support if you need it. So you have a lot of students that aren’t, you know, obviously, doing well financially, but they’re not excluded in any. It is a very multicultural school.

Crystal: Okay.

Archie: So there is no racism whatsoever, but when I say exclusivity, like you tend to see that obviously the boys that play AFL are primarily like white or Australian, or whatever you want to call them pretty much, right? And then you got a lot of ethnics, like myself playing soccer, and then you got your whole table tennis.

Crystal: I think that might be human society.

Archie: Exactly, right? That’s just how it is. My family played soccer up until ages and ages ago. Table tennis, very Asian team, because it’s an Asian team. Right. Developing friend groups like that, of course, there’s separation in that sense. But it’s not to say that one group shows the other horribly. They all work together well. As I say, not everyone can be friends, but we’re all acquaintances.

Crystal: Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, there’s so many students. I mean, you don’t expect to be friends with thousands of other people.

Archie: Well, I wouldn’t be.

Crystal: Exactly, yeah. Hmm. Is there anything that I have missed that you would like to say about your experience at Haileybury?

Archie: Not particularly. We kind of hit everything, I think. I didn’t even think there was this many stuff to talk about.

Crystal: Well, I’m very curious as a parent. I actually know quite a few people who go to Haileybury. So yeah, it’s interesting, interesting to hear about it from the inside.

Archie: Absolutely.

Crystal: Well, thank you so much for your time, Archie. I really appreciate you chatting to me.

Archie: No worries at all. Thanks, Crystal. That was really, really nice to talk to you.

Crystal: Yeah, really lovely to talk to you. Thanks, Archie.

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 (http://www.melbanschools.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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