The selective school experience with ex MacRob school captain Ananya

CW: Hi parents, and welcome to the Melbourne Schools Podcast. Today, we’re talking to a special guest, Ananya. Ananya is a selective school graduate, being the school captain of MacRobertson Girls School in 2022. There are only a few selective schools in Melbourne, and there always seems to be an air of mystery around these schools. So what is selective school like? Are they only reserved for the most brainy, motivated and academic students? What does it take to get into selective school? And then what are the benefits once you get there? Today, I’m going to chat to Ananya about her personal experience at MacRob. Hello, Ananya. Welcome to the Melbourne Schools Podcast.

A: Hello, lovely to be on. Thank you so much for this opportunity.

CW: Oh, thank you. And thank you so much for spending your Saturday afternoon with me.

A: Of course, absolutely.

CW: Before we dive into your school experience, can you tell us a bit about yourself and what you’re doing with yourself these days?

A: Absolutely. So it’s such an honour to be on this podcast. Thank you so much for this opportunity, Crystal. I am currently a second-year university student at the University of Melbourne. And so a little bit about me. I graduated from MacRob as school captain in 2022, so two years ago now. And after then, I started a Bachelor of Science at the University of Melbourne, and I have ambition to pursue into the medical field in post-grad, specifically in Neuroscience and Neurology. It’s a keen interest of mine. Outside of that, I am a tutor. I tutor in 8, 9, 10, and 11, a variety of different subjects, so biology, chemistry, methods, general maths, and just general English and maths for the younger year levels as well. And yeah, I’m really passionate about these things because growing up as from immigrant parents, I’ve had the struggle of what school do I choose for my child. I’ve had that before. And before I went to MacRob, I went to a private school, but before that, I went to a public school. So I’ve had all three perspectives. And having a younger sister who is currently in the schooling system right now, I’ve seen how it’s changed over time. So it’s just really exciting to be on this podcast, and hopefully I can share some insight, just my personal perspective on how I kind of navigated through, you know, primary and secondary school here in Australia.

CW: Oh, amazing, Ananya. We were just chatting before and I was saying, you are every migrant parent’s dream to be going to selective school and then looking into medicine and being a tutor. All of it. All of it. I reckon every migrant parent would love to have you as their daughter. So what years were you at MacRob?

A: Yeah. So I started year nine in 2019 and I graduated in 2022. So 2018 was when I sat the selective entry examination. So you sit at one year before. At the time, it was Edu test. So I had a bit of preparation. I set the exam in 2018 and I can talk about that a little bit more in details. And then I started in 2019 and it’s a four-year journey. So your last few years of high school is where I spent it there. And then, yeah, it is to be noted that my experience and my cohort, we had year 10 and 11 in COVID.

CW: Oh, yes. That’s right.

A: That does play a bit of a factor and I will touch on that as well later as we talk about my experience. But yeah, that was a period of time that I was there.

CW: So how did you know that you wanted to go to selective school because prior to that, you were in a private school, right?

A: Absolutely. Yeah. So we moved to Australia in 2005, which was quite a while ago. And back then, we had no idea really about the education system here in Australia and what it was like and how there were different types of schools, government schools, private schools, all these things, selective schools. And so early on, I went to just a local public school, which I was really grateful for as we were kind of finding our feet in the country, really. And after then, my mum and dad, they did a bit more research on the schools in the area. And the only private school that was very close to us was Westbourne Grammar. And we had put my name on for a really long time. And after a lot of waitlisting and waitlisting, I got the opportunity to attend Westbourne in year four in 2014. And still at this time, we had a bit of a knowledge of selective entry schools, but not enough to really think about it properly. We knew that one of the best schools in the state was MacRob. And my mum and dad knew about it, but again, no real idea of what to do to get in or what it was like actually. And a couple of family friends a few years later had gotten into MacRob, and we had seen how they had worked hard for it, and it’s really competitive. And then they went to the school and they told us really great things. And that was just, again, it’s just through word of mouth that we started to understand that, oh, okay, this is a selective entry school that is based in Melbourne, and it’s been established over many, many, many, many years. And the graduates that are produced are really, like, they’re doing awesome things. So let’s do some more research about it. And it was from this that I started to gain more of an appreciation for the selective entry environment, because I loved Westbourne. I can never say anything about Westbourne. I loved it so much. But I felt like going to a selective entry school would challenge me. And I really wanted that challenge. And I thought, why not? Like, you know, it’s an exam. I had never sat such a high stakes exam before. And of course, as a child, you don’t want to willingly sit an exam. What I was intrigued by was this nature of the selective entry environment, where you could get academically challenged to reach your potential. But, you know, and of course, in the year seven and eight, that’s quite difficult to fathom and understand.

CW: Yes.

A: Why not? Like, just give it a go. Let’s, yeah, just give the exam a go, right?

CW: Just give the exam a crack. Why not?

A: Yeah. And I realized later that it was not that easy. I looked at the, I was like, why not? And then I realized, well, this is-

CW: Oh, no. Well, you must have done okay.

A: I thought this is much harder than I thought, but still, I want to give this, like, I can only give it my best shot. This is an opportunity. My parents have done so much. Why not give this a good opportunity? And that was when as I was going through the process, I realized that this is something I really want to do for myself. It’s a goal. And I said it like that. And that was what inside of me to be like, I want to go to MacRob because I want to give myself the best chance of success if that school can allow me to reach my potential. So it was a bit of a twisted way. It wasn’t that, okay, when I was a really young kid, I wanted to go to MacRob. It was more-

CW: I don’t think anybody thinks that, surely.

A: Yeah, exactly, because when you’re so young, you don’t know and you don’t have a sense of what school you want to go to. But as I was going along the journey itself, as I started family, friends, and people telling me these things, then I started to realize, oh my goodness, this might be a really great opportunity to give it a go. And it was more through the process of going through it that I thought I-

CW: You really want to do it. Yeah.

A: Then it became, I think in, I think about year six, year seven, is when it became a thing where I’m like, actually, I actually really want to try.

CW: So you did decide, oh, that’s still fairly early that you actually- Yeah.

A: I think around like year seven was when I thought more, more deeply about, year six was kind of like, oh yeah, that’d be fun. But year seven was when I started thinking a little bit more deeply about it and I said, I do want to do this.

CW: Okay. And so once you decided, then what did you do? Like, how did you prepare or?

A: Yeah, definitely. And that’s basically my, like that’s what I do now. I tutor, I work with somebody who is really great, and he’s also a MHS graduate.

CW: Melbourne High School, MHS.

A: Melbourne High, sorry. Yeah, Melbourne High School. He graduated from Melbourne High School, and he has a company. And I tutor the year eights there to talk about how to prepare for Selective Entry exams. So when I had this initial thought that, okay, I want to give this a go, I, it kind of made it more difficult because I was like, oh my goodness, there’s such a big world out there, and how am I going to narrow down these resources? How am I going to prepare for this exam? Because it is one of the hardest exams. It is so difficult. It’s very, very, very competitive, and I want to do it lightly. And I think that’s something that it’s about setting expectations as well in a good way, because I don’t know the numbers now, but when I was sitting the exam, there was about 5,000 students who sat it, and only 250 got into MacRob. That is tough. It is a really tough exam to crack, right? And especially-

CW: So that’s about 5%? My math is 5%? Yeah.

A: 5%, right. Now MacRob has increased their take to 300, and I don’t know what the exact number of people is.

CW: 5.2% or something?

A: Yeah. The competition has also increased.

CW: That’s true. That’s true.

A: So I saw the statistics and I said, look, this is hard. This is not just something I can just not study up all for, and then just wing it. That’s not going to happen. I started to dig deeper into what the exam was like, and I asked again my family, friends, and the people who were on there. Some were from Susan Corey, some were from MacRob, some were from Pai, and I started asking around what is the process, what is it like, similarly to what everyone does. And then there was a small educational institute near my, just like locally, and they’ve become really big as well now, but I went to them and I said, how can I come up with this exam? And so I did a little bit of tutoring. I got tutored in terms of just for resources and to get more of a guidance and direction, because again, my parents had never done this before.

CW: Yeah, of course.

A: So I sought guidance from them. And after that, I did a lot of practice. I’m going to be honest with myself and here, I worked really, really hard for that exam. So I think it was the start of year seven to, so one and a half years, almost two years, I would say.

CW: Wow. That’s dedication.

A: Yeah. So I think it was like about February of year seven, and the exam was in June of year eight. So yeah, about a year and a half.

CW: Year and a half, yeah.

A: And I really pushed through this exam, and I did a lot of practice, a lot of, again, research and getting input in from other people, of how to prepare for the exam, building my skills. And then, yeah, then I just did a lot of practice, and then my exam was in June. So a few months before that, I was only just doing real-time mock exams as well. So it’s definitely something that is not, it’s not an easy exam. I’m going to be really honest. It’s not an easy exam because there are four subtests and two writing pieces. Those four subtests at the time, there were 60 questions in 30 minutes. So it’s 30 seconds per question.

CW: So you can’t think, you don’t have time to think.

A: Yeah. And even your writing, they expect you to write a persuasive or a creative. In my time, it was 15 minutes. Now it’s a little bit different. So producing a full essay.

CW: Yeah. So you really have to have it ready, don’t you? Like you have to have it in your head already before.

A: And it’s like simple topics like a dog’s pot of cats. It was literally, my topic was a self-driving car is the way of the future.

CW: Oh my goodness.

A: As a 13, 14 year old, it’s really tough to expect that. But again, they are trying to siphon the top of the state. And they’re really, I think more than an academic test, it’s a mental endurance test of how perseverant and how resilient we are. Because those are the skills that you need to be able to thrive in a select venture school, MacRob.

CW: There’s a lot of questions about whether you should prepare for the exam. I know that a lot of parents kind of go, if you need to prepare, if you need to study heaps and be tutored for the exam, then perhaps the selective school environment isn’t for you. Would you agree with that? Or I know that a lot of kids do obviously get tutoring to go in.

A: Yeah, I think it’s a tough thing because, look, and I’m not going to say this in a bad way, but a lot of the time some, and I’m not generalizing, but some companies can capitalize on the emotions and really just, it just can be a little bit of a money-making thing, and that’s something that I think you should be very weary of, of finding the right tutoring or help and guidance. I don’t necessarily think it’s only you have to do it through a tutoring center. My sister and all my friends who have younger siblings, they probably don’t need that same structured tutoring because they have the experience of someone so close to them, and I think that makes a huge difference.

CW: Oh, really? Okay.

A: As you know the system, you understand what it’s like, and I think tutoring is a form of guidance, and sometimes some students will need that, and others might not need that. Yes. So in terms of whether you should prepare or not for the exam, I think it is just personally, I think it does need that preparation just because it is such, it’s nothing like you’ve done at school. It’s not things that you’re learning at school through your secondary journey or your primary. It is reasoning, it is application-based and it is very much a time crunch. So the students aren’t used to that. And so unless you’re a real genius, you could go to a high-stakes situation and just smash it out. I think you do need guidance with it now, whether that is through professional tutoring or through, again, listening to podcasts like these and then finding like resources on the internet. Like that’s okay, you know, that is possible. It’s just your decision to have that professional tutoring on.

CW: Yeah, I mean, I can, if I was going to sit an exam like that and it was such high stakes, I would want somebody to help me, honestly. I mean, I wouldn’t be wanting to like Google, how do you sit the selective school exam and put together resources from YouTube, honestly. Like I would want somebody to help me.

A: And like even if you think about it from a parent’s perspective, like my parents were full-time working corporate parents, that they, and this is before COVID, where they had to go to work like five days a week.

CW: I know, work from home is such, and so they also, they wanted the best for me, but they didn’t have that time to invest of like, we need to work it out together because finding resources because they don’t know, like, you know, we wanted to…

A: Yeah, it’s not thanks to T-Sat also. So, they, that’s why we sought out professional. And, but what I will say though, is you cannot expect the child to just, you know, you leave a professional tutoring and that’s it. Like, I was very lucky that I had a constant support of my mum and dad with me, especially my mum, because it is a lot to do with self-driven motivation as well. And I’ll touch on that as well, because it’s not, you cannot expect somebody to just go into a tutoring centre and then they take care of it fully.

CW: Really? To a certain extent, yes. And what else is required, do you think?

A: The child themselves needs self-motivation. And I see it now as, you know, like, I’ve only been out of a high school for two years and high school is so different already. And all these things, it’s very, very different. But what I can see now is that, you know, that self-motivation, it needs to be there. It really does need to be there because, you know, that’s saying you can take a horse to water, but you can’t make it free. You can’t force a child to want to study and stuff, you know. And I think that’s why I’m such an advocate for this, where I’m like, you know, talking to people who have been to the schools, motivating these students to see, what am I doing this for? For them, it’s very myopic in the sense that, I’m just sitting this exam because my parents want me to sit this exam. I’m just sitting this exam because why not?

Certainly! I’ll continue the transcript using CW for Crystal Wong and A for Ananya, based on the content provided:

A: Like, you know, if you go speak to these people, like, you know, alumni from these schools that actually investing that time to harness that motivation, it works significantly because when they…

CW: They can see the end point.

A: Yeah. And it’s a bigger picture rather than, oh my God, I just have to pass this exam. It’s a much bigger picture and it motivates you so much.

CW: You have your why, you have your reasons.

A: Yeah. When you go into like, you know, especially the months before going up to the exam, you feel like it’s really, it can be a lot. You know, you’ve got school and you’re like, how am I going to do this? But then if you have your reason of, okay, this is why I’m doing it, it helps so, so much more than anything else.

And that’s something that your tutoring will be there as, you know, as you do, like for resources and extra like academic support. But then it’s that knowledge plus your own motivation and support. It’s very, very important that the parents are supporting the child.

Like every parent wants the best for their child. Absolutely. But, you know, they’re also teenagers. They’re going through, like, they’re just going through hormones as well, you know. That support is so, so necessary. And these three things combined is what I think is, will increase your chances of success because just alone professional tutoring won’t. Other like peripheral, which can often make and break a candidate’s chances.

CW: I can imagine. Like, I mean, if you, if the why isn’t there, then it’s really tough, right? I mean, it’s tough for anybody to actually just go through the motions of doing something, much less something that’s so hard, and being a teenager as well.

A: Absolutely.

CW: So what is the why? So what is it that you got from selective school, that you don’t think that perhaps the private school could have offered you?

A: Absolutely. And again, like I think that Westbourne, my private school was incredible. It shaped me into a wonderful person as I am today. But MacRob, I can attribute everything to. I owe so much to MacRob and I know this now. I didn’t know it at the time, but it was the best environment to catalyse my growth, like my personal growth and my academic growth.

CW: In what way?

A: In every way and the thing is, look, I was always an extroverted kid and I enjoyed. I loved talking, I loved going, I had lots of friends and I enjoyed being around people. And I loved reading, I was into that, like music or that kind of stuff.

But when I went to MacRob, I was worried, a bit of me was like, oh my goodness, I’m going to go to this school and these people are like the top of the state. Like I’m going to be the dumbest person there, like I’m not going to make any friends. It’s like far away as well.

It wasn’t that far away, it was about like a 30 minute train ride. But I’ve never been on a train alone, how am I going to do this? I’m going to be just an imposter there, and I’m going to fail all my classes, and they’re going to kick me out.

CW: A lot of worries. I’m sure lots of other kids have the same worries.

A: And it was completely everything opposite to everything I just said. Because number one, I developed as a person because the people around you make such a difference, especially in that tricky period of time between 14, 15, 16. It’s a tough time as a teenager.

And that same, where it’s like you’re the average of the five people you surround yourself with. Well, for me, what I felt was the five people around me were incredible. They were the smartest, most holistic.

And I’m not just saying they were academically brilliant. Yes, of course they were. But they were doing sports. They were doing music. They were doing national level, like, you know, fencing and everything, you know. They were really holistic people.

And from that, the five, like, you know, you’re suddenly, your immediate environment is a group of extremely hardworking, extremely humble and extremely inspiring people. At that age, when you have a good company like that, it makes a significant difference on the way that you want to be as a person. Because I was like, oh my god, she’s doing incredible things.

She’s doing, I want to be, I want to do that too. And it wasn’t, it wasn’t toxic because people often wonder, oh my goodness, it’s a girls school. Like, you know, all those preconceived notions.

And of course I had that too. But it was really just the opposite. Where I was like, oh my god, let’s do this. Like, you do that. I will do this. And we’re supporting each other.

And it’s just, and I’m not like embellishing this in any way. I’m seriously saying that that amount of sisterhood and the camaraderie that you have of a group of really highly intellectual, but hardworking young women and young people is something that I will be forever grateful for because I wouldn’t have realised my own potential if I hadn’t have been around these people. And that’s what makes a huge, huge difference.

CW: So it’s the cohort.

A: It is the cohort. And that’s something that parents can often get a little bit clouded by because it is, at the end of the day, it’s a government school. It’s not, it does not have the facilities and the resources as maybe some other private schools across Australia have, especially in Melbourne.

But it is the people, it is the cohort that makes the school very, very special. And of course, like, you know, the teachers are great and awesome and the resources, they’re really, really great. But it’s the cohort.

It’s the whole cohort that you have around you and you are willing to do, you are willing to reach, you just realize your potential a lot more. I think personally.

CW: You sound like the kind of person who would take that cohort and go, yes, I want to be just like them. Do you think there are kids who get in there and go, oh my God, I’m so intimidated by, you know, these amazing people doing all this wonderful stuff around. Do you think that there are those kids too?

A: Absolutely. And look, it is a very different environment to what you would expect. Like it’s as much as you hear from the people, unless you’re not in it yourself, it is quite difficult to replicate what it’s exactly like.

But one thing I can say is that there are people who find that extremely intimidating. I am suddenly around the top of the state and it can seem overwhelming and it can, you know, you miss your old friends and how am I going to adjust to a new environment? You’re not just, it’s not just a five-minute walk to school.

It’s now a 30-minute train ride. You have to think, you worry for your safety and your independence. All these things, there’s so many factors, right?

And for some people, of course, that’s not the environment for them. And that’s okay. That’s completely fine.

And that’s why I say investing that time, of course, into like tutoring and the exam prep and everything is great, but investing some time in actually researching the school and talking to people who have come from schools like MacRob and Melbourne High, because only then you can start to think, will my child or will I, if any of the kids listen to this as well, will I find myself thriving in that environment? And for me, the answer was yes, because I wanted the challenge of being in a place where I could grow, and it was a natural step for me to grow like that. And but for some people, it wouldn’t have been, and that’s too intimidating, too over-stimulating.

They don’t think they could thrive in that environment, and that’s okay. But I think it’s important that you know that before, rather than later. But it’s when there’s a lot on the line for it.

So that’s why investing that time in before you start preparing, and before you start thinking about it, is just think, will I fit in this environment? Will I find this place of talented young people? And I’m saying this in a way, I’m not trying to say that it’s not toxic, because from my experience wasn’t toxic.

That’s what I’m saying. That’s all I can say. I don’t know how it’s like, things change and everything.

CW: Of course, your own experience.

A: My experience, it was the most loving environment. It was so good. So, but again, taking into consideration different perspective, people who have graduated in the last few years, rather than me for it’s been a little bit later, talking to these people, going on the school tours, and really just immersing yourself, okay, what is this environment like?

CW: And in terms of academics, did you feel like it was really pushy? Like was it a pushy sort of academic environment?

A: Yeah, it was, I wouldn’t say pushy. It was, again, the cohort. It’s not the teachers.

It’s like the teachers are there to help you and support you and guide you. But the ambition and that drive to do, I want to get, instead of getting like 90, I want to get 99, I want to get 100, that ambition comes from the people around you. And again, like I’ve said so many times, people must think, oh my goodness, it’s so toxic.

Like, how are they going to do this? There’s too much pressure. They’re putting so much pressure on the child and everything.

But that’s not the thing. The pressure is not coming from external sources. It’s coming from the kids themselves.

I want to do well. Those are the kids who are there who I want to do well. I want to do this for myself.

I have a greater ambition. I have this drive and this sense of I want to do our little things that’s there, right? And I didn’t think that there was a pushy academic environment.

I thought it was more like it was really humbling, honestly. Like, I’m going to be really honest with you that when I was in Westbourne, I was doing really well. And then I came to MacRobertson, I was suddenly in the middle, like average, you know, just I was a very, you know, suddenly going from extremely above average to very average.

CW: No, but then you became school captain, come on.

A: They’re like academically, it’s very humbling and you’re like, oh my goodness. It’s kind of that realization that when I went to this school that I was once a big fish in a small pond and suddenly I had become a very small fish in a big pond. But because of the environment, I was like, I want to grow and I want to become bigger and I want to be better.

That’s what drove me to do well academically as well. But it wasn’t necessarily like that the teachers are like, you need to do, we need to get this far, otherwise you’re going to be out of here. It was very much self-driven for sure.

CW: Do you find that that helps you at uni?

A: Oh, absolutely. I would say everything that I learned at MacRob, one being this academic mindset, the will to do well, the ambitious aspect of being 100 percent because of MacRob. The second thing about being independent.

I was a very cocooned young girl in the central part of my life. They were always with me, and I didn’t do as much exploring on my own as in year 7 and 8, how much I could do. But I was a really good kid.

I was honestly a very goody-two-shoes little kid. Then when I went into year 9 at MacRob, I had to take a train. I had never taken a train in my life, ever.

I’m barely even with my parents. I had to go by myself, and I was really scared. These things, how am I going to do this?

That sense of independence that I’ve accumulated over the last four years, I was so lucky because I can confidently attribute. Just two months ago, I went to London by myself. I went to University College London.

I don’t think that sense of independence would have been a must-it if I hadn’t have gone to MacRob. There’s obviously a lot of-

CW: Because of the train ride.

A: Because, it’s not just because of the train ride, but just how independent I became. Because, you are travelling this journey. You are going to a new school.

You’re in a completely new environment. Suddenly, your parents aren’t going to take care of every single thing of real life. You have to do it yourself.

You have to manage your social life and your friends and your academics and your extracurriculars. And when you’re doing your homework and organizing yourself, all of these things, you have to do yourself. And those skills, that is what it’s seriously helped me through uni because without that, like sometimes people might only develop those skills in year 11 and 12 by necessity because you’re in VCE and you’re like, oh my gosh, I need to be organized.

For me, I developed this in year eight, year nine. I was going to MacRob.

CW: So you had a head start.

A: That head start really helped me. And again, you’re around those people who are doing the same things as you. So you never think it’s out of the blue.

It’s a very normal thing. So we’d sit on the train and we would organize our timetable. We have to do tonight.

We’ll catch up on this day or maybe on a Friday, we’ll go to MC, grab some food, and then we’ll go home. We had that balance and that’s something that’s really helped me a lot as well. So independence and the academic drive for sure.

And the other thing I would say is definitely my leadership skills. I, if you asked me that you’re going to graduate as a school captain, I would have thought you were insane. I thought, no way, that’s not true.

Because whilst I was an extroverted person, I love this, I love this stuff, but I just couldn’t see myself doing that. I think that I would be very scared. I would be very nervous to do that.

But then through my years at MacRob, 9, 10, 11, 12, or 9, 10, 11, I think that potential that you don’t even realize you have as a teenager, you don’t know what you’re good at. You’re just finding your own path. Opportunities, the leadership opportunities, the extracurricular opportunities I had there.

Again, seeing my friends who are doing, who are already like the president of a society, and their community or something, I’m like, wow, you’re so cool. How do you do that? And just talking to these people and the teachers being so encouraging to me, that why not?

Give it a shot and you’ve developed these skills over the years. And then I tried for school captain and it was the best experience of my high school journey. I can 100% attribute it.

And I wouldn’t have had that if I wasn’t at MacRob, I don’t think. So very, very special for me.

CW: Yeah, that does sound amazing because I think people do develop leadership skills later on, sometimes like much later on, like at work. But to develop them when you’re in like year nine, year ten, I think that gives you a definite head start in life.

A: It’s a maturity thing. I think that I matured a lot more as I went to MacRob than I probably would have.

CW: Yeah. And listening to you talk about your train trip, I’ve actually spoken to other selective school students talk really fondly about the commute there with all their friends. Yeah, that’s interesting because you would think that, you know, you’ve got to take the train in, what a burden.

Sometimes, it’s like half an hour to an hour, but most people that I’ve spoken to talk about it really fondly. Like, that’s one of the main things that they’ve liked about selective school.

A: Oh, my gosh. It was crazy. Like, you don’t think that would happen.

Like, oh, the trains are lasting, that you’re thinking about. As I’ve just finished coming off the back of tutoring a lot of year eight students, and you know, some of them have gotten offers, and the first thing that they asked me is, what about the travel time? You know, like, I’m from the West, and so, you know, the trains are, you know, not…

CW: Not great.

A: Yep. Not the best. And so, you know, the travel time is a real concern.

You know, what if it gets delayed, and you know, the tiredness, and you know, it’s fine maybe in year nine and 10, and then how are you going to sustain yourself as well? And that’s what I was about to say, that my perspective is a little bit tainted just because we had COVID for two years.

CW: Oh, yes.

A: I actually didn’t have to go to school for a lot, a lot of the time.

CW: Okay.

A: So, about, I can say maybe a year, we didn’t have to go. Remember the whole 2021 lockdown?

CW: I do remember. Yes.

A: How can we all forget? Like during that time, I didn’t actually need to go to school. And so it’s a little bit there.

Certainly! I’ll continue the transcript using CW for Crystal Wong and A for Ananya, based on the content provided:

A: But what I can say is the train time is, it just makes you so much more organized. And something that I take into uni as well. You know, the drive time or the travel time, you factor this in and you just, you become so much more aware of the time that you have, that you do have, and it makes you so efficient, which sounds a bit like an oxymoron, like how does that work? But because you know that’s an uncontrolled, like you have to travel, that’s always going to be there.

CW: Yep. And you can’t forget anything if you can’t leave anything at home.

A: Exactly. So then when you do come home, you maximize the time that you do have, right? Sometimes, you know, as we have the thing of like work just fills time. Like if you have an abundance of time, you’re like, oh yes, I can do it.

CW: Exactly.

A: I’ll just wait a little bit. I’ll just, you know, go on my phone, watch a bit of a movie. But when you are tight for time, suddenly you become so much more efficient. And that’s what I felt that in year nine and ten, I would have, you know, I would come back home a little bit later than my other Westbourne friends and everything. But like I loved it. I really just loved it because, you know, I got to, it was just a free social time from, you know, we would all, like my MacRob and my MHS friend, my Melbourne Higher friends, we would all wait at Flinders Street, we would get two rows together, and then we would go, okay, we have to catch the 337 train, and then we’d ride on the train, and we’d go together, we’d, you know, we’d talk about our day. We’d talk about everything.

CW: Oh, what awesome memories.

A: Yeah, and literally, like, I’m catching up with the girl tomorrow, who was my first MacRob friend on the train. I remember at Williams Landing in 2019, she’d come up to me and she saw my MacRob uniform, and she was like, hi, you and Ananya, you going to MacRob? And I was like, yes. And like five, six, seven years, six years later, we are still such good friends. And we’re train buddies. And even my, you know, Melbourne High friends, you get that time to talk to each other, to see what’s going on with, what is your school like? Like, how is everything going there? And so the friendship and the camaraderie is something that is so understated. And then on top of that, the benefit that there is from that, as what I was saying before, you just become so much more efficient. And I think that’s an important skill to have because as you grow up and as you go through uni and as you start in your working life and everything, life gets in the way and you have, there’s always things like this where you can’t shift it, travel time.

CW: Oh, totally.

A: You know, all these different things. But when you work around it and you make the time that you do have and you’re maximizing that, I think that’s an incredible skill and learning it in your nine and ten is just, I’m so grateful for that.

CW: Yeah. Yeah. No, that makes a lot of sense. So you say, was there anything that you didn’t like about your time at MacRob? Like you’ve spoken wonderfully about your time there. Was there anything that you can think of that you didn’t like?

A: Yeah. Honestly, and this is going to sound so corny and cheesy, but there isn’t anything I can think of. Because the friendships I’ve made. I met a girl yesterday who I met at MacRob. She was, I was school captain and she was the SRC co-president. And she’s like my sister. Like we are so close. We’ve become so good friends. And I think it just hinges on the values because the people who are going to MacRob have some sense of shared ambition, shared values, and you’re suddenly connected in a way that you probably wouldn’t have known before. And so there’s the friendship and camaraderie that I’m just, I can for sure say that I’ve gotten out of MacRob and leadership and collaboration, teamwork. I absolutely had the honor of working so closely with the principal of MacRob right now. Her name is Principal Sue Harrop. And I learnt so much from her. She’s incredible. But having the chance to work with an incredible educator in the community, and so closely, it’s just incredible. And I think I’m just so grateful for that. I would say academically as well, I was very lucky to do very, very well in school and have a supportive community behind me. And my parents were really, really supportive.

CW: Obviously, not just luck. Yeah. I don’t think it’s just luck when you do very, very well.

A: Yeah. I think, but most of all, it cultivated my work ethic. I’m someone who has a lot of ambition, but sometimes you have ambition, but it’s like, how can you work your way to get there? And it really, really helped me build my resilience and perseverance over time, and so I don’t think I can fault it, but that’s just my personal experience, and I want people who are listening to this to take that into consideration.

CW: Yes, of course.

A: Also the person that I am and the cohort I was in and the teachers that were in my time. It does make a difference, but there’s really nothing I can do.

CW: Are you enjoying uni now?

A: I really am enjoying me, and I think I’ve definitely, I’m a very different person than I was in high school, but that’s just growth. Yeah. It’s just a very natural sense of growth as you develop as a person. You see more of the world. I’ve traveled. I’ve done a lot of different things. I’ve had wonderful opportunities, but I always look back on high school so, so fondly, especially MacRob.

CW: Gosh. What an amazing experience.

A: Thank you. I really appreciate that.

CW: Yeah. No, just as it makes your time, you make your time there sound incredible. And I’m sure you’ve inspired lots of your students to get in.

A: Thank you. And that’s all I want to do is if I can be any part of motivation for these young children, because these young children had COVID during some of the most formative years of their life. And their emotional growth has been so different to the way we grew up as well, pre-COVID. And I think them having, just hearing these things and hearing stories, just gives them a little bit more perspective of what is it like. Sometimes this high school and choosing a school seems such a far away thing, ages away, and year 12, oh my God, that’s so far away. But ultimately, if you can get some insight into what it’s actually like, what’s the good parts, what’s the bad parts, and really getting this sense of just gathering these opinions, and if that can motivate someone, then I know I’ve done my job. I would have loved that as well when I was a kid, and so I’m rambling around, and you know, my mom and dad looking through newspapers, and they’re like, what’s up with school? So then I know I’ve done my job. And so I always say to everybody that I tutor, and the people that I talk to, make sure you do invest that time of figuring out whether the school is actually right for you, whether you want to put that hard work in, because it’s tough, it’s not so easy. And then at the end of the day, once you know that and you’ve set that seed of motivation, it’s going to put you in really, really good stead as you head along the journey.

CW: Amazing.

A: Thank you.

CW: Is there anything that I haven’t asked you that I’ve missed, that you would like to say?

A: I don’t think so. No. I think I would just, the last thing that I do want to say is that every child is really different. Every child has a unique sense of purpose, and that might be in academics, that might be in sport, that might be in music, that might be in, I don’t know, anything. It could be in literally anything. And I think it’s so important that as parents and the educators and tutors and the community, we can support the children to realize their potential, wherever that may be. Because if a child is meant to do something, it won’t matter which school they go to. The school can maybe help them to achieve and realize their potential, yes, for sure. But if a child is motivated enough, they can literally do anything. And I promise that, that you could do anything you set your mind to if you have enough motivation and willpower and hard work and dedication. And so choosing a school is just as a facilitation for that, for sure. It’s important, but the child-

CW: It’s not the be all and end all.

A: Yes. And it’s really important that the children and the parents know that as well, that you can foster a good, successful child from this as well. Yes, environment helps, for sure. It makes a really big difference, but it should be the right environment for your child. And that only you can know.

CW: Wise words.

A: Thank you so much.

CW: All right. Thank you so much, Ananya. It’s been such a pleasure talking to you.

A: Thank you so much for spending the time with me.

CW: Thank you so much, Crystal. And I hope I’ve helped even one person today.

A: I hope lots of people listen to this.

CW: Thank you so much.

A: Take care.

CW: 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.melbenschools.com.au. You can also join thousands of other parents in our community at Melbourne Schools discussion group on Facebook. See you there.