My School is... My School

The new My School website was launched with a great deal of publicity. How useful is it, really? Why did it crash on the first day? And what do you do about it, anyway?

Why did it crash?

The My School website crashed because it was overloaded. Why was it overloaded? Because of all the journalists who hit the site -- over and over -- trawling for a story.

Journalists?!

Well, let's look at The West Australian. They had an interesting article which compared various schools. They must have looked at a few dozen schools, to get the detail for their report. So there's a few dozen hits on the My School website... Probably repeated, over and over, until the reporters were satisfied that they had a good (or well researched) story.

Do you need new -- lateral -- thinking for your own problems? email nick leth at gmail dot com. Need solutions? No worries. Now.

Extend that thinking, to every newspaper... every tv station... every news outlet... around Australia... No wonder the website was overloaded!

I wonder if any parents were able -- or interested enough -- to access My School on that first, frenetic day.

How useful is the My School website?

Well, that depends on what you're looking for. The site was obviously good for journalists, looking for a good back-to-school story.

Is the website useful for parents? See the next section...

What do you do about it, anyway?

There is a general feeling, that the ability to compare schools -- by the results achieved by students -- allows a parent to select the "best" school for their child.

Is this a good thing?

Years ago I read some research that found, the further a student travels -- the worse their school results. This is a strong argument in favour of sending your child to a "local" school.

If your child makes friends at school, will they want to meet with them outside school? It's possible -- but far less possible if the school friends live in different suburbs which are each a long way away from the school. You drive your child to school. You drive your child home. There is no time to drive your child to and from a friend's house...

If all of the children live so close to school that they can walk, then they can also walk to and from friends' houses. (Admittedly, in some suburbs you may want to send an adult to walk with them. It's still easier than driving a car.) Children who live close to a school, make friends who live close by. This is another argument in favour of a "local" school.

So far, all I've said is, send your children to the local school.

But the school is not good enough for your children!

Should you run away from the problem? Should you invest time and money, to send your children to a school which -- last year, anyway -- looked good? Possibly because it happened to have a good batch of students?

Here's a better idea: Invest some of your own effort -- and help your local school to improve its academic results.

Become a part of your school community. Instead of spending an hour a day driving your children to and from school -- spend that hour a day supporting your local school! Offer to help in the classrooms. Offer to help in the playground. Offer to help gain funding for necessary equipment. Just offer to help...

You could just run and hide...

Yes, you could look at the My School website and take the easy option. You could select a school which -- last year -- did quite well on a small number of measures. You could use the power of your time and money, to push your children to the distant school which -- for reasons which you probably don't know -- managed to look quite good, last year.

Or you could do something worthwhile, yourself.

Send your child to the local school. Check the school's results,on the My School website. And if you don't like what you see -- move heaven and earth, to improve the performance of your local school!

You may enjoy being able to help. Your children may enjoy being with their community of friends, at their local school. Your local school may get better and better.

With one final benefit... You will no longer need to move your children to a "better" school each year. Because the "better" schools are sure to change, given time.

But your children will be able to stay at the one school, as that school -- your local school -- gets better and better, every year. Thanks to the efforts of the teachers, the children -- and thanks to the efforts of you, the community of parents in the local school community.

It may not be easy. But the rewards should be worth the effort.

Independent thinking & independent analysis of your problems by Agamedes Consulting. Support for your thought: email nick leth at gmail dot com