The New Zealand Herald is bringing back some of the best premium stories of 2020. Today we look at Public v Private, a Herald investigation into if money can buy success when it comes to schooling.
Private schools: Are they worth $20,000 a year?
Should you spend an extra $20,000 a year to send your child to a private school instead of a state-integrated or state school?
That's a question many parents may be asking after research by the NZ Initiative found your child's chances of leaving school with University Entrance are slightly higher in an integrated rather than a private school, after adjusting for every bit of data the Government holds on every family.
Both private and integrated schools scored better on average than state schools.
Annual fees at the 10 biggest private schools this year average $23,427, excluding boarding fees, compared with an average of just $3074 in fees and donations requested by the 10 biggest integrated schools.
In contrast, the 10 biggest state schools are requesting donations averaging just $532.
So is a private school worth the money?
How children learn at three very different schools
There are many distinctive elements of New Zealand's 91 private schools.
First, half of those schools (46 out of 91) are Christian, and one is Muslim. Boys at King's School attend chapel four mornings a week and the fulltime chaplain, Rev John Goodwin, plays a leading role in pastoral care of the school's 668 students.
Second, like many other private schools, the King's culture is formal.
And third, by 8.30am, half an hour before classes start in most state schools, even 5-year-old King's boys have been at school already for 40 minutes.
Just a short distance away on the other side of the Ellerslie Racecourse, New Zealand's biggest state-integrated Steiner school, Michael Park School, is much more informal. Its 378 students across Years 1 to 13 have no uniform and the culture is low-pressure.
And across the motorway at Ellerslie School, a regular state primary school for Years 1 to 8, the culture is different again.
Religious schools beat private and state schools on UE results
Catholic and other state-integrated schools have edged out their elite private counterparts in university entrance results, with state schools well down the list, research revealed earlier this year.
The study by business think tank the NZ Initiative adjusts school performance for students' personal and family characteristics.
It finds that, after adjusting for everything the Government knows about every family, you can lift your child's chances of finishing school with UE by 8.3 percentage points by sending them to an integrated school, or by 6.9 points at a private school, compared with attending your local state school.
The Herald looks at how research shows 'faith trumps dosh'.
The old school tie network
Fifty years after leaving St Bede's College, former Parliamentary Speaker David Carter still runs into "Bedeans" regularly.
"You meet them everywhere. You quickly establish the connection," he says.
"You live as a Bedean and it gives you a special connection with people. They are all around the world."
An analysis by the NZ Initiative earlier this year found that your child has a better chance of leaving school with University Entrance at an integrated school than at either a private school or a state school.
Despite this, some may think it's still worth sending your child to a private school, with fees averaging $20,000 a year more than integrated schools, if those fees buy entry into a valuable network that your child can draw on in adult life.
Is the school you attended really likely to impact your career opportunities later in life?
Who produces NZ's brightest sport stars?
When it comes to sporting achievement among the top schools in the country, many public schools have historically done as well as private schools.
However, there are generally greater opportunities for sport in private schools and a growing gap in the resources available between the schooling systems.
To investigate the differences between public and private school sport in New Zealand, the Herald spoke to representatives from college sport organisations around the country about youth sport, private school money and sporting success beyond school.
The Herald's sports writers also compiled a list of the top sporting schools in the country to illustrate the historic sporting achievement between the two schooling systems at high school level, as well as the notable alumni who have gone on to triumph in sport at the world stage.
So are private schools a better breeding ground than public schools for sporting success?
