學校面試 School interview
麥恪旺先生幫後生報名了兩家小學，其中一家通知我們去面試。從我們走過路過從未錯過的觀察，那是一所白人學生特別多的小學。這所學校離我們家最近，走路不過十分鐘，而且和其他小學相比算評比挺好的。但這小學不是所公立小學，而是所天主教小學。
Mr McWang applied two primary schools for our son, and one of them notified us to go for an interview. From the observation when we walked pass for over few hundred times, the primary school we were to interview is with large proportion of Caucasian students. The school is the one closest to us, only 10-minute walking distance, and is ranked well amongst primary schools. It isn’t a public school, but a Catholic school.
天主教小學可以算是介於公立與私立之間（但是基本上不是公立的都可以算私立）。公立的學校不用學費（但是要學雜費），看你住的地方的學區是規劃在哪所公立學校，基本上都進得去。私立的學校費用挺驚人的，可以是一年澳幣一萬多到三萬多不等的學費（不包括學雜費）。而且要進去也沒那麼容易，光是報名費就要幾百塊澳幣（不一定報名就進得去），還要有兩封推薦信，而且好的私立學校可能多半要在入學前兩三年前就申請，還得多付澳幣一千塊的手續費才幫你保留名額。我知道是因為我幫人家的女兒寫過推薦信……
Catholic schools are somewhat in between public and private schools (but technically speaking any non-public schools are considered as ‘private’). Public schools do not require tuitions (but may require fees for uniforms, etc), and your residential address determines which school your kids would go to (school catchment) — basically a spot in public school is guaranteed. Private schools require eye-watering tuitions, which could range between AUD $10K-$30k+ per annum (and this amount doesn’t always include other fees). It isn’t easy to get into the school either. Application fees alone are a couple hundred Aussie dollars, and obviously no guarantee of a spot. Applications also require two recommendation letters, and you probably need to apply 2–3 years prior to the school starting date especially for reputable private schools, along with a holding (a spot) fee of $1k. I only know about this as I gave a recommendation letter for a friend’s daughter…
天主教的學校學費也就介於公立和私立之間，一年平均來說是澳幣三千上下。原本考慮小學的時候沒考慮這所天主教小學，畢竟我跟麥恪旺先生對宗教都沒有特別的興趣，也沒有參與社區的教堂活動等等。我們於是先申請了區域的公立小學，而後一個半月後才申請這所天主教小學，結果公立小學的申請像是石沉大海（可能是因為公立小學的名額是板上釘釘所以就沒有聯絡），但是天主教小學卻很快的聯絡了我們，還安排了我們和學校校長的面試。
Tuitions for Catholic schools are also between public and private schools; by average the tuitions are about AUD$3k per annum. When we first considering primary schools, we didn’t consider this Catholic school, as neither of us were too bothered with the religions, nor were we involved in any church activities within the neighbourhood. As such we applied for the public school in our school catchment area first, and only after a month and half did we apply for the Catholic school. However, there was no response from the public school (supposedly school admin didn’t see value in contacting if it’s a guaranteed spot), while Catholic school reached out soon after receiving the application, and arranged the interview time with the school principal.
我聽到學校面試馬上就有面部肌肉僵硬的尷尬感。之前聽另一個媽媽說她的小孩去另一所天主教小學面試，對方問小孩他的名字、數到二十、住哪一區，還有住哪一條街。我聽到哪一條街的問題就有點挖靠。你會跟自己才四歲的小孩講住家的街名嗎？這是一個很神奇的問題。學校還是給了孩子名額，所以不確定問題的重點是什麼。
When I heard of school interview, I felt as if my facial muscle was temporarily strained. I heard another mum talked about her experience bringing her kid to an interview at another Catholic school, where the teacher asked the kid to state his name, to count to twenty, and to name the area he lives along with the street name. I made a face when I heard the question about the street name. Do you speak of your residential street name with your four-year-old kid? It was such a puzzling question. At the end the school still offered the kid a spot, so I am not sure what was the intent of the question.
我和同事說麥恪旺先生要帶我和後生去學校面試，同事提醒我說面試的時候不要把百分百的自己表現出來，四十趴就很夠了。我問：那是我亞洲人的四十趴還是我假裝我會說英文的四十趴？同事沒有回答，但是有給我一些面試時可以提出的問題，比如說學校的校內及校外活動，額外的課程，學校一年級幾個班，一個班多少學生，老師和父母的互動機會多少，等等。
I told my colleague that Mr McWang was going to take me and our son for a school interview, and my colleague was kind enough to remind me not to bring my full self to the interview, just 40% will do. I asked, ‘so… do I bring the 40% Asian bit or the 40% pretend I can speak English bit?’ The colleague did not respond, nevertheless was very helpful to give me some questions to ask school, such as incursion, excursion, extra curriculums, how many classes per year, how many students per class, and the frequency of teacher-parents face time, etc.
總之，我們還是去面試了。校長和我們打了招呼，把旁邊的樂高拿出來給後生玩，說不用面試後生，卻也沒有面試我們，反而是很健談地推銷起學校的各種活動和特色，從校內課程的英文、數學、運動、樂器到寫程式，到校外課程的理解建築、設計環保住宅、辯論社、戲劇表演、演講發表、程式設計等。校長解釋，學校多元化的活動能確保學生會對至少其中一項的活動感到興趣而能在未來更加發展相關的知識和技能。
Anyhoo, we went to the interview. The school principal exchanged pleasantries with us, tipped out Legos from the box on the side for our son, and explained that she wasn’t going to interview our son. She didn’t interview us either, instead, she was very chatty and promoting the activities and specialties of the school — English, Mathematics, sports, music instruments, coding from curriculums, as well as understanding architects, designing environmental housing, debating club, drama class, programming from extra curriculums. The principal explained that from the variety of the school activities, she believes at least one would spark interest for students to grow and develop further knowledge and skillsets.
一個小學的課程有這麼厲害這個多樣化，聽得我都想回學校打掉重練了。
After hearing the amazing and diverse curriculums and activities from a primary school, I felt that maybe I should enroll myself too.
無三小路用通識之何謂 K1 Useless Common Sense of What is K1
https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/parents/parent-guide/schooling-in-nsw
