Private versus local (public) primary schools

[Emmylooagain]

Hello, I am in Australia and my son starts kindergarten (in Australia it goes kindergarten, pre-primary, year 1) and we had enrolled him in the local public school which has a very good reputation. We did the orientation and were very happy with our choice. However, when I went to enrol him in after-school care, it is full. He is on a wait list for next year. My DH and I both work full-time and the kindy at the local school was only a 5 day fortnight meaning he would still have to do some days at day care, so after much discussion we made an appointment to visit a private school, which is a prestiguous all girls school but has co-ed kindy available. It is full-time with full after school and before school care conducted by the kindegarten teachers. We were very impressed with the facilities and the ethos etc and so decided to enrol him for this one year. Of course, I now want to send him to a private school following this (I tend to get carried away) whereas my DH wants him to return to the local primary school (where likely there will still be no available after school care) and then have him go to a private school in Year 5 or 7. We also have a daughter and so have been offered a kindergarten place for her at the same all-girls school for when she is ready for kindy. I want to accept that and then have her stay at that school.

The fees are very expensive and they make you pay these "enrolment fees" to secure their position years in advance, so it all adds up very quickly.

However, I can't help but feel I want to give my children the very best and the private schools do seem to offer smaller class sizes and much more individualised attention than the local public schools. My DH thinks they will all be good and you don't get value for $ until highschool. I think he might be right, but would welcome anyone else's view.

Thanks very much