Camp Australia - Lakeside College OSHC

Fantastic school with wonderful staff who truly care for their students. I know my children feel cared for and heard, this is reflected in not only their relationships with their peers but also with their teachers. They both started in Prep and are now in high school, I continue to watch them grow and flourish academically as respectful young people under the watchful eye of their teachers. You only have to walk through the school to feel the wonderful vibe it emanates. We are extremely happy with our choice to send our children to the College and cannot recommend it highly enough!

My child had a terrible experience at Lakeside College. There is no support and understanding from the management. The administration even accused our child being problematic and needed to see a paediatrician. There is lack of empathy and definitely lack in support to the students. Their new buildings are nice but be aware and be cautious before sending your kid to Lakeside College

Terrible, terrible school in my experience. It was a big mistake sending our child here. The school completed an investigation into a teacher acting inappropriately with my child and the report showed the the incident did occur and the teacher did behave physically inappropriately. The school council blamed us for what the teacher did to our child by doubling down on their assertion that we had only brought the teacher-initiated physical altercation with our child (who did not retaliate) because we wanted to stop paying fees (this teacher is no longer working at the school and we have been told they were let go). Implying that we didn't care about our child being hurt by this teacher but rather just wanted our fees gone, despite the fact we withdrew our child the very second he confided in us about the incident. We did want to stop paying fees, but this was purely because we felt that the teacher had caused emotional damage to our child who had been experiencing school refusal we felt was due to the incident. We felt that in good faith and as an act of good will they should have stopped charging us, which they eventually offered if we would take down our initial review, which we declined because we want to share our experiences with potential families to help inform their decision whether or not to send their children here. The current principal went as far as to write a letter to the parents of the school asserting that we had made up the claims in order to get out of paying fees and had given the impression that he had done some form of investigation, which the report shows was not completed at this stage. The investigation found that the principal had acted prematurely, had not done the proper investigation into our claims of abuse, given the impression that he had done an investigation and acted regrettably on a public forum. However, states that he acted appropriately and within the expectations of the school. Keeping in mind that their own report shows the teacher did behave inappropriately with our child, this is wildly inappropriate and unprofessional behaviour by the principal which I feel speaks of his poor character and lack of self control. I was also left wondering why the school had gone to the effort to pay for an external and unbiased review by an independent investigative agency who interviewed myself, my child and teachers at the school but they didn't quote ANY of the results of that investigation in their report to us and instead claimed their report was based on the school own council and teachers investigation. Why are they not using the report from the agency? Are they covering up the agencies results? I have requested a copy of the report but safeguarding services has politely informed me that they are unable to provide me a copy due to the school having commissioned the investigation. I also asked council chair Mal Wegener for a copy, however I don't believe I will receive one. Further to this, there are also so many better schools around (even public schools are outperforming Lakeside College). The college is a semi-private school with cheap fees, but the principal has shared in a personal blog (now defunct - but weirdly is now a pornographic website) that he struggled with the decision about whether to pursue a career offering a christian education to lower socio-economic families such as those families at Lakeside College or go with a more profitable educational structure (a post I have screenshots of). In our own experience the schools poor performance probably wouldn't be any different in the unlikely event that he were even able to secure a position at private school beyond his own lower middle class situation. He is absolutely right where he belongs. This is my honest review based on our own experiences from our short few months at Lakeside College.

they don’t take bullying seriously in primary

they don't clean their fish tanks😢

Our grade 1 child said he had a book smacked out of his hand and across the room by a teacher who was simultaneously screaming at him because he came to her and said that he didn't know how to do the German work he had been assigned because he had missed school due to being unwell. This event led to school refusal and anxiety. We withdrew our son as soon as we learned about the abuse and tried to work it out with the principal, which unfortunately ended in disappointment. We felt our concerns were not taken seriously and we were upset that the principal denied the event took place and described the abusive teacher as "gentle" when our son's experience was the very opposite. We were also upset that we were still expected to pay the school fees even though we were forced to leave the school due to our son sharing his experience of abuse by a teacher, which we felt voided the contract. We even asked for them to be voided in good faith, which can be done at discretion, but were denied. We were then threatened with legal action by the principal for writing this review, even though it is a summary of our own personal experiences with Lakeside College. We recently enrolled our child at John Henry Primary School where he is happy, healthy and most importantly SAFE from emotional and physical harm. We experienced a lack of accountability, moral integrity, and disregard for students' safety at Lakeside College and do not consider Lakeside College as being at a standard high enough for our children. We believe there are safeguarding concerns that we have seen no evidence of being suitably addressed. As of July we still haven't received an apology from anyone at the school for what our child was subjected to. They are currently under investigation by the Department of Education.

Our grade 1 child had a book smacked out of his hand and across the room by a teacher who was simultaneously screaming at him because he came to her and said that he didn't know how to do the German work he had been assigned because he had missed school due to being unwell. This event led to school refusal and anxiety. We withdrew our son as soon as we learned about the abuse and tried to work it out with the principal, which unfortunately ended in disappointment. We felt our concerns were not taken seriously and we were upset that Tom Brennan denied the event took place and described the abusive teacher as "gentle" when our son's experience was the very opposite. We were also upset that we were still expected to pay the school fees even though we were forced to leave the school due to abuse by a teacher, which we felt voided the contract. We even asked for them to be voided in good faith, which can be done at discretion, but were denied. We were then threatened with legal action by the principal Tom Brennan for writing this review, even though it is a summary of our own personal experiences with Lakeside College. We recently enrolled our child at John Henry Primary School where he is happy, healthy and most importantly SAFE from emotional and physical harm. We experienced a lack of accountability, moral integrity, and disregard for students' safety at Lakeside College and do not consider Lakeside College as being at a standard high enough for our children. We believe there are safeguarding concerns that we have seen no evidence of being suitably addressed. As of July we still haven't received an apology from anyone at the school for what our child was subjected to. They are currently under investigation by the Department of Education.