Brunswick East Primary School, Brunswick East | Fees, Address, Admission, Vacancies, Reviews & More

I sent both my kids to this school, we lasted three years and couldn’t take it anymore. The principal is away with the fairies. Doesn’t take responsibility for any mistakes and not concerned for the wellbeing of individual students. Bullying was ignored on multiple occasions. One of my kids had a fairly serious accident during lunch, of course no teacher on duty witnessed it, if there even was one. We were called to the school and told “she may need a dentist”. She actually needed to go to hospital but of course not one adult/teacher could tell us what actually happened. We asked for an incident report but could not get it. We ended up having to ask other students what happened so that we could relay the information to the doctor. When we confronted the principal with our concerns she was defensive and dismissive. Classrooms had up to 60 students at a time and teachers were obviously not coping. Finally by the third year we’d had enough and removed both children from the school. Best decision we ever made.

Beps is a great school for social and liberal free range education and builds creative thinkers, the community is also great. Where this school falls down is in the basics. Learning through play and self regulation is great once you’ve established foundation skills but they don’t. No Synthetic Phonics taught, at least 20% of kids will not grasp the basics with this style of learning. I am now with a High school child trying to work out if they are in the 5% that has an undiagnosed LD or the 15% that can’t learn by guessing words reading or other strategies employed at BEPS. We read at home and in class, volunteered to try and support the teachers as asked and fundraised a lot to improve the school. When we asked the teaching team for intervention we were told “kids learn at their own pace”. We are still waiting for that learning to happen many years later. Trying again, we advised our child had no confidence in reading and really avoided, then one teacher intervened for a short period. I agree the BEPS style isn’t for everyone but foundation skills should be. It is why the Australian education system is falling behind, we are not building the foundation skills for all children to then learn in a way that suits them moving forward. You dont build a brick wall without a concrete base or it will fall down and fail.

Lovely public primary school featuring spacious grounds with lots of green areas and play spaces that cater to different age groups and interests (eg: play equipment for preps, soccer oval for bigger kids). Teachers are passionate, creative, dedicated and show real insight into each child’s learning. Children actually enjoy learning here! And this seems to be central to the school’s philosophy – instilling a love and curiosity of life-long learning. Friendly and welcoming school community. Terrific place for a child to start their school journey.

Our daughter started Prep this year at BEPS and is loving it. The Prep space is a great space to learn in with lots of areas for the variety of learning; library/reading areas, wet spaces, community circle gathering areas. The learning is student focused and inclusive. Our daughter is engaged with her learning and has lots of fun in the process of learning. The grounds are also great and provide so many opportunities for an imaginative play; the cubby area along the Nicholson Street side of the school is very popular. We just love the vibe and are very happy for to be part of this wonderful school community.

Great school, wonderful grounds with lots of trees, greenery and shade in summer. It’s quite magical at times. The teachers are good and there is a strong focus on the kids’ well-being alongside learning. The parents community is strong and supportive. We are happy to have our kid there, it’s a lovely local school.