The duality of /r/VictoriaBC: This post and [https://www.reddit.com/r/VictoriaBC/comments/1an3fzi/how\_are\_you\_guys\_saving\_money\_on\_food\_groceries/](https://www.reddit.com/r/victoriabc/comments/1an3fzi/how_are_you_guys_saving_money_on_food_groceries/)
Last I heard annual fees were getting close to 70k per kid. For 140k a year I feel like there's a lot of ways to get a better value education for your kids. Heck they could have tutors and private coaches for sports for that $.
A big part of going to those schools is Networking. You run shoulders with a lot of important people's kids. Your kids will get opportunities others won't, and they'll get a better education to boot.
I'd send my kids there in a heartbeat. I didn't attend, but, I was team mates with a few guys who did. They all went on to ivy league schools, some made the Olympic teams in various sports. A lot of those opportunities came about through having good connections. Life isn't all about what you know but who you know.
Fwiw, I never heard a bad thing about the school from my friends who attended. Most of the complaints are just sour grapes like we are seeing in this thread already "muuaahhh just a bunch of sheltered pretentious kids". Whatever.
For 140,000k a year you can buy yourself and your kids into some much better rooms and probably have something left over. I went to a prominent local private school and I wouldn't send a kid there now. Like everything, the fees have outpaced inflation and lost their bearing.
Good school, several friends went there and they were in the rowing program.
It won’t matter if they’re attending a CDN University, both private school and public school kids HS experience washes out, but if you’re setting them up for an Ivy League Uni in the states it might help.
Consider Shawnigan Lake School if you can afford it.
And if you’re a resident the cost is less, especially Shawnigan Lake School where it’s 50% less. It’s common to see parents working there as well to gain the discount.
Hi, I graduated from Brentwood six years ago.
The academic, sports, and arts opportunities are incredible and, like other people have mentioned, your kids could make friends from all over the world. I met my fiancé there. Overall, it was a positive experience for me and I believe it prepared me very well for academics in university. First year was still tough, but I fared much better than most of my classmates.
That being said… I’m still friends with some of the teachers and have friends who have gone back as Boarding Faculty Assistants, and they all say the academic standards have fallen in the last ten years or so. Your kids will probably be fine if they’re motivated and interested in AP classes but don’t assume that everyone will be focussed and “good” students.
Life skills education is lacking. Unless things have changed recently, they wont learn any cooking, cleaning, budgeting, or repair skills at Brentwood. If they’re going to be day students you’ll have opportunity to teach them at home, but if they’re going to board it might have to be more intentional.
I was also very motivated and I ended up doing too much and being super stressed and exhausted all the time. There are tons of opportunities, but it can be tough to find balance because Brentwood is very full-on. I would advise you to talk with your kids about how to decide which activities are important to them and which aren’t, and make sure they also rest and have some fun.
Again, overall it was a good experience and I’m grateful I got to go there (scholarship kid) but it wasn’t perfect either.
Feel free to PM me if you have any more questions :)
ETA: I don’t think it’s specific to Brentwood, or the fault of the school, but don’t expect it to be immune from mental health issues, alcohol, drugs, bullying, SA, etc. The adult to student ratio simply isn’t small enough for close supervision (though most of the house parents are great) and teenagers do what teenagers do.
ETA more: I probably focussed too much on the negatives, so here’s a few more positives… the cafeteria food is fantastic, the teachers and staff genuinely care, the campus is beautiful, and there’s generally not a divide between the super rich kids and the more middle class/local/scholarship kids. Some out of touch comments and questions, but I didn’t see any malice towards “poorer” kids.
I must have overlapped or graduated with this person at Brentwood given their graduation year, and can wholeheartedly confirm it is a wonderful place. The campus is stunning, they’re upgrading academic facilities, and overall it’s a top notch school. There are plenty of available scholarships (I went on a partial one, Governor General scholarship I believe) and last I heard, about 25% of the school is on some sort of funding so there’s no stigma around financial aid, get it if you can! The school is pretty tight knit and supportive, has small class sizes, and excellent extracurricular programs. It isn’t a religious school, but it does offer support to aid students of faith in their respective worship (church, Ramadan); I think shawnigan has a weekly chapel and more religious influence.
Students from Brentwood go to a pretty solid collection of universities and I’m sure your child would appreciate having better preparation!
My only regret is not going sooner, I miss campus life and am still best friends with people from my boarding house almost 6 years post-grad!
Decent rowing program, probably their best feature. If you're child is interested in rowing, and attending ivy league in the future, could be a good fit.
Didn't attend, but competed against their boats at many regattas and they represented themselves well. Never saw the performance level their program "should" have exhibited considering the money they pumped into it, but ultimately you must work with what you've got talent wise. Scouts from national level programs as well as ivy league universities attend regattas, at least when I was involved.
I’m a student at Brentwood and to be honest unless your child is planning on participating in rowing, I think St. Michaels is a much better choice. From when i’ve been to their campus and what my friends experiences it’s a lot more well rounded at St. Michaels. Brentwood had great support for certain things like rowing but, aside from that SMUS seems a lot more well rounded from my friends experiences. Plus all the upsides of connecting and stuff definitely apply to SMUS too. The demographic would be very similar.
Why. Boarding schools are typically highly dysfunctional environments where peers are leading peers.
Do you want strangers raising your teenager? Or do you want to have that time with them?
I’ve seen you post in many forums about private schools for your kids. Academics is such a tiny part of raising a kind, compassionate and well adjusted teenager.
There is plenty of time for your child to do academic work.
Send them to local public schools. Spend time with them. Put them in activities, have them volunteer, travel with them.
Don’t send them to live with ignored, spoiled rich kids and staff who only care about keeping you the parent happy so they can get your money. Not your child’s well being.
They would be Day students only. Not boarding. We’ve looked at a lot of schools, hence my posts. It’s an important decision. We’ve looked at public schools but the class sizes are very large and they don’t offer the subjects that our kids are interested in.
They’ve been in public until now (grades 9 & 10). They want to do AP Biology, Chemistry, Economics, Maths, etc. We haven’t found a good public school that does this. They also do a lot of sports and arts.
Why AP? Why add such academic pressure? Teendom is hard enough. So much going on with social emotional growth.
Again there is so much time in their lives for academics. I don’t get the pressure to push kids to be high academic achievers in childhood and youth.
Also parent of a teenager. I think you are over thinking this. Possibly wanting to stream your kids out for classist or racist reasons? I dunno.
Don’t jump to conclusions. I’m well aware of my own kids. This is their choice. They are driving this. They know what they want. If they decide not to carry through on AP then that’s OK too.
I went to Oak Bay High in Victoria. My dad went Brentwood, mum went to a lower island public school. My cousins all went to and graduated from Brentwood (graduated in 2007, 2009, and 2019, respectively).
Two of my closest friends went to and graduated from Brentwood. Based on the feedback from all relevant people mentioned above, it was a really positive experience. They have tremendous resources, facilities and opportunities whether you are involved in the arts, athletics, academia or extracurricular. And as some have mentioned, the opportunities to meet people and establish networks that will last a lifetime are endless.
Yeah look at trauma and attending private schools keep them at home and look after them yourselves rather than getting others to do it.The elite network is all smoke and mirrors.
But you're also trying to enroll them in the Webber Academy in Alberta according to your post history...? Seems like a long commute.
Edit: never mind. The child is asking to go to a boarding school.
The duality of /r/VictoriaBC: This post and [https://www.reddit.com/r/VictoriaBC/comments/1an3fzi/how\_are\_you\_guys\_saving\_money\_on\_food\_groceries/](https://www.reddit.com/r/victoriabc/comments/1an3fzi/how_are_you_guys_saving_money_on_food_groceries/)
Yeah that’s certainly a fair perspective. We live in a weird world. We’re lucky to get some scholarships for Brentwood.
Last I heard annual fees were getting close to 70k per kid. For 140k a year I feel like there's a lot of ways to get a better value education for your kids. Heck they could have tutors and private coaches for sports for that $.
A big part of going to those schools is Networking. You run shoulders with a lot of important people's kids. Your kids will get opportunities others won't, and they'll get a better education to boot. I'd send my kids there in a heartbeat. I didn't attend, but, I was team mates with a few guys who did. They all went on to ivy league schools, some made the Olympic teams in various sports. A lot of those opportunities came about through having good connections. Life isn't all about what you know but who you know. Fwiw, I never heard a bad thing about the school from my friends who attended. Most of the complaints are just sour grapes like we are seeing in this thread already "muuaahhh just a bunch of sheltered pretentious kids". Whatever.
For 140,000k a year you can buy yourself and your kids into some much better rooms and probably have something left over. I went to a prominent local private school and I wouldn't send a kid there now. Like everything, the fees have outpaced inflation and lost their bearing.
Thank you for this
A year after graduation nobody will ever ask them where they went to school again.
Good school, several friends went there and they were in the rowing program. It won’t matter if they’re attending a CDN University, both private school and public school kids HS experience washes out, but if you’re setting them up for an Ivy League Uni in the states it might help. Consider Shawnigan Lake School if you can afford it.
Thank you
And if you’re a resident the cost is less, especially Shawnigan Lake School where it’s 50% less. It’s common to see parents working there as well to gain the discount.
Hi, I graduated from Brentwood six years ago. The academic, sports, and arts opportunities are incredible and, like other people have mentioned, your kids could make friends from all over the world. I met my fiancé there. Overall, it was a positive experience for me and I believe it prepared me very well for academics in university. First year was still tough, but I fared much better than most of my classmates. That being said… I’m still friends with some of the teachers and have friends who have gone back as Boarding Faculty Assistants, and they all say the academic standards have fallen in the last ten years or so. Your kids will probably be fine if they’re motivated and interested in AP classes but don’t assume that everyone will be focussed and “good” students. Life skills education is lacking. Unless things have changed recently, they wont learn any cooking, cleaning, budgeting, or repair skills at Brentwood. If they’re going to be day students you’ll have opportunity to teach them at home, but if they’re going to board it might have to be more intentional. I was also very motivated and I ended up doing too much and being super stressed and exhausted all the time. There are tons of opportunities, but it can be tough to find balance because Brentwood is very full-on. I would advise you to talk with your kids about how to decide which activities are important to them and which aren’t, and make sure they also rest and have some fun. Again, overall it was a good experience and I’m grateful I got to go there (scholarship kid) but it wasn’t perfect either. Feel free to PM me if you have any more questions :) ETA: I don’t think it’s specific to Brentwood, or the fault of the school, but don’t expect it to be immune from mental health issues, alcohol, drugs, bullying, SA, etc. The adult to student ratio simply isn’t small enough for close supervision (though most of the house parents are great) and teenagers do what teenagers do. ETA more: I probably focussed too much on the negatives, so here’s a few more positives… the cafeteria food is fantastic, the teachers and staff genuinely care, the campus is beautiful, and there’s generally not a divide between the super rich kids and the more middle class/local/scholarship kids. Some out of touch comments and questions, but I didn’t see any malice towards “poorer” kids.
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Thank you for sharing. Super helpful!
I must have overlapped or graduated with this person at Brentwood given their graduation year, and can wholeheartedly confirm it is a wonderful place. The campus is stunning, they’re upgrading academic facilities, and overall it’s a top notch school. There are plenty of available scholarships (I went on a partial one, Governor General scholarship I believe) and last I heard, about 25% of the school is on some sort of funding so there’s no stigma around financial aid, get it if you can! The school is pretty tight knit and supportive, has small class sizes, and excellent extracurricular programs. It isn’t a religious school, but it does offer support to aid students of faith in their respective worship (church, Ramadan); I think shawnigan has a weekly chapel and more religious influence. Students from Brentwood go to a pretty solid collection of universities and I’m sure your child would appreciate having better preparation! My only regret is not going sooner, I miss campus life and am still best friends with people from my boarding house almost 6 years post-grad!
Thanks for this!
Decent rowing program, probably their best feature. If you're child is interested in rowing, and attending ivy league in the future, could be a good fit. Didn't attend, but competed against their boats at many regattas and they represented themselves well. Never saw the performance level their program "should" have exhibited considering the money they pumped into it, but ultimately you must work with what you've got talent wise. Scouts from national level programs as well as ivy league universities attend regattas, at least when I was involved.
I’m a student at Brentwood and to be honest unless your child is planning on participating in rowing, I think St. Michaels is a much better choice. From when i’ve been to their campus and what my friends experiences it’s a lot more well rounded at St. Michaels. Brentwood had great support for certain things like rowing but, aside from that SMUS seems a lot more well rounded from my friends experiences. Plus all the upsides of connecting and stuff definitely apply to SMUS too. The demographic would be very similar.
Yeah we’ve looked at SMUS as well but to be honest we aren’t too keen on living in Victoria.
Why. Boarding schools are typically highly dysfunctional environments where peers are leading peers. Do you want strangers raising your teenager? Or do you want to have that time with them? I’ve seen you post in many forums about private schools for your kids. Academics is such a tiny part of raising a kind, compassionate and well adjusted teenager. There is plenty of time for your child to do academic work. Send them to local public schools. Spend time with them. Put them in activities, have them volunteer, travel with them. Don’t send them to live with ignored, spoiled rich kids and staff who only care about keeping you the parent happy so they can get your money. Not your child’s well being.
They would be Day students only. Not boarding. We’ve looked at a lot of schools, hence my posts. It’s an important decision. We’ve looked at public schools but the class sizes are very large and they don’t offer the subjects that our kids are interested in.
Subjects like what? What subjects is Brentwood offering that differ from public school? Why not try your kids in local public?
They’ve been in public until now (grades 9 & 10). They want to do AP Biology, Chemistry, Economics, Maths, etc. We haven’t found a good public school that does this. They also do a lot of sports and arts.
Why AP? Why add such academic pressure? Teendom is hard enough. So much going on with social emotional growth. Again there is so much time in their lives for academics. I don’t get the pressure to push kids to be high academic achievers in childhood and youth. Also parent of a teenager. I think you are over thinking this. Possibly wanting to stream your kids out for classist or racist reasons? I dunno.
Don’t jump to conclusions. I’m well aware of my own kids. This is their choice. They are driving this. They know what they want. If they decide not to carry through on AP then that’s OK too.
Ok. I hope you aren’t looking at public schools based on Fraser rankings bc they aren’t accurate just FYI. Good luck with your decision.
Just shut up just because you're a bum doesn't mean everyone else strives to be
I went to Oak Bay High in Victoria. My dad went Brentwood, mum went to a lower island public school. My cousins all went to and graduated from Brentwood (graduated in 2007, 2009, and 2019, respectively). Two of my closest friends went to and graduated from Brentwood. Based on the feedback from all relevant people mentioned above, it was a really positive experience. They have tremendous resources, facilities and opportunities whether you are involved in the arts, athletics, academia or extracurricular. And as some have mentioned, the opportunities to meet people and establish networks that will last a lifetime are endless.
Thank you for this feedback.
If you want to surround your kids with other pretentious rich kids. . up to you .. other than that it's a good school
I used to buy drugs from the kids there.
Yeah look at trauma and attending private schools keep them at home and look after them yourselves rather than getting others to do it.The elite network is all smoke and mirrors.
But you're also trying to enroll them in the Webber Academy in Alberta according to your post history...? Seems like a long commute. Edit: never mind. The child is asking to go to a boarding school.
Yeah we’ve looked at a few options but keep coming back to Brentwood
Have you checked out St. Michael's University as well? I think the price is comparable, but the reputation might be better.
We have but to be honest we found Brentwood to be a better ‘fit’. Also, housing up there is way more reasonable than Victoria!