Piettraski moved to Reddam House, a not-quite 20-year-old school squeezed into no-frills urban buildings in Sydney's eastern suburbs. There, she could choose her jewelry and wear her shirt untucked. But she was also expected to maintain a grade-point average of at least 60 percent, measured by a weekly test, and have her place reviewed if she slacked off. Yet she was happier. "At a lot of those private schools, it's about how you look," says Pietraski, 18, who left last year with an ATAR of 99.75. "Here we have more freedom."
