Education in New South Wales

[dawn298481]

Hello all,
We have just been granted our visa's and we are leaving Birmingham in Jan 07. Whoopee.
I need to really concentrate on finding schools for our 2 children now, ages 14 & 16. Can anyone advise us on where to start. We are locating to New South Wales. (just north of Sydney).

What are the schools like? I have been told that the education system is 12 months behind us. Is this true?
Can we sort things from here or do we have to wait until we get there? We really have no idea where to start.

Would really value any advise anyone can give us.

Dawn & Mick Holding - Sheldon - Birmingham.

[Kate]

Hi Dawn and Mick

A website you may find useful is:

http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/index.html

Lots of info about schools here and we have found the Board of Studies to be very helpful in answering questions. Not sure about the 'year behind' thing, but it could be due to the age of the child and the different start date to the year (January as opposed to September) that gave rise to such a comment. We spent time with friends in Sydney in Australia, and I was impressed with the standard of their girls education in a public (ie state) high school in Sydney.

Good luck with everything.

Kate :D

[daisydeeds]

In NSW the School Year begins in February so if your child has just finished Primary 1 here in the UK then you move in the next month or so what you will find is that, assuming you get them into the school pronto, then they will do a bit of Primary 1 until they break up in December for THEIR long summer holidays and begin Primary 2 in the February - I think this is where this repeat a year thing comes from.

Think it ll be good for the children and the parents because doing that ll enable the period of adjustment with less pressure and help them work out what on earth the teacher is talking about. ;-)

We ll hopefully be on the same boat soon.

It is an idea to contact the schools in the local area that you hope to move to by email with any questions you have. In our experience of doing that I got a reply within a couple of days. Good luck.


Daisydeeds.

[spray21]

Dawn - you're not going to Newcastle are you? I'm looking at there, but have no idea about which areas are 'nicest' - if you have any ideas then I'm all ears!

[Daphne]

Originally Posted by dawn298481

Hello all,
We have just been granted our visa's and we are leaving Birmingham in Jan 07. Whoopee.
I need to really concentrate on finding schools for our 2 children now, ages 14 & 16. Can anyone advise us on where to start. We are locating to New South Wales. (just north of Sydney).

What are the schools like? I have been told that the education system is 12 months behind us. Is this true?
Can we sort things from here or do we have to wait until we get there? We really have no idea where to start.

Would really value any advise anyone can give us.

Dawn & Mick Holding - Sheldon - Birmingham.

Hi Dawn and Mick

How are you? I'm a brummy too, but have been in Oz for a few years. To be honest I would not worry about schools at all for now. Until you get here and decide where to live then you can't sort it all out. Enrollment is really easy.

The schools are not 12 months behind the UK, however the teaching is different and the emphasis is different. In terms of what year your child goes it, it depends when they are born. Basically a child must turn 4 by the end of July to enter school the following Feb - so in other words they must be a minimum of 4 and a half to go to school. I hope that helps. If you are still confused then post the month and year of when your children were born and I will tell you what year they will go into (this is for public education - private is slightly different).


I hope that helps

Daphne
x

[dawn298481]

Thanks for that Daphne, my girls are 16 in September and 14 at the end of this month. They are really worried about having to repeat work they have already done but a friend recently told me that her kids went forward a year when they started in Oz. :shock:

[Daphne]

Originally Posted by dawn298481

Thanks for that Daphne, my girls are 16 in September and 14 at the end of this month. They are really worried about having to repeat work they have already done but a friend recently told me that her kids went forward a year when they started in Oz. :shock:

Hi Dawn

In theory (by my reckoning) your daughter who is turning 16 in September will go into grade 11 in Feb 2007 and your daughter who is turning 14 this month will go into grade 9 in Feb 2007.

They both fall into the situation where they are one of the older ones in the year. I suspect for your younger daughter this means she will be repeating a grade. However, I would not see this as a negative thing. It gives her a chance to settle in and learn about the schooling system here.

You mat be able to persuade the principal to advance her a year as here birthday is not too far from the end of July cut off date. However, you need to think about her social needs if you do this. You will be putting her with children a year older (and in some case nearly 2 years older due to many parents holding their children back a year before they put them into school). This means they will all be able to learn to drive, go out to bars and night clubs etc and she will not be able to. Also, if she wants to go to university she will be going at the age of 17. Also, grade 10 is School Cert year (like GCSE) so she would be straight into exams etc if she was put up a year.

My daughter is also an August birthday. She was top of her year in the UK, but we still decided not to advance her here because of these social issues. We don't plan on going back to the UK so it doesn't matter what grade she is in compared to back there.

Anyway, I hope that helps you a bit.

Daphne
x

[frances]

Hi, I am due to go and look at a girls school St. josephs in East Gosford has anyone else sent there girls to this school, if so can you please let me know how they have got on it is a catholic school. My daughters birthday is 19th August so what year will she go int if she joins this year? thanks Frances

[Daphne]

Hi Frances

You don't say what age she is, so I can't help with school years.

However, this may help. If your daughter had been born in 1996 she would be in grade 4 at the moment and going into grade 5 next January.

Hope that is useful - just ask again if you need more help.

Daphne
x

[frances]

Hi Daphne, Rebecca is 13 and an august baby, sorry I forgot to mention that, where do you live and how old are your children? how long have you been in oz? Frances :D