I am 16 going on 17.....help!!!

[liz n crabbie]

I will be 17 in November but will not be moving out to WA until summer 2008....unless my mother has disowned me before then (hehe). Could anyone please inform me what school year I will go into?, and what should I expect of school? Will I get to choose the subjects I study?
Also my mum would like to know will there be any school fees to pay if we are coming to oz on a 175 skilled sponsored visa?
Thanks
Meg

[samozsoon]

Hi Meg
We have just moved to NSW and my daughter is 16, 17 in July. She has gone into yr 12 but really she could have done with going into yr 11 as she now has a lot of catching up to do.
She had to choose 6 subjects with English being compulsary but she has now dropped one so she has more free time to catch up with the others, 5 is the minimum.
The choice of subjects was quite limited and she chose the same as she had for her gcse's, History, Art, Maths, English & Science although they are all different in some ways.

One thing I will say though is, Dont worry, my daughter didnt want to go back to school and we had tears n tantrums before she went and guess what....she loves it! She goes out every weekend, the boys love her and the girls are really friendly!

Good Luck with the move

Sam x

Ps I havent had to pay anything towards her schooling but you do have to buy all your own exercise books, pens etc, for my 11yr old I bought the book pack from the school which cost $50 but for my daughter we just bought a few books from the shop.

[billy braveheart]

U wont need to go to school
our 17 yr old didnt as he had done all the work he would have done and had just done his highers in the uk

[Quoll]

It all depends on what you want to do with your life and when you meant summer 2008 - whose summer?

If you come to Perth in July (your summer) you will be required to go to school at least until the end of this year (the end of the year that you turn 17). You would be in Year 11. If you want to go on to university you will need to get to the end of year 12 and this may be a bit tricky - the last two years of school have a program which will eventually lead to a university entrance score (if you take a tertiary package). I am not yet sure what happens if you drop in half way through although I do know that students are encouraged to enrol in year 11 here even if they are older so that they can complete the whole 2 year course which is a sort of continuous assessment rather than a big exam at the end.

You dont actually have to go back to a "school" with uniforms etc if you dont want to, there is an alternative with the TAFE system which would do just as well and would be more useful if you werent intending on going to university.