Help the education system is so CONFUSING!!!!!!!!!
Hi there everyone I need help please,
I have two kids aged 15 and 8 and hope to be in Oz (Brisbane) by the end of the summer this year, my daughter will have sat her GCSE's and going from her mocks will achieve A and A* grades. She wants to continue education and go to uni to get a dental degree, please can anyone advise on what to do, costs involved ect. Also my 8 year old son needs to start school again help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Any advice, help, knowledge would be very appreciated
Shouldnt be a problem Clare - just enrol them when you arrive and let them go through with their age peers.
When you said you would be arriving end of summer - your summer or ours?
The best thing for your daughter will be to be sure she enrols to get the last two complete years of school in here because those two years form a composite course which builds to an end of year 12 assessment and determination of a university admission score (called various things in different states). To get into dentistry she is going to need a score 98+ which is tough and many kids do a first degree then go into medicine and dentistry postgraduate. So, if you arrive about August time, try and enrol her in year 10 for the rest of this year so she can begin year 11 at the end of January. If you arrive end of our summer - say March 2009 then you might be lucky and get her into year 11 without missing too much.
If you are here on a PR visa then you wont pay fees in govt schools, in Qld, temporary business visa holders dont pay either but if you are here on a student visa then your dependents will pay international student fees ($10k pa+++).
At university, if you are PR then you have just the local fees to pay but she will not be entitled to any fee relief or deferrment - fees are payable up front and dentistry fees are quite expensive.
Your son wont be a problem at all - he wont have to start school again, he will just slot in with whatever year his age peers are at. I doubt he will suffer at all, the general consensus is that kids from UK are ahead of Aussie kids the same age.
Not my thread, but thanks Quoll for the advice. We have also been finding it difficult to work out the best time to move and education costs.
Hiya I think it varies from state to state so best to check with the individual state education website. Although we are on the PR visa we had to pay for all the kids books, and some contributions to the school for certain subject and upkeep of the school. It was about $300 for the books each child at secondary school (years 8 & 10) and another $300-$500 for school upkeep costs. I have three at school age so it all added up a bit, however the kids have great facilities, a huge swimming pool and get FREE bus travel to and from school. Back where we lived in the UK it cost me £30 per week for the three of their bus fares to school alone... so its all swings and round about here. Check out Wikipedia too on the Australian eduction system, it explains alot and tells you all the terms, ages and links to school site too. Good luck all Sally-ann
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Hiya I think it varies from state to state so best to check with the individual state education website. Although we are on the PR visa we had to pay for all the kids books, and some contributions to the school for certain subject and upkeep of the school. It was about $300 for the books each child at secondary school (years 8 & 10) and another $300-$500 for school upkeep costs. I have three at school age so it all added up a bit, however the kids have great facilities, a huge swimming pool and get FREE bus travel to and from school. Back where we lived in the UK it cost me £30 per week for the three of their bus fares to school alone... so its all swings and round about here. Check out Wikipedia too on the Australian eduction system, it explains alot and tells you all the terms, ages and links to school site too. Good luck all Sally-ann
Yes all state schools have "voluntary contributions" they cannot actually force you to pay them but they can (and do) exert significant emotional blackmail to get you to do so. About $100 a term is ball park for voluntary contributions. Add to that individual excursions (bus, entry fees etc), performances (entry fees), sporting coaches brought in to school, swimming lessons etc etc, they are all add ons. Some schools will actually refuse to let kids go on excursions or to performances if they havent paid and the parents dont indicate that they are low income earners. If parents are on a low income the schools usually have a bit of a slush fund that they use to pay for those kids.
Then on the top of that comes the stationery packs - anywhere between $30 and $60 seems to be ball park around here.
So although public education is "free" there are always add on costs which enhance the basic school program. School based management, so beloved of Education departments can be a right nightmare for individual schools!
Private school fees can go up to about $15k - $20K pa for a day student these days. Systemic catholic schools are cheaper at around $3.5k
Great advice from all seems it may cost bit up front but good facilities provided.
Will be over in bout Aug this year so will hopefully catch all 2 years my daughter needs with no problems. Going to look at website suggested.
Shouldnt be a problem Clare - just enrol them when you arrive and let them go through with their age peers.
When you said you would be arriving end of summer - your summer or ours?
The best thing for your daughter will be to be sure she enrols to get the last two complete years of school in here because those two years form a composite course which builds to an end of year 12 assessment and determination of a university admission score (called various things in different states). To get into dentistry she is going to need a score 98+ which is tough and many kids do a first degree then go into medicine and dentistry postgraduate. So, if you arrive about August time, try and enrol her in year 10 for the rest of this year so she can begin year 11 at the end of January. If you arrive end of our summer - say March 2009 then you might be lucky and get her into year 11 without missing too much.
If you are here on a PR visa then you wont pay fees in govt schools, in Qld, temporary business visa holders dont pay either but if you are here on a student visa then your dependents will pay international student fees ($10k pa+++).
At university, if you are PR then you have just the local fees to pay but she will not be entitled to any fee relief or deferrment - fees are payable up front and dentistry fees are quite expensive.
Your son wont be a problem at all - he wont have to start school again, he will just slot in with whatever year his age peers are at. I doubt he will suffer at all, the general consensus is that kids from UK are ahead of Aussie kids the same age.
Thanks very helpfull, will be over summer English time so looks good for school dates,
seems it may cost bit up front but good facilities provided. 
