what age do kids start school plus various other school related questions.....

[stav]

hi

what age do kids start school in australia? What is pre school provision like eg childminders, nurseries etc? Is there any easy way to work out how good a school is like the league tables and ofsted's that we have in England? How long are the school holidays? What age do kids leave school? What exam system do the Aistralians use, what I means do the kids sit exams or is a diploma or contiuous assessment???

We have many more questions but answrs to the above will be really useful for us and we are at the thinking about moving to Australia stage and we have two young children one 3 months old and one three years old. One of the motivating factors for moving to Australia is to offer a better lifestyle to them....how realistic are we being????


All help and advice welcome. The areas we are interested in moving to are either Adelaide, Melbourne or Brisbane if any one has any views on these areas with children in mind please pass your views on to us.

Thanks all

Lesley and Paul
x

[Quoll]

Best summary of education along with cut off dates for starting school can be found here Education in Australia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

No league tables - the back fence is the best place to find out about schools! No Ofsted - very lacksadaisical really in terms of school assessment. No STAS but a vague equivalent called NAPLAN at yrs 3, 5, 7 & 9.

Not many exams - usually only formal exams at year 12.

Better lifestyle? The jury is out on that one IMHO - different definitely. If you value a holistic experience with the contact of extended family, variety and opportunities for travel then perhaps not. If you are after sunshine and organized sport then probably. The jury also debates vociferously on the standard of education in Aus and many young Aussies cant wait to escape once they have finished school and head for Europe. I dont think my boys had any better lifestyle than my friends' kids did in UK and one has emigrated back to UK for better career opportunities, more varied lifestyle and general buzz.