caramac

If you come back after year 12 there wouldn't be any trouble - her quals would be assessed for equivalence to UK ones at whichever uni/college she wants to attend. If you want to return earlier it really would need to be before A levels, or better, before GCSEs. She would be able to access A levels, BTECs etc without GCSEs (others seem to have had no problem with this). I don't have any personal experience of this though - we brought ours back for GCSEs. Something to remember though is that the exams are changing here. GCSES are going to be replaced with, well we're not quite sure yet.. I think it's going to be a fairly turbulent period for anyone already in year 10 or below (our youngest and your daughter) as the changeover happens and I think I'd rather not have my child as a guinea pig for Michael Gove's 'plans' if I had a choice. Just something for you to consider in your decision.

Seems to be, Dorset. We're finding the same. The course my daughter wants to do in the UK needs AAA - ABB at the unis she's looking at. She's also applying to Melbourne and apparently needs BBC for the equivalent course. She'll be meeting with her uni/career coordinator this week, so she'll know more then. I guess it'll depend on the university- Melbourne does state it's overseas equivalents. All universities have a proportion of overseas students, so they're used to doing it. Out of quite a small sixth form last year, two girls are now in Aus, one in NZ, one in Singapore and one in USA. One of my daughter's friends from Sydney is at Exeter. Lots of movement around the world!

We moved to Perth when our older two girls were the ages your two are now, for pretty much the same reasons you have. (I remember getting three under 4s ready to go out in the winter and thinking there had to be more to life than this!) We, and they, had a fabulous time. Time at the beach when it wasn't too hot, play parks everywhere, lovely school, swimming lessons, good friends etc etc. When they were nine, seven and five we came back to the UK. I wasn't at all sure about it, but life for the girls went on just the same. They were older and joined Brownies, Rainbows, Cubs and went on various camps with them. They had swimming, drama and riding lessons and were at a great school. As they got older they joined a Sea Scout troop and learned to sail, kayak, windsurf etc and spent Easters doing those activities on the Norfolk Broads, sleeping in cruisers for a week with all their friends. The weather was generally kind to them, but even when it wasn't they still had a ball. Kids really don't seem to notice the weather in the same way adults do. They have represented their school, scouts, and swimming clubs in various competitions. In 2009 my oh was offered what looked like a great job in Sydney. The girls were 14, 12 and 10 which seemed like a good time to move - before exams, so off we went again. It was lovely to be in Australia again.The girls joined the swimming club, drama club, diving club etc. The eldest did her bronze D of E. we lived in a nice house with a pool and went to the beach, although the girls weren't all that interested. However, the older two were miserable at school - nothing to do with the 'system', just the school we'd carefully chosen. We looked at other schools, but the one they were at had been recommended by lots of people and we hadn't heard brilliant things about a few of the others. We had to make a quick decision because the eldest had already missed the first term of her GCSE courses, so I brought them back to them to the UK. I guess what I'm trying to say is, go if that's what you and your wife want - it's a great experience even if you decide to come back, but in my opinion it's not necessarily better for children there, especially as they get older. It's not worse either, in fact there are more similarites than differences. I know mine would be just as happy if we hadn't come back the first time - they wouldn't know any different, but they've had a great childhood here too. They're still in touch with friends from both Perth and Sydney and I wouldn't say any of their friends are any more 'outdoorsy' now than they are. They all seem to like partying just as much as each other! Good luck! It's very normal to have doubts when you're making such a huge decision- it would be more worrying if you didn't think hard about it.:smile: We don't regret going (except for the expense!) and we don't regret coming back either. It's been an interesting few years!

Same here. Really beautiful day. Took the girls riding and then went for a long walk along the Tyne. Not even very cold. Now off to a Christmas market...

You weren't in Newcastle today were you?:biggrin: It has been a beautiful day and tomorrow forecast the same. I love being out when it's like this. Think we'll do a long dog walk at the beach tomorrow afternoon, but I will be wearing a coat! I'm just a wimp..

That's one word for them! I've seen people out and about in Newcastle today in SHORTS!! It has been a gorgeous, sunny day, but SHORTS? It was 11 degrees :shocked:

Not here. It's so windy - I've unwound the sheets from the line twice already! Still, as long as the sheep don't end up wearing them it'll all be good. Looking on the bright side, at least they're drying - not bad for outside in November

Those temps are lovely. However, I'm quite happy to have an (any) excuse not to go into the garden, mainly because I kill plants just by looking at them!

We had Labradors and Springer Spaniels when I was growing up. They were always wet and muddy and very happy about it!

Archie doesn't mind the cold either, even though he's VERY close to the ground! Just the rain. And puddles. And wet grass. Can't wait for him to see a proper snowfall..:laugh:

That's true. We had one who died just before our eldest was born and we didn't want another until we'd had our kids and they were bigger, but my 'friend' talked us into a rescue dog and, because pregnancy hormones got the better of me, we took him. Nightmare! We moved to Australia and rehomed him before we left! He was lovely, but too hard with three under fours. However, when we went to Sydney our eldest was doing her volunteering for D of E at a rescue centre and came home pleading to have this one. We went to have a look and that was it! He's come back to the UK with us at great expense, but we wouldn't be without him. It's easy now the girls are all teenagers - gets them out at weekends too!

I totally see your point, we had 3 inches of snow over the weekend so everywhere is funny at the moment. We had snow a couple of weeks ago. Had a horrible feeling it would stick around till March, but it was gone by the afternoon. Thankfully.

You need to get a dog! Sometimes I look out of the window and really don't want to go out, but there are a pair of small brown eyes looking at me so I have no choice. Even when it's yucky I always feel better after being outside. The dog's from Sydney and he's a bit reluctant in the rain, but he was over there too - he has to man up a bit!

It's been warmer here in Northumberland today than it's been for the last few days and it was pretty sunny too. Took the dog for a long walk in the woods. It was lovely. I don't like windy, wet, grey days, but love days like today.

Completely agree with Julz. Photograph everything. Did you take photos when you moved in too? Email the photos to the agent. If (when, in our experience of four out of five rentals!) they dispute giving your bond back, refer them to the photos, it usually works. The other thing I'd recommend, if possible, is having a friend there when the agent does the inspection, mainly to be your representative, but also so any problems can be pointed out to them so you can put them right instead of the agent/landlord giving jobs to their mates at inflated cost to you. It happens.

Our kids are like that. They've had more homes than years they've been alive! However, it does mean that home is wherever they are at the time. We had a few months of living in various holiday homes last year and it always amused me that they referred to those as 'home'! I remember talking to our eldest about constantly moving and how I hoped we could, from now on, give them a bit of stability. She said that stability came from us as parents rather than which house we live in and she couldn't imagine living in one place all her life. She thinks it would be really dull.

I don't know much about the state system personally, but from what my friends have told me it seems that secondary schools look at the SATs results, but don't seem to base all their decisions on them. They seem to do their own assessments during the first few weeks of year 7 and go from there. Schools also seem to vary on which subjects they stream for in year 7 - some don't do any, some only for maths (which is what our daughters' school does), others for English and maths, etc. Do you know which secondary schools you would be looking at? Would it be worth getting some info from them now? They're all so different and, although some things may change while you're away, it might give you some idea what to expect. in some ways the experience you've had with your primary school should give you confidence that your children will be fine. If they can cope with some poor teaching one year, but make up the next I think it shows they can adapt to different expectations.

I'm going to show my oh these posts then he can appreciate my thriftiness! I buy all my meat from either Waitrose or the butcher and the rest comes from tesco (no Sainsburys or Asda nearby). I don't buy ready meals, cook from scratch and I'm not a brand junkie - I buy homebrand disinfectant, household cleaners etc which are 27 - 32p and any washing powder etc which is on special (3 big packs of Persil for £10 last week). It is difficult to compare because what I buy here is different to what I bought in Australia except face creams, shampoo etc. I think we probably spend a bit less than we used to there, but not it's not hugely different. The main expense for us is petrol/diesel, but that's only because we so far away from where our kids go to school and oh works. We had a 4l car in Sydney and spent around $100 a week on petrol there. Here we drive more than double the distance each week, but oh has a hybrid car so petrol is £40 a week and I fill my car (Nissan Qashqai) every couple of weeks which takes about £70. The decisions you make about how and where you live will have more impact on living expenses than simply trying to a comparison of costs. In my opinion anyway.

That's probably it. It takes a while to get used to shopping somewhere. I remember when we first moved to Perth it took me over two hours to do my first few shops in Coles, working out the best things to buy!

Blimey! You're shopping in some expensive places! I only spend around £120 a week on shopping for five of us, oh, me and three teenagers and that's with all free range/organic meat. Can't comment on the other stuff, although until last year we were running a house in Australia and one in the UK, but we live differently in each country, so what we spend money on is different, except for utilities, schooling and housing. Even that's difficult to compare because we live in very different places due to work.

I could. Looks lovely. Oh prefers the idea of Fannie Bay...

They'll be fine. We've done it to ours twice, once in primary and then in high school. Like the others have said, they had a bit of catching up to do when they came back to the UK the first time, but it didn't take long. They were quite a bit ahead when we went back to Australia in 2009 especially in maths and science according to their teachers, so when we came back at the end of that year they had to catch up again (one was in her GCSE year), but they managed ok and the older two are now doing A levels. I agree that they gain a lot from the experience. Ours are all adaptable and confident and are not at all fazed in unfamiliar situations because they've had to cope with so much change in their childhoods. The best thing is that they gain lots of friends. Our eldest is off travelling with her best friend from Australia next summer.

I have a horrible feeling that you're right. After watching the Panorama programme the other night I can't help thinking that there's a lot more to come. People higher than Savile who let it go. Why?? The phone hacking thing was awful and inexcusable, but it's things like this when we should be glad to have tenacious, determined journalists.

He's lovely and looks very chilled, if that's him having his hoof spa!