SpongeRobert

Hi there. My children don't go to this school so have no personal experience within the school. However I do drive past it every day and it looks very nice and facilities are new. The uniform is very smart and the children always seem happy whether its on the oval, walking into school or waiting to go into class. They seem to have outside activities on offer such as tennis and cricket (they play before school as I drive past). It does lead onto a fairly busy main road however. Hope this is a little help! Personally I would wait until you arrive in Perth before making any rash decisions, go and visit schools and see which one suits your children personalities. Each school offers different specialities so always worth looking at these. If you would like any other info regarding Perth in general you are welcome to pm me and i'll try best i can to answer them. (been here nearly 3 years now).

ok thank you very much for your help and advice.

Hello my name is Lynn. I emigrated to Australia on a 121 visa a couple of years ago and love it here. My friend has come out on a holiday to recouperate after the loss of her husband and mother and without wanting a job or even wanting to emigrate (sorry all those trying) has accidentally been offered a job! Her head is spinning and she doesn't know what to do (has no children). I have told her that there are people who would bite off her arm for the opportunity she has been given but she is finding it all difficult to take in or to know what to do. I am trying to be helpful and supportive but am just a little confused on the 457 visa having not applied for this one myself. Thing is because she has been offered a job does she still need to obtain a skills recognition? I know you need to get your skills recognised in order to get a job in Australia but having obtained the job does she still need to send her qualifications off if applying for a 457 visa? thank you.

Hi. My advice is to read the visa forms very carefully...at least 3 times! then collect each piece of paper they ask for...ie birth certificates etc. Make sure you have everything they ask for. Police check is a matter of filling in a CRB form from the post office and sending it off. Once it comes back etc and you have all the documents you need, then photocopy it all. Only then do you go to a solicitor and ask them to witness it all as a certified photocopy of the originals. This is because it is the same price whether it is one piece of paper or 10. Follow each step that the CO asks you to do as and when he asks for it.......do not try to predict what they will ask for. Just take it one step at a time, calmly and everything will fall into place. Good Luck. someone with more knowledge than me will be a long..........but didn't want you to feel no one cared so tried to help!!

ok just looked it up and the answer is yes you can. They will give you a mortgage of 80% on a 163 visa. However it may be increased to 90% if you have good financial stability. although i do know that on a temp 457 visa the repayment or interest charges are higher that that for a perm resident. Hope this helps.

Just spoken to her and she is contracted for the next 10 weeks so depends when you come out and when she is contracted out so to speak. I think she does it for so many weeks until you get settled or don't need a childminder anymore like. I will let her know its at the end of the year and then maybe the 2 of you can get together to chat etc. She is not a teenager or young 20 year old so don't know if this is a problem. She is a 50 year old lady who loves her job, loves the kids and is someone who is and expects to be treated with respect. Lynn.

I know someone who is very good, unsure if she is currently under contract with a family but can find out for you and get back to you.

Personally Freo or Fremantle is the place "where its happening" along with scarborough beach areas. They are building a new hospital south of the river but can't remember what its called and its not open yet! Sorry I live NOR but drive south sometimes ?Mudoch way which is about 14 mins from South Freo. Hope this helps.

there is a place advertised by the freeway which i have seen advertised but have no personal recommendations. However have seen some around. Its called Koala. However as i said, not used it myself and have no personal experience but have seen these about! sorry not much help.

Hi, Ian. Not sure that the new high school in Butler is yet being built if its on the site i think its going onto. They have yet to even clear the site. As for areas which are good or not, i think basically comes down to the individual and the person's budget. I live in an area which we love because its really friendly and my kids go to good state schools which they love and are doing very well. However i know of some people who have come to Perth who would not dream of putting their kids in the state system and go for private schools and live in areas i could only dream about. As I said it comes down to a person's budget and what your kids enjoy. When we came, we looked on the myschool web site, not whether it was top of the league tables etc but what the schools offered my children and their personalities and ideas they had for their future. With this in mind we settled both into school and they absolutely love it. I would say i have not heard particularly good things about the schools in Clarkson or the wanneroo high school but do not have any personal experience. Alkimos is the new up and coming area for people to buy land and build and is slightly north of Butler, as is Brighton. Some schools are now becoming tighter about their catchment areas so you need to be aware of this. I am reluctant to post on here which areas I think are good cos am aware that I don't want to offend anyone and as i said before it depends on what you are looking for, budget and your children's personalities. Hope this helps.....a bit. If you are interested to hear more details of areas feel free to pm me and i would be more willing to chat and answer any questions. Lynn

bit difficult to advice without a region so be nice if you say where you are hoping to go. I could give you a break down on some costs but then I am in Perth. Hope you find some answers.

sorry Joanne but can i ask your age? I think that australia is keen for everyone to have degrees and recognisable degrees. This said....if you are under 30 you could get a student visa. This allows you to obtain an australian qualification thus increasing your chances of becoming a permenant resident. I think however, you would have to obtain a place on a course and be self funding. althought you can work a certain number of hours. If you are young enough and don't have any teenage dependents then your best bet is to go and do a degree! equivilent......is not seen easily by australia as a degree and you have problems and spend lots of money trying to get them to accept it. Sorry but hopes this helps....bit hard when don't know age or circumstances.

Forgot to add that as parents remember the time difference. we made the mistake of promising the kids that they could skype their friends all the time etc. However Perth is currently 8 hours ahead. This means when we get up for school at say 7am in Perth, in the UK it is 11pm, when the kids return from school its 4pm and its 8am in the UK so they are rushing to school and when the UK kids come home from school at 4pm in perth its midnight!! try to arrange a time say on sat morning UK time or sunday morning UK time (our afternoon) to skype people. When mine found they couldn't skype their friends all the time and could only do it really at weekends or in the holidays (remember they are at different times!) it was a huge shock and the kids were cross with us. just a thought. x

Hi Hogan. In response to your question.................................my kids absolutely love it and would not return to the UK. Hope this helps! Saying good bye is really hard and i didn't realise how hard it was going to be even with all the preparations in the world. Think we had a couple of days after saying goodbye to everyone to catch our breath before going to the airport. My brother drove us to the airport and dropped us off as we had asked him not to come in and to make it quick, not just for us but also for him. Driving to the airport in the car was very hard and it seemed a long drive. Getting my legs to move to get out of the car was really funny cos they didn't seem to be taking any notice of what my brain was telling them! The youngest didn't want to get out of the car and stubbornly sat there. My heart dropped, I mean how was i going to get her out of the car, even chocolate wasn't working! In the end the rest of us got out, got a trolley and put all the bags on. Then we all said our goodbyes, then how to get the youngest out? In the end my brother was telling her how it was a new life and not to worry he'd be out really soon to see her and she had to get out cos he had to go to work! He jollied her along and between us with lots of positive encouragement her legs worked and she got out. Believe me when i say it was very hard, the kids were crying and for the rest of us to try to hold them back cos we didn't want to make the goodbye any harder. When my brother drove away i think it was the worst feeling on the planet and that's when i did cry but by this time the kids were feeling better so they looked after me! Then it was too late..he'd gone so no choice but to go into the airport. This bit wasn't too bad to be honest and looking at the planes as we were walking along kept our minds busy. Talking about what films may be on the plane (we checked before we left so could say maybe this or that film etc) what food we'd have etc. Getting on the plane you would think would be easy....but no. Its all hard and if you are the one that instigated the move this is the time when you think.....what am i doing to the kids? thing is you are on the plane, the kids aren't crying and are looking forward to the entertainment on the plane. The rest is easy? mmm 7 months later i can safely say it is the best thing we all did. If you want to know what happened next..................................you only have to ask!! lol

Hi Hope this helps a bit? we left the UK last August and think the packing the house up was the worst thing on this earth for my daughter. Up until then i think she had been pretending it wasn't going to happen. She was absolutely gutted watching her things disappearing into boxes. We let her cry, cuddled her and explained that it was going on a ship and it would be alright she would see it at the other end. Trouble is my daughter thought this meant it was falling off the end of the earth! When i sat down and asked her why she was finding it all difficult she couldn't grasp that when we were in Australia that everyone was still going to be in the UK, carrying on with their daily lives and thought that they were going to disappear forever. There wasn't two countries just UK or Aus, not both running in parallel. We practiced using the internet and using skype for her and laughed when people came on etc. Saying goodbye was very difficult for all of us but i have to admit we didn't do the big party thing at all and kept it all very low key. We went out for meals or round peoples houses so the kids could play etc then said a quick goodbye, see you soon and left but didn't drag the goodbye out. We then had stuff to take the kids minds off it, like dragging them round tesco's (open 24 hours) for things to do on the plane (didn't use any of it!) Once we had said our "goodbyes" to friends etc, saying goodbye to the grandparents i think is the hardest thing on this planet not just for the child but also for the grabdparent. Luckily although everyone is upset, everyone tries to look on the bright side but certainly do not let anyone come to the airport. This will be the hardest thing to do, it was bad enough without anyone, let alone walking through the gates with the kids when saying goodbye. Advice ...leave everyone at home! Its hard for everyone to stay focused on why you thought emigrating was a good idea when you get to the goodbye stage! however you know why you want to emigrate so keep this upper most in your mind. We thought of things the kids really wanted to do in Australia that they couldn't do in the UK. Some kids really want to cuddle a koala, see dolphins, have a swimming pool etc. Keep them focused with lots of discussion on what they are going to do etc. For example my youngest daughter was desperate for a drum kit (yes well i never said i was sane!) so we said we'd get her one in aus, the eldest wanted to learn ice skating so we said yep (after looking it up) that she could do that. Then whenever we saw tears welling up we started to discuss the drum kit or ice skates..like how many drums and how do you play the cymbols etc really stupid stuff! ice skates and what they look like and how you move your feet. Because its something they really want to do it refocus's their minds on something they can only do in Aus. Remember that it is important for them to see saying goodbye is just as upsetting for you as it is for them, we cried saying goodbye just the same and the kids starting cuddling us! make the goodbye quick and remember chocolate works wonders!!!! Hope this helps and good luck. xxx