Bob1

The child is on medication - from Cambodia and hasn't had a seizure in school but does have behaviour problems - spaced out, autistic features. We want him to see a paed in Oz to rule medication causing the behaviour problems but parents so far haven't done this and I was thinking it may be because they hadn't declared the epilepsy when they applied for the visa. Want to clarify if that would be the case - or if on a 457 then declaring an illness is not an issue.

is part of 457 requirement to have private health insurance?

I work in a school and there is a child on a 457 visa who has epilepsy. they are taking medication that was prescribed in Cambodia - where they are from, and parents seem very reluctant to go and see an Australian Paediatrician to have the medication reviewed. I don't know anything about this visa and am wondering if they may not have received a 457 if they had declared the illness. Does anyone know - would they have got a 457 no problem? Thanks

Woodvale is much better. The average ATAR for each high school was published this month. As a rough guide you need a minimum ATAR of 70 to get into Uni and 80 for the best Unis in WA. Woodvale's average ATAR was 82.15. Butler College is new and is not up to Year 12. Kids in that area go to Mindarie College - their ATAR was 69.4, one of the lower ones in Western Australia so I'd go with Woodvale.

There's your answer then, listen to the person who has worked in two schools in Oz comparing it to the UK or you can google the results of a scientific, international organisation who conduct studies worldwide and analyse the results, that are published worldwide, pfft what do they know. .

Australia has two of the top 25 drama schools in the world - WAAPA - Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and NIDA.

"Bali far richer in culture than Australia" that's an interesting one

Australian results for 15 year olds compare very favorably to other countries. Here's the results of the PISA tests, 15 year old world wide take these tests so I wouldn't worry about the standard of education. http://www.bbc.com/news/business-26249042 There are some very mediocre private schools in Perth and you'd be better to be at a top ranking state school - choose wisely. Several Universities are offering foundation courses and you can go straight into them from GCSE courses.

Rather than reading anecdotal comments, look at world rankings in maths. The OECD test 15 year olds world wide every three years and publish the results. Australia is always several places above the UK and does much better across the board. http://static.businessinsider.com/image/529db2aa6bb3f7f9318b1f62/image.jpg?_ga=1.138953267.1227905634.1463592118 One of my theories.....people come to Oz from the UK where they may have lived in a decent area. They want a nice house so go for best house in poorest suburb or just can't afford the more affluent suburbs. Local school turns out to be below national average standard. Then they start saying that the whole of the education system must be behind the UK. Stick with world wide studies and choose your school and suburb carefully.

Warts and all? 6th worst suburb for car theft 5th worst for home burglary 5th worst for assault Public high schools really poor results For car theft https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/wa...for-car-theft/ For home burglary https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/wa...or-burglaries/ For assault https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/wa...assault/#pause Check out a suburb here - https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/wa...pots-revealed/

Anywhere on the city to Freo train line, if that is out the budget start working North to Scarbrough.

Top four State schools in Western Australia are consistently Rossmoyne, Willeton, Shenton College and Churchlands. I disagree with previous post andcwouldcpayvextracrentvto get in the catchment areas for these schools rather than pay for a mediocre private school. These schools beat many of the private school hands down. Rossmoyne and Willeton are the top SOR, John Curtin runs a specialist art, music and drama programme and is worth considering and Melville is ok and a good area. You'll be fine with any of these, older established areas with bigger gardens and good family facilities.

Why Halls Head? Halls Head Community College would be the local high school and it is very poor in terms of results - significantly below the Australian average in terms of numeracy and literacy testing and results in Year 12 (final year) didn't make the league tables as they were so poor. 42% of the families fall in the lowest income bracket (average for Australia 25%).You don't have to enrol them beforehand as schools will often want evidence of where you are living - you have to be in the catchment area though sometimes they will take kids out of the area if they have space. Private schools you can enrol now. 4 weeks in a holiday place would probably be long enough to find a house. Voluntary contributions - is voluntary but that's because the school can't ask you to pay it. the contribution might make the difference between having an extra teacher assistant, or an art/music teacher in primary school, or an outside organisation to come in and teach PE - it pays for the added extras that make the school a good place to be and that are not provided by the Education department. If no one paid it then schools would struggle with resources and have to do lots more fund raising.

Here’s the top school ranking by results 2014 for Perth just to give you an idea. I don’t know the fees for some of them, just giving rough estimate There are some private schools that re beaten hands down by the govt schools and it would be better to pay more rent than school fees. 1 All Saints' College Private, mixed, $15,000 2 Perth Modern School Govt but selective – have to sit an entrance exam 3 St Hilda's Anglican School For Girls $25,000 4 St Mary's Anglican Girls' School $20,000 5 Christ Church Grammar School Boys - $25,000 6 Presbyterian Ladies College Girls $25,000 7 Hale School Boys $25,000 8 Santa Maria College Girls, Catholic $12,000 9 Penrhos College Girls $15,000 10 Perth College Girls $15,000 11 Scotch College Boys $25,000 12 Methodist Ladies' College Girls $25,000 13 Iona Presentation College Girls Catholic $12,000 14 Wesley College Possibly mixed $15,000 15 Willetton Senior High School Govt - free 16 Churchlands Senior High School Govt Free 17 Rossmoyne Senior High School Gvt free 18 Shenton College Govt Free 19 John Wollaston Anglican Community School Mixed $10,000 20 Aquinas College Boys $20,000 21 Sacred Heart College Catholic Mixed $10,000 22 John XXIII College Cathoic Mixed $10,000 23 Trinity College Boys $15,000 24 Kolbe Catholic College Mixed $10,000 25 CBC Fremantle Boys Catholic $10,000 Eleven schools are in the Western Suburbs of Perth

The my school web site has the results of the NAPLAN results- like SATS. http://www.myschool.com.au/ If you put in a suburb all the schools will come up. Go to NAPLAN on the left and 'results in numbers'. If it is red then the schools results are below the national average. Rockingham Beach is red/ dark red which isn't great. The high school isn't great, very poor results. A bogan is someone rough - google Rockingham and bogan and all will be relieved.

This is my take on why some poms say the education is worse - I quite often see comments like that but it is not because they have researched the statistics but they have sent little Johnny to the local school in Oz and it is not as good as the one back home. Many people coming to Perth want to be near the beach and have a nice new house as seen on Wanted Down Under and a pool but in order to fund that they can't live in the expensive areas and have to live in the very outer suburbs where the housing is much cheaper. Cheaper housing means more lower income families and usually lower standards at school. So Johnny goes off to the local school, which they haven't researched but hey, the pool and beach is more important and they think the standards are lower. And you look at the Naplan results and see they are significantly below the Australian Nation standard, and they come on here and moan that the whole of the Australian Education is poor because it is at their school and they know a pommy teacher who told them too. Then they seem surprised that Oz thrash the UK on the level of attainments in English Maths and Science in a well respected, world wide study.

I suggest you google Queensland Education system, Australia Education system, high subjects QLD, curriculum QLD, exams QLD and look at past posts on this site.

At the moment your spelling is making you stand out, that's something to sort out. All child care centres now have to have an early years trained educator, that's your best bet. Private schools want good teachers as the parents are paying so I'd say less chance in private schools.

We did something similar with my son and lived in Japan throughout his Year 10. First question - do the UK and Oz cover the same program of work - nope, as Quoll said, different countries different curriculum. Judging by the latest OECD study, 15 year olds are further ahead in maths, science and English in Australia but expect them to be covering different things. We took the maths book my son would be using in Oz to Japan and got a private tutor to go over the work at his international school but to also cover what his friends were doing in Oz. When he came back he slotted into Year 11 maths no problem. His final years subject choices went well with what he was doing in Japan so there was no disadvantage at all. Year 10 is really the last mucking about year before the serious stuff starts in Year 11 and 12 - both years count towards the HSC. Grades in Year 10 guide subject choice and level for Year 11 but the school report from the Uk would hep with that. GCSE's until recently counted for nothing, the only useful one was English as it could be used to show English competency. In the last few years the Universities have started offering Foundation courses for students who didn't make the ATAR, giving them a chance to do a year's course as pre entry to Uni - and pay fees, and get more bums on seats! Uni's are now offering GCSE's as entry to the Foundation courses so your daughter could miss the HSC altogether and just apply for a Foundation course. However be aware there is a huge jump between GCSE level and F. Course level - and on to Uni degree. Would love to know the stats for the amount of students who actually survived the F. Course. The three students I know who did it then flunked first year Uni, so HSC route would be a better option - or staying in the Uk for A levels but then you get into difficulties of being out the country and having to pay larger fees.

It was office based when I worked for the ed dept several years ago and then they changed to school based which is hopeless for the newly trained psychs as they are very much on their own and it is last in gets worse schools, very isolating.

Much of the confusion here comes from the different names for the same job. I'm a British trained Ed Psych. When I first moved to Perth I wrote Ed Psych on the bottom of my reports and was told I couldn't do that unless I got specialist title registration through the then, psych board of WA - pre APHRA days. I had to prove how many hours of training I had done plus hours of supervision and if I wrote a thesis and eventually was granted the specialist title registration nd was allowed to call myself an educational and developmental psychologist. In WA every psych was known as a school psych, or just pysch unless they had this special registration. The job was basically the same - all school psychs certainly in WA deal with any problem that concerns a child in school from learning, behaviour, emotional to more systems work such as whole school bullying prevention interventions and child protection. They do counselling and assessment. The training has changed over the years but basically all psychs require a degree in psychology, some kind of teaching qualification and then either a further diploma or Master's degree. This has made it slightly different from the UK where every psych must have a Master's and now they are pushing for a ph'd as well. So the difference between and ed psych and a school psych is zero in terms of the job they do but the ed psych will have a master's degree and will have pursued specialist registration - and it allows them to provide supervision for other psychs. They are not like a senco's in the UK. APHRA came along about five years ago and it has become more stringent which can only be a good thing but a pain if you are starting out. Even if you have the degree in psychology, the teaching qualification and the Master's you will then need two years of supervision. You also have to keep a detailed record of PD courses you have attended to show you have done so many hours - this is the same for experienced psychs. Every Govt school has a psych who visits on a regular basis. Many of the private schools employ their own and they are sometimes called school counsellors even though they are psychologists. They do sometimes employ just counsellors - who are counsellors and not psychs! I know over East psychs are sometimes called Guidance counsellors but are still psychs dealing with the full range of issues. Clear as mud? Many schools I worked in employed social workers to do the counselling stuff and the psych to deal with everything else. I have yet to come across a psych in WA whose role is just assessment or admin. Joining the APS is not compulsory or necessary as it is APHRA who do all the registration requirements. You would have to contact APHRA to see if your qualifications are transferable - even if they are expect to have to complete a couple of years of stringent supervision which you may have to pay yourself. You may find it hard to get a foot in the door for your first job but once you have WA experience it should be plain sailing after that.

Yes I think they do. If you had the opportunity to move to an area that had schools that were good as oppose to some of the worst in Australia then I would want to know. Tell me where the good schools are in Kwinana, or Mirrabooka? My views are based on statistics - I know how to use the information on the http://www.myschool.edu.au/ web site, not just in terms of NAPLAN results (many schools in Perth are significantly below the national average) but also to look at number of ESL students, finance and ICSEA values, what is the impact of 85% attendance rates etc. I also know how to interpret http://www.scsa.wa.edu.au/internet/Publications/Reports/Statistical_Reports/School_Comparison_Statistics not just in terms of league tables but what each section means. Why? because I am a lecturer in education in Perth which has involved observing student teachers in numerous schools in Perth, worked as a consultant for the Education department visiting over 30 schools in Perth, from Alkimos down to Rockingham and worked in several private schools. The staff at the primary schools in Mirrabooka are fantastic and the Sudanese kids are great, lovely to hear their experiences of switching on a light for the first time or using a flushing toilet and you could say they are good schools, they are doing really interesting things for the over 60% second language learners that make up the school population. Most of the kids have experienced severe trauma before coming to Australia and now severe poverty. The best teachers in the world can't manage great educational standards because they are dealing with behavioural, language, emotional issues and abuse. They are good schools, doing great things, but not where your average POM wants their children to go to school. The social problems at the primary schools in Kwinana are huge in terms of neglect, abuse, drug and alcohol problems. Over 13% of kids don't graduate from the local high school and the chances of getting an ATAR to get into Uni is practically nil Most parents would rate a good school as good educational standards, supportive parents, few behaviour problems so that teachers can teach and not a high turn over of staff. There are several suburbs where you are not going to get that and I am sure new migrants would like to know where to go, or which is the best of a couple of options. We should not pretend that it is is all sunshine and roses, this is the reality.

Christo say - All suburbs have good public schools Rubbish Schools vary immensely depending on where you live. Many are below the national average in terms of results, many in suburbs like Rokingham can't keep staff so there is a huge turn over of staff, Mandurah may be a nice place to live but high schools are terrible and you'd have to go private to get a decent education.

Depends on the kind of house you want - we went for the worst house in the best possible location for schools as that was the priority but many people want the nice shiny new place and go for the show house in a not so good location or miles out near the beach as beach is more important than school.

top govt high schools - Rossmoyne, Churchands, Willeton and Shenton College (western Suburbs). They make the opt 20 schools list, beating many of the private schools.