Bob1

well I hope you weren't one of the people on here who start shouting that the education standard is rubbish in Oz - when they then send kids to a school way below the National average.

Son is training to be an actuary! Other one wants to be an actor at number 178! http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303772904577336230132805276.html [TABLE=class: display] [TR=class: odd] [TD=class: sorting_1]1[/TD] [TD]Software Engineer[/TD] [/TR] [TR=class: even] [TD=class: sorting_1]2[/TD] [TD]Actuary[/TD] [/TR] [TR=class: odd] [TD=class: sorting_1]3[/TD] [TD]Human Resources Manager[/TD] [/TR] [TR=class: even] [TD=class: sorting_1]4[/TD] [TD]Dental Hygienist[/TD] [/TR] [TR=class: odd] [TD=class: sorting_1]5[/TD] [TD]Financial Planner[/TD] [/TR] [TR=class: even] [TD=class: sorting_1]6[/TD] [TD]Audiologist[/TD] [/TR] [TR=class: odd] [TD=class: sorting_1]7[/TD] [TD]Occupational Therapist[/TD] [/TR] [TR=class: even] [TD=class: sorting_1]8[/TD] [TD]Online Advertising Manager[/TD] [/TR] [TR=class: odd] [TD=class: sorting_1]9[/TD] [TD]Computer Systems Analyst[/TD] [/TR] [TR=class: even] [TD=class: sorting_1]10[/TD] [TD]Mathematician[/TD] [/TR] [TR=class: odd] [TD=class: sorting_1]11[/TD] [TD]Speech Pathologist[/TD] [/TR] [TR=class: even] [TD=class: sorting_1]12[/TD] [TD]Optometrist[/TD] [/TR] [TR=class: odd] [TD=class: sorting_1]13[/TD] [TD]Physical Therapist[/TD] [/TR] [TR=class: even] [TD=class: sorting_1]14[/TD] [TD]Pharmacist[/TD] [/TR] [TR=class: odd] [TD=class: sorting_1]15[/TD] [TD]Web Developer[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE]

I can't imagine how US got up to number three where they include safety on the streets as one of the markers.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/breaking/16372910/un-lauds-australia-in-report/ Australia has been ranked the second best country in the world when it comes to human development. The United Nations, ranking 187 countries, put Australia behind only Norway across a range of measures from life expectancy to economic development to safety on the streets. Australia sits ahead of the United States (third), the Netherlands, Germany, New Zealand and Ireland. The United Kingdom sits 26th on the index while South Africa ranked 121st. This also includes education, but dam, girls are still getting pregnant too soon.

Local - Rottnest. Summer go south - Denmark, Albany, Esperance, Pemberton, Margaret river. Winter - Coral Bay, Kalbarri, Kimberely Did most of that when the kids were little - camping sometimes. Never got bored. Australia - hired a campervan and drove from Sydney to Melbourne via Canberra, had lots of long weekends in both Sydney and Mel. Skied outside Mebourne in Falls Creek. As they got older - asia - Hong Kong, Singapore, Bali, China, Malaysia, Thailand. skied in Japan last 4 years, skied in New Zealand. Planning Cambodia and Vietnam next - very cheap from here. I don;t really miss Europe when you have asia on the doorstep. Did Europe when I lived there.

As you know autism is a spectrum disorder and the ed dept take this into account when applying funding. If she is bright and more "Aspergers' then there is a chance that she'll receive no funding although in Year 1/Pre primary there is always an extra TA floating about. There will be schools that have units attached and even if you want to go mainstream it might be an idea to go for one of those as the teacher in the unit will have more expertise than the main class - and it can be somewhere she can go to 'chill'. Are you Catholic by any chance as the Catholic schools are a bit better at meeting the needs, are more likely to have a learning support teacher who can offer support/advice and more likely to get funding - they do it more on need than IQ (which the ed dept seem hung up on). They also have special ed consultants who visit the schools (so do ed dept but thinner on the ground).

I don't believe in sending kids to private schools as they are for snobs What a completely ludicrous statement!

Somewhere in easy reach of Kings Park and the free CAT bus/train station.

Same here - never read anything that says it is the best place to raise kids - have you any facts/statistics? or are you just after an argument.

So you want a proper British curry in Australia? Not an Indian curry then.

Anywhere on the Perth to Fremantle train route - especially Subiaco, Claremont and Cottesloe. Expensive. Next try Leederville and Mt Lawley. Mt hawthorn got a bit of life about it too.

and lets hear it for WAAPA - West Australian Academy of Performing Arts - named as one of the top 25 performance schools in the world. http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/breaking/13614606/wa-academy-a-class-act-among-worlds-best/

Good advice - take Tiger/Air Asia or jet star to KL or Sing then flights from there. Cuts the price but you may have to hang around a bit.

Take notes of what was said and date it!

That would make me want to avoid it like the plague but for some it might be a comfort. They can all winge together!

I read the highest % of poms - 1 in 4, is Secret Harbour.

So you don't live there? Just go on holiday?

School will be your best source of friendship for both you and the boys. 7 weeks of school holidays is a long time without friends so I'd start them at least by the beginning of term 4 (mid October).

the highest reading level shes allowed to be in yr 1 This strikes alarm bells for me. There should be no such thing - the work is differentiated at both ends - adapted for the poor ones, and stretched for the brighter ones, particularly in Year 1. I blame the teacher - I hope you reported what she said to the Principal? There should be some open ended work where she can be extended, so for example poor readers colour in a work sheet about ants and label legs and count them, and bright ones find some interesting facts about them to write down and share with the class. Any decent teacher would be doing that sort of teaching.

We had to do this and went to Singapore. It has to be somewhere with an embassy/consolate - so Bali is out, would have to be Jakarta. Singapore was the cheapest, with lots to do with kids.

go here http://www.myschool.edu.au/ type in Mandurah Look up the gov schools. Where there are graphs at the bottom look at 'results in number'. red/dark red - below national average green above average. I had a quick look - not good news, schools may be nice but their results are really poor.

Rockingham Senior High School - 5% don't graduate (most schools have at least 99%) 13% don't attend 70% don't do stage 3 courses (like A levels) No of kids who got an A in their stage 3 last year - zero. Agree with Jules - beach isn't everything.

The Post newspaper has rentals - it's the free paper that comes out in the Western suburbs every Friday. however I have noticed the number of ads declining because you have to pay for it so people are using gumtree.

Be very careful where you live in Rokingham if you have school kids. Some of the schools are way below the national average across the board and the high schools have really poor results.

Saw a really nice glass dining room table with 6 chairs in the Good Sammy charity shop yesterday for $100. Nothing wrong with it! If you know you are returning I really don't see the point of shipping stuff. Gumtree website has loads of second hand furniture, check out local garage sales, cash convertors. The electrical things in Good Sammy's have been checked and are rarely more than $10. I have a toaster, food mixer and kettle from there which cost less than $25 for the three. High quality bedding can be bought cheaply if you know where to look - Sheridan shop in Harbour town for example, even the likes of Target do 300 thread etc quality sheets at reasonable prices. I took a newly arrived friend on a shopping tour yesterday of cheap places - Red Dot, Best and West, Good Sammy, Target, Kmart, Big W, $2 dishes in coles, Ikea. he was amazed at how cheap things were.