Dorset

Most DET e-courses are very straightforward. If I remember the last time I did this one it was multi-choice "what would you do in this scenario" sort of thing but then they regularly change and update them so that may not still be true. Have they told you how to access the course? For me I would go onto MyPL (my professional learning) from the DET staff portal and it is free, but I guess you won't have access to that. I would look it up but this weekend the DET staff portal is down with an upgrade going on. Are you already in NSW? If so, if you get in touch with some of the local schools they may well allow you to go in to their staff training days and there may be one that is doing the face to face child protection update (but this tends to be done on the first day of the first term). There is one coming up on the 26th April, but as it is presently the holiday you may well struggle to get in touch with anyone to say yes. We regularly have casual teachers coming to our training days. Are you yet a member of the federation? (teachers union) It is worth getting in touch with them as they may well have good advice and may even run a course themselves. All the best, you are welcome to PM me if you want to ask anything.

In state schools there is only really the one in NSW, the Teachers' Federation. Don't know if there are any specifically for the independent schools. Would recommend you join it though.

Kimbobalina could you teach Engineering Studies? If you could then this would open up many more opportunities. To see the syllabus go to the BOSTES website.

Have you seen the doctor's thread in the jobs section? To the OP it was three years ago that we went through the system and it was the full 6 weeks for us. I hope they have made the process faster since ....

Macca is right ... There are different requirements for the different organisations you may apply for. Some require documents notarised, some signed by someone in the legal profession - but the good news is that I think AITSL accept documents certified by a wide range of people. This comes from the AITSL Secondary School Teacher Application form. Your school HT should be able to sign them off for you. Saves you £200 I think!Certified documents Certified copies of all original documents are required for the assessment process. Only documents certified by one of the following authorised persons will be accepted for this assessment: [TABLE=class: MsoNormalTable] [TR] [TD=width: 373, bgcolor: transparent] · Certified Practising Accountant · Chartered Accountant · Commissioner for Oaths · Justice of the Peace · Notary Public · Magistrate [/TD] [TD=width: 317, bgcolor: transparent] · Judge · Registered medical practitioner (Medical doctor) · School principal · Solicitor · Australian Embassy/High Commission staff [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE]

We moved out 2.5 years ago with three children 17F, 16M and 14M. Our daughter actually stayed in the UK to finish her A Levels first. My older son had just completed GCSEs and my youngest son hadn't done anything. Each state has a completely different education system - so some of the advice above won't apply if you are in a different state. In NSW the GCSEs don't hold any interest for schools as NSW got rid of the equivalent a few years ago. When you enrol in a school they will be keen to see the most recent school reports from the UK but that is about all. The NSW schools are incredibly flexible and most will try to take your son/daughter from where they left off, wherever that may be and will fit them into the best possible fit of program. Our children have done very well out of the move. My older son and daughter are now at a world class Australian university one on the basis of her A levels, the other on the basis of his NSW HSCs. My younger son is happy and doing very well in his preliminary's. With hindsight, I might have tried harder to persuade my daughter to have come over after the first year of A levels instead of staying in the UK as she hasn't got any friends in the Australian town we live in because she didn't go to school here. However, she is happy at University and so I can't complain at the decisions she took. It is likely that coming from the UK your kids will have a far higher work ethic than many in rural Australian schools, so should do well academically if they maintain this. Our kids found the Australian youngsters incredibly friendly -warn yours to expect to have to say vitamin, data and yoghurt many times for the interest of their classmates. It would help if your children are sporty and get involved in local sports teams. The culture where we live is to respect people who have a go, so it doesn't really matter whether they are good at the sport or not. Cherries recommend you get in touch with schools asap and urge them to accept your daughter into the end of year 11. The (Australian) year 12 HSC course actually starts in the last term of (Australian) year 11.

My wife (GP with GMC registration but a long way from you!) suggests that you contact the UK DVLA and check with them whether they would accept someone registered with AHPRA instead.

The Patrol/Landcruiser debate is a bit like the Holden/Ford discussion - it is expected everyone takes sides. We went looking for a second hand Patrol/Landcruiser and took the best deal on offer and at the time it was a Patrol. Our Patrol has done us proud, but like others have said if you are not going to go down roads that require the higher ground clearance you may as well go for an AWD - they generally have better comfort, handling and fuel economy. Which ever one you go for, if second hand, I suggest you get someone who knows what they are doing to look for corrosion underneath the car. If people have driven on the beach or dipped the back end into the sea to launch boats the car may have a rust problem.

DMUK I went through about 2 years ago in NSW, so my experiences may not hold for your OH as things have changed in that time and some of my comments may be incorrect. I needed to apply to the NSW board of studies for approval to teach. They wanted to see transcripts of my degree courses to see that my background knowledge was equivalent to those in Australia, and that I had done the right amount of university study. After I got approval to teach I was then able to apply to the NSW Department of Education and Communities and to the private education authorities as someone they might potentially emply. At that time, the DEC ran a 5 day Overseas Trained Teacher followed by a two week school placement course that I had to attend, but I think they have got rid of this course now. I also think that from now on (in NSW from the start of 2015?), prospective teachers have to apply to the AITSL rather than the NSW board of studies. I am guessing it will be provisional registration initially. I had to do lots of paperwork with examples of how I met the teacher standards to change my provisional into a full registration, but NSW may be different. All the best, but be aware there are many more teachers than jobs in many places at the moment ......

Visitors to the Whitsundays can read how Aboriginal tribes used to walk to the islands, but within a few generations the sea level rose dramatically to create the islands. Or read that a few centuries ago the Thames used to freeze over regularly so that Londoners had parties on the ice. I don't think anyone denies that climate change has happened over the generations, but differ over the extent to which mankind is contributing besides our planets natural rhythms and processes. If humankind want to reduce greenhouse gases without losing what most of us consider civilisation, there is only nuclear power. At the moment there is no practical technology that would save solar, wind, tidal, etc power for nights when it is cold, dark, in between tides and without wind.

Different universities have different policies and conversions. University of Queensland is one of the top Aussie universities and this is theirs. http://www.uq.edu.au/study/docs/domestic/gce.pdf My daughter got in no problems with her A Levels.

When the missus lies back and thinks of Australia ....

There used to be a really useful page on the immigration site that said all this, but I can't find it. Here is one from the trades unions. http://www.actu.org.au/Images/Dynamic/attachments/6638/457_Factsheet_Workers_Rights_in_Australia_310712_v2.pdf Our sons got jobs when we were on a 457, but you may need to argue the case with some employers who are nervous of employing anyone they shouldn't.

I don't know if this suggestion will help, but have you considered speaking to your local politicians? They can often help out in unusual cases by speaking on your behalf to the right person.

Chrisnlinz, I would suggest you have a look at the AITSL website. http://www.aitsl.edu.au/assessment-for-migration

Check carefully the requirements for each document, for some things a colour photocopy didn't need verification. For others they could be countersigned by a doctor/teacher, etc - others unfortunately (mostly those for AHPRA) did need a notary when in the UK. We tried our hardest to make it one visit, but there is always the extra document we didn't expect, so prepare yourself for at least two. Its also worth checking other posts/threads about notarising. Some I think have got documents notarised at the local court quite cheaply. All the best!

We did something very similar with my daughter when she was 16. She is only just now (at 19) realising that her old group of friends no longer exists as a group back in the UK, they have all gone their separate ways - whether uni, college or jobs, and often she is the only point of contact between them all as their lives have really moved on from each other. Don't know how it will be where you will be living, but here in rural NSW the welcome we have had from the locals has been wonderful. There has been no nastiness, only great interest in our accents. Lost count of the times we have been asked to say yoghurt, data or vitamin - and almost everyone says they love our accents. Advise she gets a job as quickly as possible. My daughter got a job at McDonalds, and she loved making friends there. Would agree with the advice about getting on some sort of course.

I disagree. Unless there is a very good reason, people should not be required to do things that they are uncomfortable with as part of their job. If it was essential for the children to be read a book about same sex parents then surely there would be someone else in the nursery who could have read the book to the children. Would you say the same if it was a pacifist being asked to read books about the army? Or a Ukrainian books about the glories of Russia? Or a vegetarian about the animal slaughter process? It seems to me that this is about oppression of a minority, in this case, those with religious beliefs.

Personally I would disagree with the advice above .... Although I agree that the fridge should be able to be connected, it is often said that moving fridges shortens their life span. When the move is over sea and several months, I'm not sure you can guarantee it will still be serviceable when you arrive here. Add to that, what will you do about a fridge in the meantime? If you are sending your goods by sea, expect it to take 2 months at least, perhaps 3. You can either pack up early in the UK, and have your goods shortly after you arrive, or pack up late in the UK, and await your goods in Australia. Either way, you will have a gap of several weeks one end or the other - unless you are going into furnished rented one end or the other. So if it was me, I would sell or give away the fridge in the UK, and buy new in Aus. Most other things I would ship though.

We flew with Singapore Airlines, don't know if yours is the same airline. Anyway, we had a query about the extra baggage allowance and ended up speaking to some lovely people in their London office who sorted it all out for us. Would recommend speaking to them if only to put your mind at rest.

I think all they are really interested in is whether you are AWOL. As with all the others, I declared my service, and included a copy of my discharge medical. Neither of the case officers (457 and 186) made any reference to military service at all in any follow up questions they asked.

In our area (rural NSW) our 15, 17 and 18 year olds found the locals incredibly friendly and welcoming. Get used to being asked to say yoghurt, data and vitamin a lot, and have all the girls saying "I love your accent" My family use Skype and facebook a lot to keep in touch. To be honest though, all my 18 year old's friendship group have really broken up since they finished school and started jobs, university and the like, and she tends to be the one passing on the news from one to another of them. ZK2102, my daughter is starting UQ next month. It is a lovely university on a great site. She will be staying in a college (what we call a hall of residence in the UK) on campus. All the best with your moves both of you. They normally have an open day early in August, and it is well worth going to this if you are over here by then. Have you seen the tables they use to convert A Level grades to the Australian equivalents? There are several different versions around depending on the university, but 3 A Level B grades equates to an ATAR of 91 at UQ, and will get onto most courses. Connor I agree it is worth finding out what sports are played in the area you are going to. Could be Aussie rules, rugby (both called football here), football (called soccer), cricket or hockey. Joining a team is a great way to get to know others, and again they will probably be very welcoming if they are anything like the ones around here.

I advise you do research first into the likely availability of jobs in the subject and area of the country you would like to live in. There are many more trained primary teachers than there are jobs available in most parts of the country for example, whilst there is a shortage in some secondary subjects if you can teach the subject at the highest level. All the best whatever you decide!

If you think you have been wrongly assessed, go back to the NSWIT and tell them why! My Engineering degree was initially considered by them to not have enough maths in it to justify my registration as a maths teacher (despite 20 year experience in the UK). All they had done was look at the number of times maths was mentioned in the transcript, and didn't consider that topics such as fluid dynamics, thermodynamics, systems and control, etc were almost entirely maths. I wrote back a strong email and got my provisional accreditation back by return. I also included in my email that I had 20 years experience and examples of the classes I had taught. Hope it works out for you.

I used synctunes wireless pro to transfer mine. Needed to read instructions carefully, but transferred the music over without a hitch. If I remember correctly it tries to stay open in the background after you have installed it, so make sure you manually stop it to ensure it doesn't continually use your phone resources after you finish.