Ali B

PS Ive been told Berwick area also has a decent ex-pat Brit population for support.

try this link tho the pics are a bit naff!

http://berwick.harcourts.com.au/Home/Renting/Local-Info/13035

PS berwick area also has a decent ex-pat Brit population for support.

We live in Somerset, a small hamlet just outside a Town.

Cool, without any hesitation I would recommend Berwick area. South Eastern suburbs. Old Berwick is a village with a pretty Botanical Gardens and the high street has tiny shops and cafes rather than the mega stores. When you drive through the old part of Berwick you don't feel as though you are in a massive city.

Surrounding Berwick are new build estates but also older property too so you have a broad pick. There are motorway links from Berwick to the City (about 30-40 mins ish depending on time of day) so you'd have all the advantages of living in metropolitan Melb but not "in your face".

The bay to the south is easy reach from Berwick too. And the mountains up the road to the east. Vineyards to the north of Berwick. It's VERY pretty. Secondary schools in Berwick are solid (I'm a teacher) and there are private as well as public (state).

Good luck 

Whats your subject area (they call it "method" here) and what age range? Do a bit of a swot up on VCE (A level) and AusVels / Australian Curriculum.

it'll help to learn the jargon a bit

Good luck!

Yep. Heathmont is absolutely fine. We live in the neighbouring burb Mitcham.

Arrows is right, Heathmont is ripe for development. Not quite boomed yet, its about to skyrocket so IF you can buy, do so.

the local mall is being developed, lots of potential work, local schools growing. Lots of housing being developed. All good indicators. Plus its well situated for city, beach, mountains all 20 mins away.

its fab!

Melbourne is a real melting pot. You'll find masses of support here. We lived in Brighton in UK and had lots of gay and lesbian friends. In my school here in Eastern Suburbs (im a teacher) we have an active LGBTI student group. I have a female friend in a gay relationship with two kids. I believe she would say its probably maybe easier in the city centre than out here in the burbs, but you know you'll find good people everywhere. Theres just a greater concentration of people and places in the city. Out in the sticks and upstate would inevitably be harder to settle for someone like yourself from Glasgow for all sorts of reasons.

Where do you live in UK?

wh

Hi BlueCJ

Im a teacher in Melbourne - a couple of thoughts.

16 is a difficult age, my own daughter is 16 and we've been here 15 yrs and she is having friend issues at school. its nothing to do with migrating! It's just the nature of the beast. But your daughter has of course got the migration on top and is struggling. It is a possiblility she may never settle and want to go back one day.

Connect her to her school wellbeing coordinator, they will help with ideas to connect to the school community.

keep her off FaceBook/Instagram etc because keep connecting to home is bitter-sweet. It'll make her sad seeing old friends and grieving what shes missing at home.

Quoll's idea of doing A levels at home could be a plan (and not a daft one) but you need to decide quickly and get her back for September. You also run the risk she may want to stay.

You are keeping the communication open and this is really good. Try to listen to what is making her feel so disconnected from the students. Maybe consider a change of school? All schools are different and she might simply not click with her current one.

what were her interests at home - any chance of connecting to groups locally in QLD? (Tho im sure youve probably tried this)

good luck with it all. Teen years arent easy.

Ali

Spangley - I'd say it's a mixture. It's not Melbourne. if you are going to live anywhere, it's about the best place to be. May not be as hot a Sydney (tho 44C is Feb/Mar is pretty insane) but the four seasons are great and Melbourne has easily as vibrant a life as Sydney for less cost.

Isolation from european/uk familiarity and lack of culture feature high. Definitely many europeans get quite bored here, after the novelty of going to the beach again and again and again and again wears off.

My husband keeps putting doomsday programmes on telly, doesn't help. Saw a report that said we are all in the poo if it mutates to airborne. At some stage just as it mutated from bushmeat to humans, it'll mutate from fluids to airborne. The more people who get the virus the bigger the biological/genetic probability that it will. So we don't want figure to triple anytime before they find an anti-viral antidote.

Utilities are dearer. Especially electricity.

Chipvan - We are on high alert here. Im a teacher and we have had to read out directives to the kids. Most Australians live in metropolitan areas and there are suburbs that contain pockets of fundamentalists, just like say London, Birmingham, Leeds.

These nutters are neither religious nor are they normal. As i said on another thread, Islamic State ( aka ISIL aka ISIS) are as un-moslem, as KKK are un-christian. They masquerade as believers but the reality is that they are brutal power-hungry thugs operating all over the western world.

I dont think you'd be any more or less safe in Oz or UK. Plus Tony Abbott is truly a mouthy clueless idiot who is likely to drop Oz in even more poo by the things he says and does in the global arena, trying to get voters here to see him as "strong".

Pumpkin I think you're right. It isn't awful here but a lot of potential emigrants from UK/Europe think this is dreamland. They talk about weather and beaches as if you'll be on permanent holiday. The reality is that you get up at 6.45 for work, sit at the computer or contact clients just like you did at home, go round supermarket, cook dinner, watch telly - just like at home.

People who work outdoors tell me the heat from sat Dec till April is a real major problem. I see workers on sites burnt red and sweating. A lot of people find getting a DECENT job is hard, if you take anything, yes there's work. But you don't want to build up a solid career at home then come here to do something you'd not have looked at at home.

It's easier to come here in 20-30s as you can build a life here. After that you just have too much to leave behind. We often feel caught in two lives: the real one in UK up to the age of 41. And the "bubble" here for 14 yrs.

Blackbetty - we didn't want to stay longer than two years. We sold our Uk house and couldn't afford to move back from Oz two years later. We could now but our girls are mid 20s, settled and we don't want to leave them. At the moment they say we should go home if we are unhappy and say they'd be fine. I don't know if they would be fine with it if we actually got on the plane.

Hahahaha thanks Suzu!

So I'm supposed to fly through Doha to Europe in mid Nov and scared stiff. Doha is a hub that connects all of Africa to Europe Asia America. BBC World News today is saying the current cases could triple in next few weeks. Am I the only one scared? Should I fly?

How do we get Governments to DO something? Do we want someone like Abbott at the helm if it spreads?

"WHO warns number of infections could triple by November unless efforts stepped up.

(Updated about 2 hours ago, Tue 23 Sep 2014, 5:58pm

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said the deadliest Ebola epidemic in history had now killed 2,811, while 5,864 cases had been reported in five West African countries as of September 18."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-23/ebola-infections-could-triple-november-unless-efforts-stepped-up/5763744

I'm 56. We came over aged 42. We had PR as teachers then - now have citizenship. IMO only come over if its an adventure for say 2 years. Do NOT sell your home. We'd go back if we could.

Oz is very very expensive now. Jobs are not as plentiful. The politics are becoming very rightwing. It's not all milk and honey, but you'd possibly do well for a couple of years.

I'd happily move back. Been here just over a year and feel as settled now as i did the day I stepped off the plane!

 

We chased the 'dream' and in all honesty all we need was right under our noses back home.

 

It has been a good adventure so far and will continue to be for as long as we are here, but forever, even past 2 years etc is hard to see.

If you feel this way, maybe start the process to go back Wattsy. We waited too long, kinda not wanting to give up too soon. Wish we'd just stayed a couple of years then returned. A lot of people said give it a bit longer and it made sense as our kids were in far better schools than in UK and we felt overwhelming guilt at having uprooted them.

I'm now very unhappy with the political direction Oz is going in. Things are said publicly here you'd never get away with in UK. Some posts say beaches and space don't make up for not having family and friends around. Yep. That's the sum of it.

I know what you mean. We moved to Oz in 1996 and, apart from a brief 2.5-year stint back in NZ, have been here ever since. I don't hate it here, but its not home for me, nor is it home for OH. The kids were born here so we have to get them on board, but with eldest turning 11 at the end of this year and the younger one turning 7 at the beginning of next year, its a good time to go as eldest will go straight into secondary and everyone will be changing schools. I'm hoping that will make it easier on her rather than going into an established class.

Good timing. We'd go back if it was just us. We've left it too long as our eldest girls are now early/mid 20s and not so keen to move back. Youngest is 16. Once they're in relationships/uni/work its so much harder.

I'm bored here now after 14 yrs. Also creeping slowly to retirement and our priorities have changed (tho medical care here IS better overall)

Just an update as we are now in Brissy - we can claim credit for our son's GCSE results and the schools we have been for interview at have all said that he will only do 1 term in Year 11 and then move straight into Year 12 in January!! They said he will still be able to get a decent OP and be able to get into uni doing it this way.

 

We are looking at private education, but just thought I'd give you a heads up as we are now starting to think about Uni for January 2016, much sooner than anticipated!!

QLD has a slightly different system, i think. The first year of secondary is year 8.

Yr12 is crazy pressure and the exams start in about 4 weeks from now, so the "year" is essentially just three terms long. Most kids take a term to find their feet - there are always obviously some who take longer, or some who settle quicker. I have never known of any newly arrived immigrant kid anywhere be advised to go straight into Yr12. There are some stand-alone subjects (like Psychology) that you CAN study in Yr 12 without prior study but most subjects simply have to much bulk of info covered in Yr11 and it's often very different to UK course content.

Maybe reassure yourself and read up on the QLD Study Designs for the subjects your son intends to do (this is an A-Z database) https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/670.html

Hi,

 

You need to view years 11 & 12, as a 2 year course. They function same as "A" levels, in that the score achieved will determine what choices are available for University.

 

Sensibly, your son will need to do both years in full, otherwise he will not accrue a high enough score.

 

The GCSE's have no value, sorry. There is no equivalent here

 

VS

Hi Five to Go,

hope you are coping well. 1st Oct is just around the corner. Have a safe journey.

I have taught 12-18 yr olds her in Victoria for 14 years now and Valespark is absolutely correct.

VCE Yrs 11/12 are the A Level 6th form equivalent in Victoria. I would start your son in yr 11 next Jan/Feb . It means he will do Oct-Dec in the tail end of yr10 (which is the equiv of UK Yr11 minus the GCSEs) but the big advantage is he he has no overwhelming pressure to perform in official exams as GCSEs don't exist here. He will have normal school end-of-year exams tho.

Also in that way he'll find his feet with his peers and staff. Also he'll be able to pick a full range of subjects for 2015 rather than getting the crumbs of whats left. Get on to this immediately tho, as my school is currently finalising groups, and subjects for next year, now. Bring school reports and samples of work with you. Especially Maths and English as there are a number of courses that run in Maths for VCE (yr 11/12) and English Lit or Eng Lang. You need to get him into the right course.

good luck )

We have Sims games for PC and a Guitar Hero and Drum Set that we'd like to sell. Anyone interested.

Melbourne Eastern Suburbs - near Ringwood.

We both had our Teachers Pensions in Uk and were happy with that till the govt began to mess around with the final sum calculations. We stood to loose masses.

We did a Super to super transfer but NOT through one of these email sharks. We got our Oz super fund to organise it. At the time we lost $35 in tax to ATO. Ouch. (Me $15k OH $20k) but in the year since, our Super fund has grown our transfer over $80k so we have recouped the loss, plus a stack more. We have a "low-medium risk" package with our super fund (it invests in property and safe home industries rather than volatile markets) so the growth hasn't been as big as it could have been. We are very cautious financially as we don't have money to lose, but thrilled now we made the Super move. It was scary at the time but time has shown it was worth it.

I don't think you can assess "good/bad" on the basis of one or two anecdotal experiences. Students are lazy or diligent the world over. Some just want an easy deal for a couple of years and put in the minimum. Some subjects are more demanding than others. Decent students will work like blazes and work on a degree wherever they are.

Only do it if you can leave yourself the option of going back. We sold up everything and after the novelty wore off (and it does) it was just another job in another westernised country. We began to seriously miss family and friends.

Also unlike 15yrs ago, this is now a VERY expensive country. A lot of people are moving back to UK because the work isn't here anymore and its hard getting a foothold.