tina0101

My son sat his GCSE's and we left 5 days after he got his results. We got him into Year 11 here for a term in October and he has just started his final year. If your eldest has a decent set of GCSE results, the school can claim the points needed to cover the Year 11 studies missed here. Our son hasn't really missed anything from Year 11 here. All the work is done in year 12 really and he is doing really well. I was worried about the amount of time he was out of school (finished exams mid June and then joined here in October) but he actually was keen get to get back into routine!!

Apologies for the language, but they were some evil and big spider dudes!

We're in Brisbane. Seen some right mother******s outside but they're harmless and some of them help deal with the flies and insects so we leave them alone and they leave us alone. Have had a couple inside the house, but nothing a good shoe or the hoover can't deal with!! We're all a bit scared of spiders in our house but I can honestly say that they're not a problem. They may be bigger than the UK, but I think there are less of them inside. I've seen 2 tree snakes in 6 months.

We pretty much started from scratch and places like IKEA, Good Guys etc all did delivery the next day. So the day/2 days before we moved, we went shopping for our white goods and furniture that we needed straight away. Arranged for delivery of the all in the afternoon we moved in and then spent the rest of the day assembling beds and tables :-)

Loads of choices. Do the research and get the best deal. Ours is linked to an airline so we get points so we can upgrade when we visit home ;-)

Stayz.com.au - we used them for our initial rental when we arrived.

Guess they're encouraging public transport!

I agree that it's not that hard to find a rental that'll accept pets. Lying is is a huge risk - usually it's a 6 month minimum rental term. If your landlord or any of their friends or even the agent are local, do you want to take the risk they see you going out for a walk? If the dog is barking because of storms/other dogs barking would you want to take the risk the neighbours won't say anything? Seems ms like a massive risk to me, considering there are pet friendly rentals out there.

If you're not worried about quality too much, places like Fantastic Furniture, Salvos may be better. Also join any Buy, Sell, Swap groups on Facebook as there is always stuff popping up on there.

Slightly hairy drive home with lots of surface water. My pool is heading towards overflow and quite a few roads are shut in the area. Kinda like being back in the UK. Apart from the pool . . . .

I'm also in the Redlands, in Wellington Point. I find the train journey isn't too arduous to the CBD - I've always got a seat (helps being one of the end stops!) and I don't think a train has ever been majorly late. The drive into the CBD is also easy from Redlands. The rush hour drive can be a bit of a pain, but I think most people going into the city would say the same. Drive to the airport is easy - about 25 minutes and we've always had a decent run there. We've got lots of restaurants, walks, parks nearby. The dog beach in Cleveland is very popular (and you get to check out the nice houses!) Wynnum outdoor pool is nearby, the ferry to Straddie and the other Islands is close. We've got a mixture of houses - there are a fair few new build estates going up, but we have just bought a property from the 1990's. Seems to be a large mix on the market. I would say that having a pool has been a godsend in this hot weather!!! We've got a good mix of State, High and Private Schools in the Area. You have your more expansive private schools (Ormiston) and then your slightly cheaper (Iona), which is a Catholic School. Cleveland High gets really good reviews and the State Schools are also pretty decent. Good luck!!!

A trip to Straddie. Mount Coot ha has spectacular views and the Tamborine mountains are also great. A night out in the Valley was good fun too - some very different pubs (sorry, can't remember names as I'd had a couple!).

Until the school get it in writing that the child is leaving, or get confirmation from a new school, they can't stop Pupil Welfare getting involved. Obviously, you are emigrating, but you would be surprised what some parents come up with to get their kids out of school and the school is only following procedures. As for asking for a forwarding address, I think that is a bit over zealous of the Officer but, again, you are leaving in a few days and have said you hadn't told the school.

My son moved out here straight after his GCSE results came out. He did a term in Year 11 here and has just started Year 12. He has flourished out here (we have been able to afford one of the cheaper private schools) and has not been disadvantaged at all. I think it depends on the child too - he's a bright kid and loves that he is in a class with none of the distractions he got in class in the UK (no behaviour issues like his comp in the Uk). There is a lot more focus on the extra curricular side here as well and I don't think he's ever done so much! If you come out here in September and then it doesn't work, you may have to consider college for your son, as they do not have a GCSE equivalent. It's not completely unheard of to re-join a UK school for A Levels, but I think it would be quite tough. I also know that if your son gets top grades at the end of Year 12, he would be able to look at a UK uni, but you may be treated as overseas and have to pay bigger fees.

You say you haven't notified the school yet, even though you leave in a few days. This is why you got a visit - they are concerned for your children - I am assuming that the kids haven't been in school?

Welcome to the forum!! I absolutely love living here.

We found a 3 week rental in Coomera through Stayz.com.au. Lovely 3 bed house, fully furnished.

If you're thinking private education, I'd suggest contacting a few in the area you want to move to and start a dialogue. I was in contact with 3 schools before we moved out.

We used Paul at Emigrating Solutions and we're very pleased with him.

Can't help with the year your son would go into without guessing (I really should pay more attention, considering I work at a school!) but I can confirm that school runs January to December.

Seek.com.au au.Indeed.com If you type your job and location into Google, you should get a number of agency websites come up - maybe a good place to start.

This advice is wrong. At least for Queensland. My son has a decent set of GCSE's, achieved in August and has just joined Year 12. Because of his good results, he gets credit for study elsewhere, which will all count towards his missed year 11 studies and he can still achieve a top OP (if he works hard) and get into Uni. So GCSEs do not mean nothing - they have enabled my son to join the correct age group and not have to go back a year.

Not sure where you are but I have a 17 year old and here are the type of things he gets/wants!!! Skydive, Abseil, tickets to a comedy show, Indoor Skydive (if he's not sure about outside ones!),tickets to a concert, be a zoo keeper for a day

Depending on when you come over for real, your son's GCSE's may mean something. Our son has just started Year 12 (their final year) and in order to get enough marks to make Uni possible, they are taking his GCSE results into consideration as without them, he would've had to do Years 11 and 12 and he would've been way older than everyone else. You may have to book flights here and back and just take the hit to validate it?? Go a quieter time maybe??

If you are looking at Brisbane, I agree that it's best to work out where you will work. I live in the Redlands, 23km away from my school, and it takes me 40 minutes most mornings to get there (at 7am!) and I'm not even crossing the river or city!! I know plenty of people that love living in the Redlands but equally, I know lots that love the Northern suburbs!! You'll need to get here and see what is good for you :-)