Selina Smith

Not yet Kirsty! 7 weeks and counting!! How have you settled? X

Hi, it took 5 months from sending my EOI off x

Hi, My 189 visa was granted in December 2015 and we will be leaving the UK at the end of August- myself, husband and two children. This is definately a permanent move for us with Australian citizenship all part of the plan. However I would like my children to have options of where they would like to settle in the future and this is a big reason why I voted for the UK to remain in Europe. As as both of my parents are Irish, I have the option of applying for an Irish passport and will then apply for my children to have citizenship of Ireland by descent. During the 189 proccess I did sign forms to say I was only a British Citizen and did not hold a passport for any other country, if I apply for my Irish passport now will this cause problems for my 189? Will I need to fill in a change of circumstance form? Will this affect my application for citizenship of Australia in any way? Thank you, Selina

Do you have a degree? If so you could think about doing a one year PGCE course to go into teaching. You don't need post qualification experience to pass the skills assessment. I completely changed careers to be able to migrate to Australia so our life for the past 5 years has been about making the move and now we have our visa and fly out in August :-) My degree was in animal science but I was accepted onto an Early Years PGCE after volunteering in a local primary school. If you really want it you can do it! Good luck x

I had a teacher friend who is living in Australia to certify mine. Luckily she was in the UK visiting family at the time and TRBWA were happy with all the documents I sent. X

I'll be arriving on the 1st September and will be living in Perth. Really hoping I can get some job leads before I head out. Any tips on how to set out a CV and cover letter? I have no idea what Australian companies are looking for as over here it's always been an application form not a CV X Thanks again for the help, it's great to speak to someone with experience x

Thanks for your reply Roxyroo, it's good to know you aren't as stressed! You say you would love to be in a school do you know if there is much difference between working in a school compared to daycare (other than the holidays). Do you have any good links to the Early Learning framework? The EYFS development matters statements are like the bible over here, is there anything similar that you use when it comes to your planning or assessments? I don't want to bombard you with too many questions!! Thanks again, Selina

Hi, Just wanted to connect with any Early Childhood Teachers who are living and working in Australia. Would love to have a chat about the differences and similarities between the UK and Oz EY curriculum and how you find your working life over there compared to the UK. Thanks, Selina xx

Congratulations! One more box ticked!! X

Thanks Roxy, I already have a positive assessment from AITSL as an Early Childhood Teacher but thought if I wanted to work in a school doing kindergarten I would have to register with the teaching board of the specific state (I am thinking of going to Perth so that would be the TRBWA)? How have you found working in a private preschool? And how did you find the ACECQA assessment, did you already have 0-2 experience? To gain 0-2 experience it looks like supply work is the answer. Thank again for the reply :-) x

Hi, I've posted this on another thread so sorry for repeating but thought more people would see it here and be able to offer some advice.... I am in my 2nd year of teaching in Early Years but am currently on maternity leave, I have requested to return to my current school in January as part time because the cost of childcare will eat up the majority of my wages. My request was denied :-( now I have until Monday to tell my school if I will be returning to work in January full time or leaving completely. I have been in touch with a supply agency who say they can definitely get me work 3 days a week. Have worked out that doing 3 days on supply would be better for me financially compared to working full time and paying for childcare full time but the work isn't guaranteed and I don't get paid during the holidays. I also need to consider what will be best when it comes to registering as a teacher in Australia, I would like to stay in Early years. I'm thinking all of the form filling and requesting references would be easier if I have been at the same school since the start of my career but with supply I may be able to get experience with children age 0-2 which will cover some of the requirements for registration with ACECQA (which is who I need to register with to be able to work specifically in Early Years) this won't pay as good a wage as supply in a school and we are desperately trying to save for our move. Any advice on what would be the best course of action?????? Thanks in advance xx

I paid on my visa debit without a problem x

Thank you for the reply. I understand that it will be difficult to get anything permanent in a school so have been looking at childcare centres. I have a baby that will have just turned one when we make the move and have seen a lot of day care centres offer a discount for children of staff so this may offset the drop on wages a little. I've also had a look into the legalities of running my own family day care too but this obviously depends on the type of property we can secure when we arrive. I'm thinking ACECQA will only assess my qualification as a cert III because my course didn't cover 0-2 age range which seems to be a problem for a lot of UK early years teachers. It's a bit of a minefield!!! X

Hi, Looking for a bit of advice from fellow teachers. I am waiting on a visa grant for a 189 under Early Childhood teacher. My family and I are looking to move over Summer 2016 (in time for new jobs being advertised for Jan 2017 start). My husband may have a job offer in Perth so that's where we will be headed. I have just completed my NQT and am on maternity leave. I really don't want to go back to my current school full time and have been told part time will not be an option. I don't want to start at a new school when I will be leaving in the summer and think I'll struggle to find a fixed term, part time contract. This leaves supply work but will this make it difficult to prove to TRBWA how many years service I have? Will I find it harder to find a permanent position in Australia if I have done supply in the UK? If I were to do supply work in a private nursery/kindergarten would this count towards my years of service because in Australia there has to be a qualified Early years teacher employed by the nursery but that is not the case in the UK? Thank you x

If you are a British citizen and studied for your degree and teaching qualification in the UK you don't need to provide AITSL with your IELTS results. I only used IELTS to claim 20 points for migration and took it after I sent all of my AITSL paperwork away.

Thats great news chatterbox!! Double celebrations for you. Did you Skype interview for your teaching post? X

Fingers crossed for you!!! Don't worry about the Delia, I've been called worse :-) x

Good luck to you too!! Have you front loaded everything? We are going to wait until the CO requests PCC and medical just to give us extra time to move or validate the visa x

Thanks Chatterbox, that's what I was thinking x

Hi, I am currently on maternity leave from my teaching post in the UK would this time count towards experience as I am still officially employed by the school or will it be discounted? Thanks x

That's how I would read it Jazzhead, I'm on Maternity leave at the moment and have had my NQT year signed off early but a migration agent I had a consultation with encouraged me to start the process even though I had only just passed my PGCE. I think actual teaching experience only comes into question when applying for registration for the different states and of course applying for jobs x

No worries, we are all on here to help each other out. As far as I know, you will not be asked about the NQT year BUT as I haven't filled out the form myself yet I can't guarantee it...... Hopefully someone else will be able to give a definite answer x

For migration points you only need to take the IELTS general but it's worth checking what the teaching board of the state you want to go to require in case they would prefer Academic (I know for WA and VIC if you have 4 years of UK university education this is enough and you don't need Academic IELTS). As you are not claiming points for work experience you can apply for a 189 during your NQT year x

I'd suggest getting a move on these things seem to take forever! Remember your AITSL and IELTS are valid for 2 years and you can have your visa for 5 years before making a permanent move (you need to validate it in the first 12 months from your medicals or Pcc). Plus you never know when things will be taken off the SOL X

I think the 60 will be your max but at least you have enough to apply. I'm in the same position as you with points as I'm just completing my NQT. Was hoping to have skills assessment back sooner as it's my 33rd Birthday in July and would have been able to claim 30 points for age if I was invited to apply before my birthday but it looks as if it's not meant to be. Will still have the magic 60 points though so not too worried. Good luck, I'm sure you'll still get an invite with 60 points x