Brussels

Thanks for clarifying that. She is fine academically but quite young socially so it might be better to put her in year 6. We are moving from Belgium where they have been in the local, flemish speaking, school system so whilst their spoken English is fine and they can read English, their written English has room for improvement... so again year 6 is probably better!

Hello, I know that this has been covered before but please bear with me as I'm still not sure! Both my children have birthdays in February, next Feb one will turn 12 and the other 10. I thought that would mean that they would begin years 7 & 5 in January in NSW (according to the official website that was linked to in another post http://www.detinternational.nsw.edu.au/media-assets/trp/year-placement.pdf) but having contacted a secondary school in Sydney they said that the eldest would be a bit too young for secondary - that they usually turn 13 in year 7. This seems to contradict the government website unless I've misunderstood it??

Thanks again, good to know. My daughter was tested at 2yrs for autism but was not diagnosed with it. She had another barrage of tests at 6yrs old which were inconclusive. We are now working with the psychologist to prepare her for the move and will wait and see how it goes before considering finding a psychologist out there, but I might come back you on that one in the future!

Hello LKC, thanks for your reply. My 11yr old will be in year 6 I think, so I have been looking ahead to secondary schools and planning to move into their catchment areas, figuring if the secondary has a good reputation then it's nearest primary will too, for year 6. The schools that seem quite good, publish their catchment areas and are near a train station seem to be Engadine high and Kirrawee. We tend to have 2 flat, left feet in this family so we don't need a sporty school. If you have any advice that would be wonderful. The area does sound lovely, and I don't mind the distance to the CBD if the train service is good. I was was keen for my 11year old to start at the beginning of term in the hope that she might not be the only new one, and with the usual chaos of new classroom and new teacher she might not stand out so much as the new girl, as everybody would be getting used to something new. She is extremely shy, has needed speech therapy for poor language development, is bullied and currently sees a psychologist. She's very enthusiastic about the move and I want to try and make it as smooth as possible for her.

Excellent, thank you, a couple of days doesn't seem so bad. I thought it might be dragged out into a couple of weeks with having to make appointments, fill forms, wait to hear back, order uniforms etc etc Am I correct in thinking that they can't turn us down if we are in the catchment area?

Hello, We will be moving to Sydney in early January and I was really hoping for the children (11 & 9) to be able to start the new school year but as we will be arriving during the summer holidays will the schools even be contactable? I have sent an email to a school in the area we are interested in (the shire, because it looks affordable and on the train route) but they haven't answered. From other threads I have read this seems quite normal if you don't yet have an address in the catchment zone but it's not helpful! We will be trying to rent a place and enrol the kids within 3 weeks of arriving, is it possible or should I simply shrug and relax? Many thanks,