Aaronspark Posted March 5, 2015 Share Posted March 5, 2015 Had our visas granted this week! Woo hoo. Now comes the fun bit, or not so fun depending who you ask. Hoping to move to the Gold Coast and we aim to move out in August when the 2 kids finish school for the year. Our youngest is 6 so in primary school. Eldest will be 16 when we go and leaving high school in the UK. One of my concerns is if we leave in Mid August, we won't be able to secure a school for the youngest till the next term which starts in October! That's 1 hell of a holiday from school....not something I'm keen on as its too log in my eyes if school. Has anyone else had the same problems when moving out? How have they coped with holidays etc? Is there a good time to go? In temped to leave it till sept and just try and get her in at the start of the last term, my partner is keen to leave earlier!! Anyone help with this dilemma?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tina0101 Posted March 5, 2015 Share Posted March 5, 2015 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!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quoll Posted March 5, 2015 Share Posted March 5, 2015 Kids don't have to wait until the beginning of a new term to start school, arrive on a Monday, start on Tuesday - as long as you have a permanent address so the school knows you're in their catchment area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaronspark Posted March 5, 2015 Author Share Posted March 5, 2015 Is it possible to use a holiday rental as an Adrs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roberta2 Posted March 5, 2015 Share Posted March 5, 2015 That would probably depend on the school. The better ones will be the most picky about their catchment areas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maruska Posted March 5, 2015 Share Posted March 5, 2015 Is it possible to use a holiday rental as an Adrs? We had to have a lease agreement, temporary rental address wasn`t enough. Might be different in other schools but not sure. You don`t have to wait for the next term to start, as Quoll said, you can show up with your lease agreement and start straight away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roberta2 Posted March 5, 2015 Share Posted March 5, 2015 I would be trying to do research on the quality of the schools. I hear that there are some pretty rough ones on the Gold Coast, as there are in the outer areas in Brisbane. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaronspark Posted March 5, 2015 Author Share Posted March 5, 2015 I would be trying to do research on the quality of the schools. I hear that there are some pretty rough ones on the Gold Coast, as there are in the outer areas in Brisbane. The reports that are on the school websites don't seem to be very informative. I find the Ofstead reports in England have more info. Am I missing something? Where's the best place to find out if schools are good or not? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 5, 2015 Share Posted March 5, 2015 We were very keen for our son to start at the beginning of the school year - February in WA - it was P1 so we wanted him to start school with all the others starting school but in reality most had been together from Kindy anyway and I have since heard it said that starting at the beginning of a year isn't the best time at all, teachers are extremely busy and if it's a big school they may not even be so aware that this child isn't just new in their class but new to the school (& country) The upshot is I really wouldn't worry just put them into school when you're ready and the sooner the better as that is where they will make friends and begin to feel normal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roberta2 Posted March 5, 2015 Share Posted March 5, 2015 Unfortunately, there is no website that will give you that information. To be politically incorrect, the roughest schools in Queensland tend to have large numbers of Pacific Islanders. They come to New Zealand with automatic rights of entry, become NZ citizens and emigrate to Australia. A friend teaches in a school on the urban fringes of Brisbane, and what he tells me is quite hair raising. Three generations on welfare. Gang warfare between the Samoans and the Tongans. Total lack of respect for teachers. The only correlation is the median price of say a three bedroom house. You can find that on realestate.com.au The higher the median price, the better the local school is likely to be, but the pickier it will be about its catchment. The catchment boundaries are on the website of the Qld education department. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NicF Posted March 6, 2015 Share Posted March 6, 2015 The reports that are on the school websites don't seem to be very informative. I find the Ofstead reports in England have more info. Am I missing something? Where's the best place to find out if schools are good or not? There is no equivalent to Ofstead in Australia. One good place to look is the myschool.edu.au website. This gives information on things like the schools financial status, the socioeconomic background of the kids that go and the NAPLAN results (bit like SATs in the UK). There are no league tables but the website does show how well the school has performed compared with other schools in similar socioeconomic areas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tina0101 Posted March 6, 2015 Share Posted March 6, 2015 Try myschool.edu.au Type in the school you want and there are various details, including links to NAPLAN where you can compare to similar schools Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 6, 2015 Share Posted March 6, 2015 The myschool website is a good start and has the school inspection reports. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maruska Posted March 6, 2015 Share Posted March 6, 2015 Try myschool.edu.au Type in the school you want and there are various details, including links to NAPLAN where you can compare to similar schools That one, and also www.bettereducation.com.au Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fossda Posted March 6, 2015 Share Posted March 6, 2015 Had our visas granted this week! Woo hoo. Now comes the fun bit, or not so fun depending who you ask. Hoping to move to the Gold Coast and we aim to move out in August when the 2 kids finish school for the year. Our youngest is 6 so in primary school. Eldest will be 16 when we go and leaving high school in the UK. One of my concerns is if we leave in Mid August, we won't be able to secure a school for the youngest till the next term which starts in October! That's 1 hell of a holiday from school....not something I'm keen on as its too log in my eyes if school. Has anyone else had the same problems when moving out? How have they coped with holidays etc? Is there a good time to go? In temped to leave it till sept and just try and get her in at the start of the last term, my partner is keen to leave earlier!! Anyone help with this dilemma?? Hi We have 2 boys, 11 and 8 when we moved out last year. We also moved to Gold Coast and came here in the August. As we were in holiday accomodation in Brisbane for the first 4 weeks and we knew we were going to settle on the Gold Coast, we didn't start them at the school until after we had moved in to our long term rental. We moved in here just as the school hols were starting so they started at the start of October. Yes it was a long break for them, but we enjoyed it as a family - doing necessary things but also fun touristy things. They started in the October and haven't looked back !! Both very happy as are we as the parents. Happy to help if you need any more advice Rachel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaronspark Posted March 6, 2015 Author Share Posted March 6, 2015 Brill thank you Rachel, what school are your children attending and was it quite easy getting a place as long as you were in the catchment area? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fossda Posted March 6, 2015 Share Posted March 6, 2015 Brill thank you Rachel, what school are your children attending and was it quite easy getting a place as long as you were in the catchment area? They are at Pimpama Secondary College (eldest been elected class leader - ceremony was today - proud mum alert!) and Coomera Rivers Primary. We were in catchment for both so no problems. Have only positive things to say re the schools and highly rec them both. They are strict on discipline and things like uniform etc. Also lots more homework than the UK but on the up side - the boys are really enjoying learning and really engaging with it. The eldest has always been a bit of a braniac (no idea where it comes from!) and is in the academic extension program. The youngest struggled a bit in the UK and always seemed to be bored with schooling and homework - like he couldn't wait to be doing something else, whereas now, he talks for ages about what he's been up to that day, can't wait to tell me what he's learnt, jumps straight in to homework and actually finds it a challenge in a good way. Also things like spellings and maths have come on leaps and bounds. UK school was amazing too, it they just both enjoy school and get more out of it here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaronspark Posted March 8, 2015 Author Share Posted March 8, 2015 Thanks for reply Rachel, we are looking at all the different suburbs but seem to keep coming back to hope island and Helensvale area... My eldest daughter will be 16 when we get there and my youngest 6 so just panicking about where to send them. My youngest struggles with her maths so hopefully she ll start improving also.... Our main concern is coming out mid August and not being able to enrol her until October as we will both be working and will struggle with child care etc. but does sound fun having a family extended holiday just unsure whether we would be able to manage that long out of work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NicF Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 Thanks for reply Rachel, we are looking at all the different suburbs but seem to keep coming back to hope island and Helensvale area... My eldest daughter will be 16 when we get there and my youngest 6 so just panicking about where to send them. My youngest struggles with her maths so hopefully she ll start improving also....Our main concern is coming out mid August and not being able to enrol her until October as we will both be working and will struggle with child care etc. but does sound fun having a family extended holiday just unsure whether we would be able to manage that long out of work. There is nothing stopping you enrolling your daughter as soon as you get here. You do not have to wait until the start of a new term. She can start part way through a term. Many people who have moved have started their children part way through the term. There is nothing unusual in this and I do not understand why you keep saying she has to wait until October. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fossda Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 Hi As NicF says above - no reason why you can't enrol the children as soon as you arrive even if part way through a term. The schools seem to be used to it round here especially as it's a high growth area and lots of new families moving all the time. The only thing is depending on the school they may want to see more proof of residency in the catchment area ie a rental contract rather than just a short term holiday let. Ours started in the new term as that's just the way the timing worked out - we arrived 21 Aug and had our holiday let in central Brisbane for 1 month but were actually moving to Gold Coast. We have a brand new house and waited for it to finish being built which tied in nicely with the end of our holiday let time thankfully. It just so happened that it was also the start of he school holidays, so they started after the break. Childcare and holiday care is a bit of a problem when first arriving as you don't know anyone and don't know what the schools have regarding before and after school care. We are lucky that we've been able to manage on my wage alone so hubby has been able to stay at home and sorting out the children etc. We had planned for this as we were worried about the long summer school holidays and not knowing how we would manage re childcare. Helensvale and Hope Island lovely. We have been to the marina area at Hope Island / Sanctuary Cove a few times for lunch or a wander amongst the million dollar yachts and Helensvale is def an area I would consider if the children weren't already settled in school. There's some nice houses, lots of activities around and good for shopping and cinemas etc. School also has a very good name good Luck with it all Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaronspark Posted March 9, 2015 Author Share Posted March 9, 2015 Reason we're thinking October is if we touch down In August then stay in a Holiday let for 4 weeks till we find something permanent, the school holidays will have started in Sept by the time we have an adrs to use for the enrolment. Helensvale/hope island sound great. Thanks again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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