School logisics/ questions - Moving from UK to Mornington

[Joanna N]

Hi 

I'm sure these must have been answered in various threads so apologies if so - looking for advice - we are looking to move to Mornington/ Mount Martha in January of next year. Currently our children (an August born boy - age 5 when we move - and February born girl - soon to be 7 when we move) are in primary school in the UK (a state OFSTED outstanding school). I have a couple of questions: 

1. year groups of the children when they move (our son is very young in his year group - which is currently reception year - being only 2 weeks in the threshold of the year group).

2. schools that are recommended in the areas mentioned above

3. how to we go about registering them - do we need to have an address in the area first/ how have others gone about doing this logistically in terms of move/ registering/ timings etc 

4. how long does the registration process take - and is there a chance they may not get in to a school at all (or end up in a school we don't feel is suitable)? 

 

We'd be super grateful if anyone who has been through this process recently with similar aged children could offer tips/ process information/ contacts that we should be in touch with? 

 

Many thanks - and apologies if this is long winded (my first post on the forum). 

[Ing]

Hi Joanna,  

I can't help with your post but we may be moving to Mornington too and have the same questions, although my boys are 8 and 10 so I am worried about timescales for applying to secondary schools. Ing

[Quoll]

9 hours ago, Joanna N said:

Hi 

I'm sure these must have been answered in various threads so apologies if so - looking for advice - we are looking to move to Mornington/ Mount Martha in January of next year. Currently our children (an August born boy - age 5 when we move - and February born girl - soon to be 7 when we move) are in primary school in the UK (a state OFSTED outstanding school). I have a couple of questions: 

1. year groups of the children when they move (our son is very young in his year group - which is currently reception year - being only 2 weeks in the threshold of the year group).

2. schools that are recommended in the areas mentioned above

3. how to we go about registering them - do we need to have an address in the area first/ how have others gone about doing this logistically in terms of move/ registering/ timings etc 

4. how long does the registration process take - and is there a chance they may not get in to a school at all (or end up in a school we don't feel is suitable)? 

 

We'd be super grateful if anyone who has been through this process recently with similar aged children could offer tips/ process information/ contacts that we should be in touch with? 

 

Many thanks - and apologies if this is long winded (my first post on the forum). 

Your son will be in Prep which is the first year of full time school. Your daughter in year 2.

Schools very much reflect the suburb they serve so if you wouldn’t want to live in a suburb you probably wouldn’t want to send your kid to school there.

General rule of thumb, find a house you’re prepared to live in 24/7 and the school will fall into place. They’re really much of a muchness - no frantic Ofstead chasing in Australia. So, find your home for all the things that tick your boxes - size, availability, cost, accessibility, proximity to other important things.  Once you’ve got your home, rock up to the local school with visas, evidence of residence and vaccination records and theoretically the kids can start there and then but they usually ask you to wait a day or two so they can organise.  If you don’t like the local school you can apply to any other school you fancy but they are under no obligation to take you - they may, they may not. Or you can look at private schools - some have long waiting lists others don’t.  There’s pretty much a parallel Catholic system.

Take your time to find your home. Nobody’s going to give a toss if the kids aren’t in school while you get organised.

Edited March 11, 2019 by Quoll