Moving interstate, trouble finding school place

[Guest StuckontheCC]

Hi,

 

We are hopefully moving interstate from the Central Coast to Melbourne looking at the East and Bayside areas.

 

I have already emailed a whole heap of private schools and so far two have got back to me saying there are no places for my 4.5 year old and no chance of getting my 3 year old into ELC next year.

 

Does anyone have any tips or experienced this and what did you do?

 

Cheers

 

CC

[Guest The Pom Queen]

Unfortunately private schools are usually always over subscribed, at the minute your children are still young, personally I would be looking for a good primary school and get their names down for starting private when they reach high school age.

Kate

[Guest dermedicus]

Our experience of Melbourne thusfar is that the majority of parents are trying to afford some level of private education for their children, and most will have registered their children at birth for the key entry years. This leaves newcomers with the option of either scholarships or government education. The latter does not seem to be particularly crash hot, although the individual experience varies widely within the same school as well as between schools. I would look for a public school and make sure you visit during school hours. We are in the process of changing our children's school because we failed to assess things properly in advance. Just walking around the campus recently was enough to hear shocking expletives from young children in groups regularly enough to eludicate to me why this school is not for our kids.

[Guest StuckontheCC]

Thanks for your replies.

 

My back up plan is to try and get my eldest into pre school or a day care with a kindy and then enrol into a public primary. But I did like the idea of putting him into an ELC and stay in the same school as we have moved a lot over the last three years.

 

The problem for me is that he is born in May so wont be eligible to start primary school until Jan 2013. He currently attends a kindy at a day care centre three days a week which is a life saver for me as he is very full on and I have a 2.5 year old boy and a 1 year old girl (all done on the kid front I promise!)

 

I'm presuming that getting a place at a child care centre will also be difficult just like in Sydney.

 

The thought of having him at home for the next year is actually terrifying.

[Guest StuckontheCC]

Hi Kate,

 

Just saw that you do relocations..*head slap*! :-)

 

Could you pm your prices and services, as I think I may need some help when we come down to do a visit.

 

Cheers

[Surf N Turf]

Hi, we arrived in Mel in Jan with a 4 year old who turned 5 in May. Nothing planned in advance (as you do) and lucked out with a kinder place (Fawkner Park - amazing) which has then lead to a state primary enrollment for Jan in a lovely small school. I say this just to give you heart that things can fall into place and not to assume that all good places are taken or that it's too late to sort something out.

 

Kinder places (3 - 5 year olds) seem to open up more easily than for the younger ages as staff/child ratios are lower and kids sometimes move on to schools or into other catchment areas. We were also offered a couple of days in another lovely centre so this wasn't a one off fluke. Try to stay positive and just be prepared to do the rounds when you arrive.

 

Do you know about the Care for Kids website? It lists places with vacancies for each area though it's not gospel as our one said no places and yet we were offered 3 days.

 

Good luck. I'm sure you'll work something out.