Victoria must just be more expensive

Here is a link to the Catholic Fees in NSW: http://www.ceo.syd.catholic.edu.au/faqs/#no.11

Annual Fees (2005)
Primary:
K-6 $750
Secondary:
7-8 $1,050
9-10 $1,155
11-12 $1,545

It is pretty similar to QLD. I know someone who had 4 kids in a QLD Catholic School, and they paid $1,800 per year for the lot (effectively $450 each)

Please can I have anyones advice, especially if they've been in my situation. My son , who is 14, is doing really well at school here in the UK. We got another letter from his school congratulating him on being within the top 10% of his year this year(and also last year too) He's also a nice teenager too and were both proud of him Do you think we should wait 2 years for him to take his GCSE's here before we leave to go to Oz? If we apply for a visa now and leave,say a year without him taking any exams in the UK, what's the scenario regarding schools and his further education when we arrive in Oz? Also, what exams do Aussie schoolkids take as an equivilant to our GCSE's at 16? Many thanks for listening. This is our major stumbling block which determines whether we leave either next year or Sept 2008 when his exams are finished ( :scared: Yikes that's a long way away!)

My family waited for me to complete my GCSEs and then now Im moving over to do year 12... as AS Levels and A Levels are very hard to transfer over to aus as you are only doing 3-4 subjects here whereas you do around 6 in aussie... my advice would be let him do his GCSEs then thats them under his belt but then again its up to you and maybe its better to get out there sooner...

Hi..

We have three kids and my 7 year old will be starting school soon. We just came back from Sydney where we visited three public schools in the area that we are looking to be based. We looked at websites prior to going over and then we hired a car and drove around the schools and the areas surrounding the schools. If we liked the look of the area round about and the school did not look too run down we then called the Principal and arranged an appointment.

Everyone was very helpful. I called one school at 9am (only three days into the new school year) and they we were down getting a tour round with the principal half an hour later. They are pretty thorough too. One school visit took more than an hour. The education system looks OK but what is very apparent is that some schools have better facilities than others and you need to ask about what facilities they have. Class sizes ranged from 18 to 31 pupils per class. One school we went to had a very high percentage of ethnic minority families where a fair percentage did not speak english to a good standard, whereas a school 5 mins away we visited we could not see any ethnic minority kids , this school had double the number of students than the first.(Please let it be known I am not rascist in any way at all, merely an observation).

As far as cathcment areas go. They are pretty flexible and it is down to the Principal . If there is enough room you will get in. The school must offer a place if you live within the boundary, if you dint it depnds on class sizes.

Hope that helps

Thanks for your replies so far Scotty...So you've just taken your GCSE's and then you're going straight to year 12 in Aus when you get there this year? What happens after Year 12? Do you get the chance to go to a college of further education after that? Sorry for all the questions!

Craig..you got PM

There are exams taken at age 16 in NSW which would be the equivalent of GSCEs - it's called the School Certificate and it's basically worthless. Everyone gets the certificate as long as they attended school. You cannot really fail the exams.

The only exams that are actually worth anything are those taken at age 18 (Higher School Certificate or HSC) after Year 12. It's a 2 year course so it's unlikely that anyone can go directly into Year 12 and do well, you need to have done Year 11 as well. HSC results are used to calculate the UAI which is the ranking used for University entrance in NSW.

I agree with nickyc, dont bother doing GCSE's they dont count for anything here. My daughter is 15 and was also in the top 10% in her school in the UK and due to take her GCSE's this year. We came to Aus instead and she has started year 11 here in one of the better public schools and is no longer top of the class (not bottom either, thank goodness). She plans to go on to Uni and loves school here, which is something she hasn't for the last couple of years in England. It is the best thing we could have done. It was a huge dilema for us not knowing if we were doing the right thing leaving before her GCSE's. I don't regret it for a second.

The following is for tuition and school fees only - excludes school uniforms, overseas trips, sports, school trips etc. Seems expensive but when compared to paying well over £12000 per year for a "reasonable" nursery in SE UK seems cheap.

Age Year Annual Cost
3 9592
4 10196
5 Prep 11648
6 1 12200
7 2 12200
8 3 13772
9 4 13772
10 5 14324
11 6 14324
12 7 15896
13 8 15896
14 9 16448
15 10 16448
16 11 16944
17 12 16944
210604

I just want to say a thank you to all those that took the trouble to write some very detailed posts, I will print them out and have a good read later.

Thanks once again

Same here, daughter 14 and down for 11 A/A* at GCSE. I took the view that uni is what counts and not GCSEs. Year 10 is the key year to ge them into because although they do the VCE (for uni entrance) in years 11 and 12, you are allowed to do extra VCEs in year 10 to boost your ENTER score. ENTER is equiv of 'A' level points. For the best unis you need the best ENTER and I decided it was in her interest to get into school here asap. With the VCE ( or state equiv) they can get into a British Uni if they want to go back there, remembering they will finish exams in Dec when they are 18 so will have to wait until following October to join British Uni and be a year behind their old mates. However, if you take evidence your kid is bright they give them the option of jumping a year and effectively stay in the same school year as they were in the UK (school starts a year later here). Both my kids decided to stay with kids of their own age (14 and 11) and went back a year. I want clever kids who can talk to anybody as that is what counts in helping them get on in life so I didn't push them to skip and show how clever they are. Unfortunately, they both know they are cleverer than me. I will be recommending to the kids to do Uni here and go back to UK for work experience/postgrad.

Ian

Ian, if your son is bright you may want to investigate the entrance requirements for Melbourne High School. He would still need to train it almost to the city but I am certain the fees are no where close to the nearby private schools. I think boys start there in year 9 (age 14).

The girls school equivalent is MacRobertson Girls High.

Kate

hey yeah I did... the parents thought it was best for me to get my GCSEs under my belt but then again everyones different and has difference views on whats best... I got very good results in this 5A* 3A and 1B... and so instead of going onto do AS Levels im going to join year 12 in aus. They offer an assesment of these grades I obtained:

http://www.qsa.qld.edu.au/yrs11_12/a.../os/index.html

and so they will convert my grades obtained into the equivalent ones in aussie... not everyones fav way but I didnt mind it.

Regards,
Scott

Thanks, Kate.

This is my plan. If he's good enough, by then he should be wise enough to accept the commute. Fantastic results at MHS. http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/vce/stati.../pccia2005.pdf

Ian

This is from today's Times. Thought you may be interested. It made me think WOW.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspap...060646,00.html


Tests at 11 to decide places at university
By Alexandra Blair, Education Correspondent


MOVES to cherry-pick the brightest children in England’s state schools from the age of 11 for places at top universities are set to begin within weeks, The Times has learnt.

The controversial plan, which will spark fears among Labour MPs of a new system of “super-selection”, is hailed by academics as a way of opening up university admissions without lowering standards.

But critics fear that students who develop later will be left out because the process hinges on tests in the final year of primary school.

Universities will be encouraged to select the brightest children by establishing early links with them.

In coming weeks, secondary heads will be told the names of the cleverest pupils and that they will be held accountable if their students fail to get three A grades at A level.

Leading universities will be asked to contact the children’s families, uring them to join holiday courses or summer schools, with a view to applying later.

The move, which turns the final-year primary school exam in effect into a university entrance test, is expected to be welcomed by the top universities anxious that wider access does not lower academic standards.

Critics will ask whether the national curriculum test is the best measure of a child’s potential and point to the impact it will have on pupils who fail to make the grade.

The revelation will also fuel fears of academic selection as Tony Blair prepares to publish the education Bill and makes a last-ditch case today for his reforms at a seminar in Downing Street. Labour rebels and unions fear that it could mean back-door selection at the expense of the worst off.

One backbencher said last night that it was impossible to track a child’s potential from such an early age.

The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, which is coordinating the register, is set to tell heads how many of England’s top 5 per cent are in their schools and what they are expected to do to support them.

The talent search has identified 180,000 children aged 11-17 from their Key Stage 2 exams, taken by all pupils attending state primary schools.

Sir Cyril Taylor, chairman of the trust, is determined that no child should be overlooked as a result of a poor secondary school education.

In the letter, he will tell heads: “We’d be grateful if you’d ensure they’re given the necessary support to realise their potential and we’re going to track these children independently at KS3, GCSE and A levels. And if these children don’t get 3 As at A level we want to know the reason why. Because they should but the facts are that only about a third of them are.”

Schools will be held accountable after studies showed that the top 5 per cent of 11-year-olds who go on to state school are half as likely to get three As as those who enter private schools.

Heads will be urged to register the names with the National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth (Nagty) at Warwick University, which will act as a pool to coordinate support programmes.

“What they don’t want to be told is to lower their admission standards to meet some strange quota of comprehensive school intakes. I passionately believe you should only get into Oxford and Cambridge if you’ve qualified,” said Sir Cyril. “But what is an outrage is that we have 20,000 very able children in comprehensives who don’t get the three As at A level that they should do.”

If parents give the academy permission, pupils’ details will be passed on to universities. Data protection rules will be amended to enable this.

The colleges at Cambridge have divided up England’s regions between them and will contact the academy for the names of children in their area. Dr Geoff Parks, the admissions tutor, says that this will be fairer. “At the moment, it’s a bit hit and miss . . . we’re targeting some schools in given areas, but it could be more effective. Anecdotally, there are concerns that some schools are offering us the best behaved and not putting forward the most talented who can often be the most difficult,” he said.

Dr Parks, who is a member of the Nagty Friends Group, conceded that the Key Stage 2 test was “not perfect”.

Many private schools opt out of the final-year tests, leading to fears that pupils could be frozen out of the best universities.

Ian Gibson, the rebel Labour MP for Norwich North, said that the education Bill would still mean “back-door selection”.