Go Banana's !!

4th Aug.

Not feeling very funny today - education side of things completely doing my head in.

Don't have any illusions, if you think your child will get a better education in OZ you could be in for a shock, especially if you are moving from the private system, they don't even come close to the school Midge came from and that wasn't a snobby top school.

It would make depressing reading, probably get me into some cyber arguments and I just haven't got it in me today. When I have done some more digging, found out what's what and I have my facts straight I'll come back on line.

In a nutshell the state school she is at put her in year 2/3 split class, which I thought was the correct year for her age, but it isn't, she should be in year 1 because she was born in the year 1st July 1997 - 30th June 1998 (DOB 31/7/97)

They have said today that she is above year 3 levels work and so in Jan will go into year 4 (school year runs Jan - Dec, which is confusing when the age cut off runs 1st July - 30th June)

BUT that presents me with a major problem because no Private Senior school will touch her unless she is in her pier year which means she'd have to go back and repeat 2 years - I said I wasn't going go through all this!!!

Spoken to both educational bodies for state and private and they both say the same. She would be going into senior school at the age of 11 when the rest would be 13 - which in it's self is not good.

It's Government regulations for WA and so ther is no budging. Right now I'd happily get back on that plane and start her back at her school for Sept - never had this hassle and with the best will in the world couldn't have really predicted it until we got here.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, don't slate me for this, it's how I feel about education, not an opinion I ram down peoples throats, I'm hoping this information will help someone, hindsight is a wondeful thing. It's the boredom Midge is experiencing in class which is the real worry, so extra tuition would just make matters worse. Nobody has to agree with me on this one as it's a personal thing.

So will come back on line after the site upgrade when I have sorted my head out.

Jill

NickyC

Have a look around on the web for a gifted children association in WA. There's one here in NSW who offer advice to parents, run special courses etc. They may be able to help you with suggestions or ideas. You cannot be the first parent in WA to be experiencing issues like this.

In the NSW state system they have 'Opportunity Classes' (for Year 5 and 6) in some primary schools. This is where the gifted, talented and accelerated children (in the public system) usually end up. Do they not have such classes in WA? Kids usually go direct from the 'opportunity class' to selective High Schools (where everyone is gifted or talented in some way!)

I'm sure there must be some private schools that will accept accelerated children - some schools in Sydney actively promote their acceleration procedures to encourage enrolments (probably because clever children make them look good).

Just a thought.

NedKelly63

I'd really like to know more about this. I was under the impression that education in Australia was much better than the UK. (Don't ask me where this notion comes from - perhaps I've been subconciously hoodwinked by the 'UK is Crap' brigade).

finsbury

Hi Jill,

It's Finsbury's other half here. Have been reading your posts with great interest and was sorry to hear you're not having much luck with the school.

A web site that might be useful to look at is

www.eddept.wa.edu.au/gifttal/

This is the Western Australian Education Department site about gifted education and seems to have a number of tips for schools and parents about gifted kids.

Another that might be useful is

www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/schoolsinwa.html

This seems to be a personal web site that lists all of the schools that have programs set up specially for gifted children. Not sure if any of the listed schools are in your area but might at least be worth having a chat to some of them to see what they offer.

I hope things get better soon.

Cheers

Vegemite Kids

Jill,
was having a chat down the shops yesterday with this bloke who was telling me about his cousins son who is 16 and at university. Apparently this laddie is academically very gifted and has been accelerated although the school system.

If its possible for him to meet uni entrance requirements at 15 (as he was when he started uni), there must be some way that he went through high school earlier. Unfortunately I didnt think to ask how that was achieved, justa ssuming there were accelerated programs.

Now with you saying this I'm kicking myself. Must go back and loiter at the shopping centre to see if I can find him again

One thing this chap was saying though is that his cousins son is struggling socially cos he is with people in the 20-21 age group.

tiredwithtwins

hullo jill,
have no idea how i found this, but may help...

http://www.eddept.wa.edu.au/Gifttal/

think its what someone else just posted though,so apologies if repeating...!!!

sue

Grayling

Hi Jill
I hope everything works out for you

Before people start talking about educational provoision for 'gifted' children it is worth looking at what Jill said in her original post:

Quote:"She said that she had had a meeting with the Head regarding Littlen's education programme. They are going to test her with some standard Australian tests to find out how she stacks up with Oz children - but on the surface they have a child who is considerably brighter than the rest of the children in her class. (her class is 7 -9 year olds and she is 7)
BTW - I'm not boasting about this, it's just information as the majority of the UK children they have in the school are brighter than the Oz children, but all hope is not lost, they do have resources and help to deal with it. Some of you may come across these issues and if you know that something can be done then it's reassuring."

No disrespect to Jill and her daughter but it may simply be as Jill said:" The majority of the UK children they have in the school are brighter than the Oz children".

There is an important point which could be lost here.
Any child who started in the UK system may be in a similar position. Perhaps it is a reflection on the differences in the systems.
If so then any parent who moves their child to Australia may find themselves in the same position.

Sorry to go off on a tangent Jill but you have raised an important issue here.

Best wishes

G

Grayling

So as not to hijack Jill's thread I will start a new one.

G

Go Banana's !!

5th Aug

I've put a small update on the 'Australian Education' thread started by Grayling. That's it now, unles something drastic happens then, subject closed, or if I find out something that might be of interest to you guys.

I did stumble upon a lovely school near Freemantle, but that would mean an hour drive and you can kiss that! but I will put her name down as by 2010 who knows where we will be. They did tell me they had places now, which I tried not to think about , but that would be just too much and at the end of the day Midge is pretty happy at the school, has been reading stories to the class and lucky her , will be getting extra work and extra homework!!.

I have to say, the school have been brilliant and as the headmaster and I discused at length, she could cope with year 4 work, but socially that could be a disaster. He's more worried about her getting bored than I am. The teacher said after the initial hesitations, she has become much more forward in lessons. She comes home most days with awards, stars etc and once they have got 10 they get a lolly - which she thinks is fab. So in the words of the country 'no worries'

All the private schools I have contacted so far, regularly take in children a year ahead. It just means she will be the youngest in the class, by no more than a year, which was the case in the UK anyway.

All I need to worry about is getting my hair sorted. Aunty has taken Midge to school this morning, so I'm going to have a long soak in the bath, put a face pack on and scare the dog. He's fine BTW and very well behaved. Then off to a little expats gossip and cake fest.

When I have more time I will wafflke on about what else is going on.
Take care
Jill

wombat42

Pommie children may be brighter then Aussie childeren as you say, but at least Aussie children are not nerd book worms, stuck indoors all day because of crap cold weather, a recent study showed that Aussie kids are taller and more healthy then Pommie kids.

wombat42

[QUOTE]Originally posted by wombat42
Pommie children may be brighter then Aussie childeren as you say, but at least Aussie children are not nerd book worms, stuck indoors all day because of crap cold weather, a recent study showed that Aussie kids are taller and more healthy then Pommie kids. There is a lot more to life then academic suucess not all kids want to grow up to be brain surgeons or rocket scientisits.

hevs

Just to chuck a spanner in the works of yet another survey, but BOTH my kids are the tallest in their class (july birthdays)

mlbonner

[QUOTE]Originally posted by wombat42
Why call a child a nerd because they like to read books? Not everyone is academically gifted, not everyone is good at sports. I'm sure the split is 'relatively' even at the end of the day anyway.

scoobydoo

[QUOTE]Originally posted by wombat42


Where did you get that one from?!!!!!

There are a lot of small kids in my sons class. Your comment is very offensive to some one who was bullied and witnessed a lot of bullying at school for being a "nerd".

Megalania

Time for another root.