normanandjulieoz

Hi all can anybody tell me the best time to move from UK with young kids in school, We have 4 kids, 9,7,5,3 JUST NOW, AND LOOKING AT BEST TIME SO THEY ARE NOT DICTURBED WITH SCHOOLING ETC,

ANY HELP ME APPRECIATED, OR ANYBODY ELSE WITH YOUNG KIDS SIMILAR WITH EXPERIENCES

Antney

The school year in Australia runs from January to December, if that's any help.

rebnatoli

We moved over in June 07 and our kids (8 and 6 at the time) started school at the beginning of Term 3 - however in hindsight I wish I had moved so that they could have started at the beginning of the school year as this is when all the sign-ons for various school activities happen and you get all the information etc about what goes on in the school. It probably doesn't matter in the long term but if you have a choice then its worth thinking about.

Dorothy

It's really a personal choice as to when you want to move your children. Ours started school in August/September when we first migrated and then when we moved interstate it was June.

Just as an aside, it is considered bad form to use the caps lock to write on an internet forum. It's considered shouting, which could be seen as rude. Besides, it's hard to read.

quoll

It really doesnt matter when they start during the school year. Kids in Australia are notoriously itinerant and there are comings and goings all year so no one is going to be fazed by having new kids in their class. If kids come in during the year, there is often a nice little honeymoon period when every man and his dog wants to be friends with the new kid.

The only disadvantage could be that if you were trying to negotiate an out of area placement for children after the census date (usually mid February) when schools are more likely to say that they dont have space in particular age groups which could be full (they dont get additional resources if the kid isnt counted in census). If you are just going to enrol in your local school then no worries, there will always be places.

Rosscarbery

If you have the luxury of choice I would say not to arrive during school holidays here, you won't be able to look around the schools (you really need to see them in action) and you're likely to be desperate to get them sorted asap so risk making the wrong choice (I speak from experience!).

Also remember, depending on when you move, your youngest might still be in pre-school rather than "proper" school as they tend to start later here.

Personally I would say the optimal thing would be to visit schools around the end of term 3 here (i.e. around now), and let them do term 4 in the same year that they would just have finished in the UK. That will give them time to settle down in a new system, make friends, find their feet etc. without any real pressure (not of course that they should be feeling pressure at their ages, but you know what I mean!). They then, hopefully, have found friends to meet up with over the Summer holidays and they would start the new school year with some kids they already know.

I'm making the assumption that you're looking at public schools, if you want private I would think that it could be very difficult to get places for that many kids at the same time if the school is any way decent. Our school will "bulge" a class short-term for family completion, but not all schools will as other parents would moan too much.

normanandjulieoz

thanks to all who replied to my thread

sorry for caps lock to everyone, new to this psoting stuff, aplogies etc,

thansk fro info on kids etc,, that is my worst fear, is disturbing the kids education etc,,


is it betetr ove rtehir, or same as in uk,, or just depends on kids

ABCDiamond

It will depend on many factors.
How your kids are with adapting
Which State you go to
Which school you go to
Which teacher you get

There are good schools in Australia and UK
There are bad schools in Australia and UK
There are good teachers in Australia and UK... etc

Comparing my 12 year old to a 12 year old in the UK, I am very happy with the Australian result. But that's just comparing two specific children.

If the children prefer to spend all their spare time at the beach and not study, as some Australian kids do, then they would suffer compared to those who concentrate on the home work.

calNgary

Hi my son started in january if we had the choice i would of gone for aug/sept it was in the high 30 on his first day at school, you dont need the heat when you are trying to get kids settled, rental house, cars ect