chris and farideh

We would like to share our experiences so far between the two school systems. In particular South Australia.

We have 3 children. 7, 11 and 17 and we arrived here in Adelaide in March this year.

In SA children study a 2 year course before leaving school and in order to get into higher education etc. (year's 11 and 12) The South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE). If your child has a full set of GCSE's then they are automatically exempt from year 11 and only need to complete year 12. There is no directly equivalent qualification to GCSE's and A levels. The SACE is somewhere in between. However, the students have a wider curriculum with compulsory subjects such as English and Australian Studies. So it doesn’t have the same depth. I can only assume that there's a foundation year in University here to make up for it.

When we enrolled our Son at his school we didn't know about the year 11 exemption (even though we asked, considering the numbers of British children in there) and by the time we had sorted it out, it was too late to enter year 12 this year. So don't let anyone tell you that UK qualifications aren’t worth anything. Speak to the local education authority before enrolling your child (they will have an office or person that deals with this exact subject) and make sure you have all contact details. Because sometimes the school can't be bothered to check!

Local authorities have a program called 'Open Access'. If your local school is unable to offer a particular subject due to insufficient pupil numbers then the child can still do it at the local college and the school covers the cost. The only thing is fitting it into the school timetable. But at least they go out of the way to try and accommodate all needs.

Having said all that, having realised their mistake they are doing everything they can to pull as many 1 and 2 semester courses from year 12 in to his year 11. But he will still need to complete year 12 next year.

Please note that each state has its own version of SACE. It was on the Ausie news a couple of months ago that there was to be a discussion on aligning school leaving qualifications (maybe a federal certificate?)

Our younger children (7 and 11) are at the local Primary School. (They don’t go to Secondary School till they’re 13).

So far we have seen none of the pressures at school that they had in the UK. For the 7 year old, he is allowed to progress at his own rate. He has ‘set tasks’ that he takes home such as spelling and reading. All others are completed in the class. There is none of this exam rubbish and league tables for them to worry about and I must say he seems so much better for it. However a word of warning: The primary level seems to be a bit ahead of the UK so we’re doing a little extra each week to get him to the standard of the class.

For the 11 year old, her biggest problem is disciplining herself to meet a deadline for all her work. What I mean is, at her age the children are not set a piece of work exclusively for home. Homework seems to be a continuation of what they haven’t finished off in the class over a range of subjects. Work seems to be grouped and each group has deadlines. If they don’t complete all the work on time they fail the unit. If they fail the year they don’t move into the next year level and have to repeat it. So until they learn self discipline keep on at them as they have a lot of work to organise themselves around.

Finally, (Phew, I hear you say) For all you parents out there. Our primary school in the UK had 2 sets of ‘spiked’ steel gates/walls to get through + a set of intercoms if you wanted to get into the building to collect the kids. Children were not let out of the class till the parent showed themselves to the teacher. My son’s Sixth form college had a single person entry revolving door, + security guards. Here, the schools have a 1m fence just to keep the kids from running onto the road. (Won’t even keep the ball in). Once the bell goes they’re outside playing footy, climbing trees etc. till they’re collected. Australians have the same social problems as in the UK but they don’t let it rule their lives and they don’t wrap their kids in cotton wool trying to avoid life.

midwife2be

Great Post

Education is one of my main concerns/worries and people on here seem to think its quite dire in oz, I like the idea of no fence/intercom etc, kids in the uk are being suffocated with too many rules

Dont get me wrong, I have many more rules than the school but they're kids after all and your only young once

I'm going to WA so not sure if it is the same there? Maybe someone will be along and expand on your post?!

Cheers

louise

Great post, agree with midwife to be, education is my main worry.

We are going to Queensland so will probably be different again

mand8002

We came to Queensland with a 10yr old and a 17yr old. The eldest one went to TAFE (college) to complete a diploma and the younger one went into primary school.
We found that the only subject she was ahead in was maths (but she was in the UK so no difference there). She was way behind in I.T as they use it so much for things here. If she forgot work that she had done on the computer at home she used to get me to email it to her at school. On the maths front, the school made sure they gave her work to challenge her so she did not get bored.
As for the rest of school life, she loved it. She played on the adventure playground at break times and forever had blisters on her hands as they don't get that experience in school in the UK. She had a very rounded education and thoroughly enjoyed her time there. She wishes we had come earlier so she could have had more years there.
They do have to be self motivated, as in subjects such as history, they are not just presented the facts, they have to research things themselves. She found this much more rewarding. Projects played a big part, as did delivering power point presentations and group work, this will all be useful to her in later life.
I hope this helps, and this is just my opinion on the education at one particular school.

Amanda

chris and farideh

Good luck ladies. I hope it all works out for you and your families when you finally get here.

All the best

Chris