Ev'n'John

The engineering consultancy I work for in Central London employs numerous Australian engineering graduates on a short-term basis. I have always felt that they more than "hold their own" compared to the equivalent UK qualified engineering graduates. They seem to have had a much more "rounded" education, having studied more subjects and usually have been involved with team sports and outdoor activities on a regular basis. There also seems to be much more academic rigour to their typical engineering degree and they are able to fit into a UK design office very quickly (usually better than the average UK engineering graduate).

In my view, (based on admittedly limited experience), Australian students seem to start slowly at Primary School level (starting school later than UK children and not working towards tests etc.), but they seem to get to at least an equivalent level in the end?

Sandra

With you all the way on your concerns - but there is hope - YOU. You know what is best for your child, finding a decent school for the type of child you have was a concern in the UK not luck. I am not going into lots of details here, you are welcome to email me privately via the site.

But for general information, I also have a bright child, not a genius by any means but every child is perfect to his parents! 11 years old when we moved here 7 months ago on a temp visa waiting for PR still, I thought about private but thought it was unfair since we didn't know the long term implications of our stay. This short term solution might also be a concern for lots of us, what if we uproot and move shortly after moving over and move again!

I actually moved house in the UK, ok not far, but to ensure my child was in the catchment area for a decent state school, because I could I know - but also because we choose to do what we think is right for our children. The same options are here you will find information on your local area government websites and do the same research you did for child in the UK here as well.

I checked local areas that I planned to try and live and moved (renting) in an area because of what I read/heard about a specific school. I am in Sydney and therefore schooling differs slightly in different states and I only know NSW. Different schools have streaming and opportunity classes in primary to assist the bright kids achieve. My son was year seven when he moved in May and therefore joined the mainstream year, yesterday he came home with his letter of acceptance into the GAT class! Basically in his half year at school they have recognised his results and achievements and moved him into a top streamed class to push him further, the real fun part, he is thrilled. He also said he has just had his best week at school, his class did a water awareness week at Balmoral Beach all day every day! So I am getting both a very happy child in Aus, because of the attitude in schools and a child who also wants to achieve. But I planned as much as possible because I knew/know my child and you do too.

I think what I am trying to say is you know your child and will do the best for them. My son was in a really decent school in the UK - we did not move here for his education alone (I knew better) we moved for us, but you will contine to do your best for your child regardless of education levels in district/county/country. School is only a very small part of a childs education and I would argue that point with any parent. You teach them attitude and opportunity and can make sure they take it. So I am in a way agreeing with Marlo on that point, also with Ev'n'John - great opportunities for all round education, with a push in the right direction from family.

cheers and sorry if I sound self rightous - must be the lovely NSW wine being drunk, cause the Syndey fires are 15km away!

ianduggan5

Sandra,

Can you give any pointers or links as to where you found the Sydney schools information. We intend to move to Sydney in the near future and this is the last piece of information that we need to select where we are going to live. Information about schools seems to be very hard to find!

hollywood110

Give this a try its helpful.

http://www.aussiemove.com

ianduggan5

hollywood110,

Been there! Unfortunately it does not contain any information about Sydney, it's says that the information for Sydney will be available next year.

hollywood110

Sorry Ian

I fount that out as soon as I posted!
Might be helpful to someone else moving to Perth or elsewhere.

Mandy Bale

Hi, Don't want to dismiss everything that people have replied so far but just thought I'd add my view on the school our kids are going to near Sydney. Bearing in mind though that our kids are still young and we are yet to experience the serious years of school, but after reading the previous threads we feel very lucky to have found a good school.

We are very happy with the school they are in in Cherrybrook which is a state school www.jpps.net . Before we left the UK we were told by our daughters teacher that she was 6 months ahead of the class in her reading ability (she's in year 1) and our Son who was in reception class was having all sorts of social problems, his teacher was sending him from class to class just to get him out of her way! He would go to school crying and come home crying, often coming home with nose bleeds and just generally very stressed, on the point of us taking him to therapy (this is a 5 year old we are talking about!!). When they started school here we were told our daughter was way behind in her reading and after 8 months she is now catching up, having so much dedication from the teachers, and our son is very happy, he has a fantastic teacher and always comes home smiling. I often wonder how he would have turned out if we had stayed in the UK, and just remembering all the problems we had makes the move all worth while. Here his teacher says he is a very talented child and he comes home with so much work and excells in reading and spelling. In the school in the UK I always felt they didn't give him enough work which was why he was becoming disruptive and problematic but they didn't seem to see that. But on the other hand we did come from Thurrock in Essex which is regarded as the 'crap hole' of essex and the schools weren't particularly good. My brother lived in the same area and his son is 'gifted' but he managed to get his son into another school in another area as the school he was in in Thurrock refused to recognise his talent and wouldn't offer extra work to challenge him! Perhaps if we had been in a different area in the UK things may have turned out differently, but at the time the only option we had to 'better' our life was to emigrate and Australia offered everything we wanted (we had considered the other options), and to be honest, this has been the best decision we have made! OK so there are problems here and the bush fires are getting awfly close but we and the kids are still better off than before, more than just financially.

mashiraz

Thanks everyone for all your experiences. It really has helped myself and my hubby ponder the issue niggling in our minds.

We basically now realise that the quality of education will be very school and teacher dependant, but it is up to us to ensure that we give them the best opportunity whether in Oz or UK.

If we stay in UK we'll have to move to get them to a good secondary school and house prices for those areas are ridiculous. I don't really believe in private ed system in UK. I experienced it briefly myself and it's not what I want for my kids.

In OZ, as long as we choose the school well, support our kids ourselves aswell, and pass on our own values - they should grow up pretty sound, happy and balanced people and able to make their own choices about UK vs OZ and Uni etc...

Thank you..
Mash..

Sandra

Hi There IanDuggan5

I started with - http://www.det.nsw.gov.au/

I also contacted individual private schools and asked lots of questions on email usually, some helpful some not. I was lucky in a sense I had a specific area in mind where we wanted to base ourselves. So I concentrated on that.

I also tried this site - http://www.isd.com.au/

Need to keep eye on internet articles in the papers - not all are informative but some have extra links - http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...%2Cbestschools^^TEXT%2C00.html

Excellent Magazine and online - http://www.sydneyschild.com.au/welcome.htm

There is another site, cannot find my link at the moment, you are welcome to contact me by PM if I can be of any further help.

Have fun looking

Cheers

anzen12

We also live in Sydney and would agree that the standard appears to be very good. I am particularly impressed with both the broad base of education my son receives (each term they seem to expose the kids to something new) and the ability to stream subject by subject. My experiences of school in the UK are from the sixties, so it would be unfair to compare - (my memories are terrible), but we have no complaints about the Aussie system.

My son is now in year 3 of a selective high school (similar to the grammer schools - do they still have those in the UK?) and he receives a considerable amount of challenging homework, he takes part in regular state wide maths, science and English tests (where he can compare himself to the rest of the state), but most importantly he really enjoys school. I used to hate the place. so I think they must be doing something right.

ianduggan5

Thanks for the links Sandra

Some new one that I have not seen before. Sats in the UK are at least good from the parents point of view to find out how a school is doing even though the tests are a pain for students and teachers alike.

Ian

ianduggan5

anzen12

I am glad that there are others that are finding that the Sydney schools are of a good standard. My schooling is from a similar time as yours in the UK and I acheived sod all due to poor teaching, later found out that I was quite intelligent, much to my surprise!

Yes they still have Grammer schools in the UK my eldest is in Year 12 at one of the best in the country and we hope that our middle son will pass his 11+ before we leave for Aus, test taken just awaiting the result. The Gammers are undeniably excellent in the UK, I would go back to school to my sons tomorrow if I could and actually get an education, but I would not look forard to the homework, three hours a night seems to be the average for our son, although I must admit that he does extra to maintain A*. He is looking forward to Aus schools as they do more sport and he hope less homework and asks the question "How much homework does your child do each night?"

Ian

anzen12

Ian

I know what you mean. I left school at 15 and thinking I was thick, headed for London, hoping those proverbial streets of gold would spread a bit of luck. As it happens they didn't but I met up with some good people - and the rest is history.

My son's homework averages about two to three hours a night. However, he can spend a lot of time at weekends working on projects. These are mostly quite interesting and he is happy trawling the internet for information and then writing his reports. At his age of 14, he seems to have to do a lot of reading and then summarising the results.

Incidentally, he is not a "natural" at sports, but is encouraged to take part in a variety of games; football, hockey, basketball etc. There are always plenty of levels, so he has had the opportunity to work his way up. There is a lot of emphasis on giving everyone a "fair go"

pommie bastard

Love the term Fair Go never seem much of it myself? I take it this should mean fair play.


FAIR GO!
A new report on Australian social disadvantage should make us look twice at the cherished belief that this is the land of the ‘fair go’. Some pockets of Eastern Australia are now more like the land of the ‘no go’. Paddy McCorry reviews a disturbing document that highlights entrenched disadvantage in Australia.

Australia is a deeply divided rich-get-richer nation, in which both the winners and losers of almost two decades of economic and social upheaval are baffled and angry at the destruction of the fair-go society.

anzen12

No, I mean Fair Go, otherwise I would have said Fair Play. You may not have noticed, but this thread is about schools, not about whether pommiebastard has received a fair go.

I stand by my comments.