irishmalt

We are going through the process of getting documents etc to migrate at the moment and was looking for some advice on schooling in Perth for our two daughters. One will shortly be completing her GCSE's - how will this fit in for her further education as in the UK she would be going towards A/S and A levels.
Our second daughter is due to start her GCSE's course in September to write the exams in 2012 - where would she fit into the education system and how does this compare.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Rgds
Ian & Karen

quoll

Totally different system with different assessments that have absolutely nothing to do with the GCSE/A level system. What are their birthdays - then people will be able to give you a clue. In general though, it is in a kid's best interest to begin year 11 and do the full 2 year course which will lead to year 12 qualifications ready for University. Kids are usually either just turned or just about to turn 16 when they begin year 11 in January (remember that the academic year goes Jan - Dec and to miss part of the yr 11/12 course could be a disadvantage)

irishmalt

Thank you for your reply. Our eldest turned 16 in March 10 and is due to start Year 11 in September this year and the youngest was 13 in January this year.
Rgds

HelenTD

Hi, your youngest would be in Year 8 this year, the first year of high school in WA. This gives you a bit more flexibility, as the school starting age was changed for kids born in 1997. Kids born between 1 Jan to 30 June 1997 will experience their entire primary/secondary education in WA as the "half-year cohort", as the year used to run from 1 Jan to 31 Dec - now it is from 1 Jul to 30 June.

The downside was that in primary school (lots in Perth with <300 kids for 9 years of classes) these kids had low numbers and sometimes there might have been only 2 girls in a class, for example, and if your daughter didn't get on with the only other girl, friendships were tricky.

The upside for the half-year cohort is that it is much easier to get places in private schools and a lot of sought-after state schools.

Any thoughts yet about where you'd live in Perth?

NKSK version 2

In terms of level of conceptual difficulty, GCSEs generally fit into Year 11 courses in WA. AS fit with Year 12 and A2 (A level) is university foundation year.
Consequently the daughter completing GCSEs should really go into Year 12.
If she is reasonably able she will be bored by going into Year 11 here.

There are two key elements to school 'success' in WA - high school graduation (i.e. the West Australian Certificate in Education (WACE - see Curriculum Council page below for WACE For Students brochure) taken care of by the Curriculum Council (http://www.curriculum.wa.edu.au/) and University entrance - administered by TISC (http://www.tisc.edu.au/).

For graduation, Year 11 courses in WA are not externally assessed but the CC requires 10 units at Grade C or above across Years 11 and 12. Given that 5 subjects (of two units each) are taken at Year 12 she should be able to achieve a Grade C average based on this single year alone but if you contact the CC they may advise that they can credit the GCSEs towards graduation.

In terms of university entrance she will require the best results from 4 of these courses in Year 12 - 50% school based assessment and 50% exam.

If she does go straight into Year 12 it is absolutely critical that the school in the UK and you are honest about her abilities. If she ends up on a course of too high difficulty (courses are graded on difficulty with Stage 1 being the easiest and Stage 3 the hardest), she will soon lose her way and may well fail to graduate. Swapping courses can be high risk.

She should use the time between finishing school in the UK (June) to starting in WA (Feb) to download course syllabuses from the CC website and ensure that relevant content has been covered.

One final point, it is vital that you choose your school carefully. There are many shockingly bad state (and private) schools in WA. They look very glossy from the outside but very weak disciplinary processes mean that classroom management can be very poor and learning is constantly interrupted. You need to choose a school that is willing to guide your daughter through a difficult time. If it was me, I'd use $17K from the house sale to send her to one of the 'elite' schools.

Good luck - I work in the industry and after 5 years I still find it to be an extremely complex system.

irishmalt

Thank you very much for your input.
No thoughts at present as to where we would like to live but Joodelup area is appealing as is South of the river. Schools will be a very big factor.

irishmalt

Many thanks for your advice which has certainly open our eyes.
Kind Rgds