tictac

Can anybody offer any advice, do's and don'ts etc on how best to get kids enrolled in schools in Australia from the UK.

With us not planning to arrive until around June time and then having a couple of weeks leading up to the school holidays, we'd like to get the kids enrolled and allow them a week or so's 'trial' before the schools break-up. We'd hope they would start school 'proper' after the school holidays i.e 9th July in Brisbane.

We identified 2 possible schools for our kids during out reccie over the Xmas period and their websites (as they always do) paint quite a bright picture.

Obviously, the initial contact (with the principal) will be via e-mail and we'd hope to arrange an appointment/visit for shortly after we arrive

Apart from the above, is there anything else at all we can do to ensure the kids are in a position to start school asap?

Thanks

moneypenny20

Depending on the type of school and whether it's in a catchment area or not, you may not need to. Lots of people turn up to check out a school and the kids start a day or two later. Every school is different really. Ring the principal and ask. We just rocked up and signed the forms but then had the eight week summer holiday to get through (not the best move but unavoidable).

ridds

Def contact the school administration and principal in advance and they should be able to sort everything for you. Good luck!

jothefw

We did as you did and just organised a look round when we landed, completed forms and son started following Monday - we'd booked flights over in time for him to start back with Term 4 which I hoped would work well and it did!

Spikey

My son started school the week after we arrived here, I enrolled him when we arrived.

I guess it depends whether you're looking at state school or private, but if you live in the catchment area of a state school you can enrol them there and they're in, even if you move out of the catchment area at a later date.

I found the school admin really helpful, you could phone them from the UK if you want things organised but it really didn't seem a problem leaving it until we got here - I phoned up the school on Friday am, had a look around that afternoon and my son started the following Monday, this was just 3 weeks before the end of the term/year!

tictac

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Forgive my ignorance, but are catchment areas *strictly defined* i.e how can you find out for sure whether you live in a catchement area of a specific school?

Or is it a case of the school in question being 'within easy reach'?

The reason I'm asking is because there are 3 schools 'within easy reach' of where we want to settle, probably all of them just about within walking distance as it happens.

The school we prefer happens to be the one which is the furthest away.

Could we still enrol our kids in that particualar school or would we be 'forced' to use the one nearest to us

Hope this all makes sense

Thanks

Dorothy

If the school you want your child to go to is full or has a wait list and you are not in the catchment area you will not be able to send them there. You will have to go to your local school. The school we wanted to send our daughter to is in the next suburb over, but had a wait list so we had to send her to the high school in our catchment area. It's a good idea to contact the school to find out whether or not there is any sort of waiting list.

belleandscone

Hi there, I am currently trawling through Queensland Educations website to find out all the info on the schools, we are looking at Forest Lake area or springfield. The info for these school give a download map of the catchment area, some schools seem to have catchment areas, others dont, we have also looked at carina and the school there doesnt (I'm looking at primary though). Good luck on your search.
Clairex

stuckinblighty

hi, dont want to sound thick but what are the term times for the schools in aus( looking at moving to melbourne )have two kids 1 aged 8,9 in october and the other one is 6

sj oldfield

October is the run up to the last semester..........the kids break up for their long holidays in December, usually about the 3rd. The then return to school during the first week of feb.

Spikey

The school year starts on the last day of January.

Term 1 Jan - end March
Easter holiday
Term 2 Mid April - end June
1st 2 weeks July - holiday
Term 3 Mid July - 21st September
2 week holiday
Term 4 Oct 8 - 21 December
6 week summer holiday.

There aren't the week long half term breaks like there are in the UK but there are usually at least 2 bank holidays per term.

I thought they'd break up earlier for Christmas here like the above poster said but they don't in Melbourne, it was 21st last year too.

ridds

Great Brisbane school catchment areas (public / state schools schools only)