reggiekatie

We are going out to oz in November to live. The most important thing for us is to find good schools for our two children aged 13 girl and 15 boy. Not even sure on areas, we will go within reason where the best schools are. Nsw is one of our favorite places so far. My son is Rugby mad and is a good player,so we really want a school that is strong on the rugby side.

thanks

quoll

Probably the most important thing - ahead of the schools - is where are you going to find work? Once you have that, the schools pretty much fall into place. In very general terms, you are more likely to find Rugby on the curriculum of single sex catholic schools than run of the mill state schools. Rugby is more common in NSW and Queensland than Vic where Aussie Rules is the name of the game (although of course they do play Rugby as well). Not sure what is the game of the moment in the other states but of course there will be a range it is just that the NRL is mainly NSW and Qld. Of course there are also non school based junior rugby leagues so you dont even have to find a school which does it.

If you were coming to ACT it would be Marist or St Eddies but I have no idea how brickies go here - doesnt, on the surface, appear to be much going on, we seem to be more concrete than anything else.

You wont find league tables for schools here and schools are very much of a muchness and generally reflect the socio economic area that they serve.

Ginger3710

Something else to consider is that there are lots of sporting clubs in Sydney, so you may not particularly need a school that provides rugby as a sport. He will have no problem in finding a rugby club, providing you're in a major city.

If you can be more specific on which city, public/private school etc we can be of more help.

paddyo

Don't base your choice of location on a school with rugby, find a nice area and then the schools will usually be nice too. The rugby passion can be quelled in any of the many clubs they have here. A lot of them have junior teams from 6 yrs upwards!! Bear in mind that in Sydney area Rugby League is the biggie, there is Rugby Union as well but its second place to league. NSW union state team is the Warratahs but several towns will have their own union team as well.

@boy

Noticed this one made the papers yesterday....
State to seek closer ties with Catholic schools
http://www.theage.com.au/news/nation...629730841.html

tiger222

OK Ginger we're moving to Brisbane. We prefer public/State schools but will consider private schools. We have 4 children - 3 of them school age - 10, 7 and 5. Any thoughts on how to judge a school's success from this distance (we're in the USA)? Thanks

@boy

At an average cost of 14K per kiddie for private school fees, have you considered the $42k p.a. you will need to shell out

I believe you can get a discount if you are sending multiple kids to the same place though.

Who can confirm this ?

quoll

Nope - we dont do league tables! Well, not at the moment anyway.

Generally, the nicer the socio economic area, the nicer the school. But, of course, there are always going to be exceptions to that too.

Ginger3710

Yes, what quoll said. This is generally the rule, unless you want something specific, like a sports or arts oriented school etc. You mentioned in your first post that NSW interested you, I'm from Sydney, so that's why I replied. If you're now going to Brisbane then I'm afraid I can't help, as I'm not familiar with Queensland suburbs or schools...sorry. Hopefully someone will come on soon with some suggestions.

Do a google search "private schools in Brisbane" and some sites come up. Private schools start around $10,000 per child with sometimes a 5 or 10% discount for siblings, also depends what visa you're on.

reggiekatie

Hi Thanks for all your help, we are still coming to NSW, its someone else that is coming to Queensland.

Rosscarbery

Trying to find schools before you arrive is a bit of a nightmare. A local high school teacher recommended a school to us (Sydney) when we were still in the UK, we came for a reccie and had a look round - all seemed fine - we moved and found a rental in the area, put son (then 13) in school ................ and removed him 7 weeks later totally unimpressed

He too is rugby mad but in the end we couldn't base school choice on it - he plays for the local rugby club instead (though his new school has recently moved from league to union - depends on who is head of PE apparantly). Because he now goes to school some distance away it's quite nice to have a different pool of "local" friends from rugby.

We went for a Christian school in the end which I am highly impressed with (my two younger kids are now there as well) and the fees are pretty reasonable. There's zero tolerance for bad behaviour, great relationships between students and staff, and all the stuff that encourages teens to learn in a supportive environment. I'd say there's a pretty even split between church going and non-church going families (we're not but have never been made to feel anything but welcome). PM me if you want further info.

reggiekatie

Great to get all your info, Please could you tell me the name of the school your children now attend. How do the state schools compare there with the ones in the Uk?

Rosscarbery

I'll PM you later when I have more time reggiekate - opinions about schools are fairly subjective so I don't want to get into it on the public forum