GaryO

Hi, I too am applying and looking to make this fantastic move, thank you to all that have given all their info on this site already, its a fantastic bit of help for me and the family.

I have a question which i don't think has been answered yet, or at least didn't see it.

Anyone here moved across with children, especially around the 15 year old mark? Mine is in the process of doing GCSE;'S and we hope that he will finish them before we move across, but the question is how will the schooling happen there? does he have to drop down, or go onto further education, or stop schooling? We just want him to obviously feel comfortable about the move and to give him as much info as possible so that he is also prepared. I will be doing more research as my application progresses, but thought if there is first hand experience her, it would be nice.

christmasoompa

This would probably be a question for the main Oz forum rather than the police specific one - any questions about lifestyle in Oz etc should be posted in there where more people will see it (not many people look at the occupation specific forums).

Let me know if you want me to move it for you.

Good luck.

GaryO

Yes thank you very much that would help immensely..

G

christmasoompa

Okey dokey, I'll move it now so the good folks of the Australia forum can help.

Pollyana

No kids myself so I can't give you much, but I do know things vary between the States/Territories. Seems this was moved from the Police forum, so does that mean you are heading for Western Australia?
If you can confirm your State I'm sure someone can help further

quoll

Schooling will happen for sure - until he is 17.

Generally, you will find a place to live, rock up to the local High School (within whose priority enrolment area you live) with his vaccination book, his passport and evidence of your address and you will enrol him - you can do that at any time of year and the PEA school is required to enrol him. Which year he will go into rather depends on his birthdate and the state you will be moving to. So what if he goes into a year with his age cohorts which has a different name from the one he has just left in UK - he wont be "going back" "dropping down" or "repeating" anything because he wont have done that year in Australia before. It is quite possible that he wont be in the year with the same name but put him in with his age cohort anyway, he will be much more comfortable. His GCSEs will mean diddly squat. As he will be here before he turns or just as he is about to turn 16 he should be OK, he will do years 11 and 12 and get a year 12 score which he may use to go to Uni if that is his preference. Note I am not saying he will go into year 11 next year, just that as long as he is here at the beginning of whichever year he starts year 11 he will be fine.

You will probably find that he appears to be well ahead of his age peers - UK kids usually are - but they will catch up with him eventually.

brits1

Hi, if your son is wanting to go to university then I would say to let him start his year 11 (years 11&12 are they must important for further education) in Australia and not bother with his GCS’E’s (unless your son may want to return to the UK in the future and attend college etc) there is not an equivalent to GCSE’s in Australia so really he would be wasting his time in my opinion studying for them. In year 11 the age is 16/17 and year 12 17/18 and Year 10. Good luck, we have done it UK-Aus and Aus-UK with both of our sons education and the worry can be horrendous but our Sons are and were fab through it all it was ME that aged lol
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