melbourne primary school question
 

Anyone able to answer the following?

Primary Schools in Victoria will enrol your child into primary school if they are 5 before 30 april , how flexible are schools with this?

My daughter turns 5 a week later so would be keen not to have her in pre school/kindergarten for another year.

Any help would be appreciated.

thanks

Re: melbourne primary school question
 

Hi, I may be wrong but I think they are sometimes a bit behind us in the school years, I have been told for instance that my son may have to do the same year again that he did in UK.

Re: melbourne primary school question
 

Hi,
My son turned 6 on 3rd May this year, and started primary this January. There was no flexibility for him being just a few days over the cut off date. I wouldn't have wanted him to start earlier though. The tendency here is to 'hold kids back' and start them a bit later. There are a lot of kids with birthdays between Jan - April (who could have started a year earlier) who are just starting this year. So you have some 6 year olds in with some kids who haven't yet turned 5.

My daughter is a Feb birthday and is one of the youngest in her grade. She did struggle initially (socially) as some children in the class were over a year older than her. I'm not sure if the private schools are any more flexible with dates.

Good luck!

Re: melbourne primary school question
 

Private schools are not much more flexible.

We were told by a school that there was a "remote chance" that our children, born on May 16th, would be able to start school at 5.

Buzzy

Re: melbourne primary school question
 

Private Schools might be, but Public Schools will not accept your child if born after 30th April. We have seen this happen a few times now. As an example we know a family (Buzzy might remember them as well) who's son was deferred at Sandringham Primary and he was born before April. Their daughter was born in May and they would not accept her for another year.

My Son #2 was born on April 11th and many schools would have deferred him which is common for boys around here. Thankfully we found a school which was accomodating, mainly because he had already spent a year and a half at school in the UK.

A lot of local parents prefer them to be the oldest and largest in the year than the youngest and possibly smallest. Son #2 is the youngest in his year, some boys are over a year older than him (because they were deferred from the year above when they joined) and the maturity levels are very noticable. It also means that he has to compete with kids who really should be in the year above.

You should also know that early primary teaching here is quite different t0 the UK (no phonics, limited mental maths, etc) and it's not as simple as coming over and slotting in. There will be a period of confusion and adjustment.

I should point that this is based on our experiences coming to Melbourne 18 months ago with two boys (then 5 and 7, now 7 and 8). We understand your frustration though.

Al

Re: melbourne primary school question
 

My son is a Jan child and started school this year. His class is multi-age, that is, preps are in with grades 1&2 but are set work at the appropriate level. Many of the preps are 6 yrs old already. He's been fine and his best friend that he met through kinder is almost a year older than him. Another year at kinder would have bored him stupid.

The public school my son attends teaches phonics and even employs a speech therapist, for a couple of terms, to run a supporting weekly phonics programme for preps to help them build up their reading skills.

Which area are you heading for?

Re: melbourne primary school question
 

Hi, I think it's pretty unlikely that a state school would let her start. My daughter was 5 on 2nd April and is in Prep this year, she is one of the youngest and quite a few of her classmates were 6 before she was even 5, there is such a huge tendency to hold them back here, especially boys. I would be inclined to let your daughter go to kinder as otherwise there will be kids 18+ months older than her in her class. Lots of people have been surprised that I didn't defer my daughter but she was more than ready for school and was bored silly at kinder by the end of last year so I do feel for you!

My friends son with a May 13th birthday had started school in the UK but had to go back to Kinder here, they told her they might have allowed him to start had they only been coming to Oz for a couple of years then going back to the UK but as they were staying then he had to start the following year.