mr-vmware

Thanks BB, after 4 years of procrastination (ie after getting our PR), we finally left the UK behind and moved to Melbourne last year and it has been a rough ride from few angles but a good learning curve at the same time with new surroundings culture mindset etc. Thanks for your response. Useful thread indeed!
And you're right, Mordialloc is no closer than Glen Waverley from city travel point of view.

Pomster

I second the inner west...Willy, Newport, Yarravile, Seddon all nice spots, close to the city, close to beaches.
My daughter goes to a lovely state school which did amazingly well in Naplan (as if that means much!) but the feeling of community is lovely. Parents help each other out, kids thrive...and the beach is a 5 min drive away. As a resident of our borough, we get free permits for parking at the beach too...

Japonica

We're in the outer east and love it. Loads of hills, trees. Good schools and services. In a suburb with direct rail to the CBD (40 min) or 20 minutes by car via the M3. We weren't looking here originally, but we feel like we found the perfect spot for us. Living 20 min drive from the Yarra Valley or Dandenong Ranges is great too.

Leese107

Hi, I'm new to this site and have never posted to a forum so forgive me for intruding but like chrissy79 are moving to Melbourne hopefully end of 2016 as long as everything with my husband's partner visa comes through, fingers crossed!
I am Australian was born and bred in Sydney but have been living in the UK for 10years.
We visited Melbourne and Mornington in April this year and loved it, we have a 4 year old son who will be starting kindy in February 2017 and was hoping for some advice on primary schools around the Mornington area?

Buzzy--Bee

Hi, you're not intruding - questions like yours are what a forum is for!

I'm sure someone will be along soon who knows about Mornington schools.

BB

quoll

Can't help on Mornington but make sure you get your UK citizenship before you leave (in case you haven't) - you never know when it might come in handy as getting back into UK as a non EU spouse is getting very tricky.

Myschool.edu.au gives a thumbnail pic of what the schools are about but generally the schools reflect the catchment area so if you can't see yourself living in a particular area you wouldn't want your kids in school there and vice versa.

GarryP

You might find this (chinese) website of some use :

Australia School Search, Ranking, Victoria, New South Wales, Canberra, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Tasmania and Northern Territory

it gives you ranking, etc. information, and the other parts give your suburb and house price data.

Leese107

Thanks for the links.

We have looked at the My schools site but I really don't get all the rankings and things.

Was hoping to hear about personal experiences of schools.

I haven't heard of the other website so will check that out thanks.

I have a Italian passport as well as an Aussie one, and we are going to keep and rent out of house in the UK just in case things in Oz don't work out, we can come back. I'm hoping it'll all be ok and we can sell in a couple of years and settle in Oz but you just never know what is around the corner!

Buzzy--Bee

You are wise to ignore MySchool rankings. Some schools actively "fudge" their results. Their is a school near us that does this in the following ways -

- any child likely to fail Naplan does not take the test (yes they can do this!)
- any child who is borderline can be "coached" through the Naplan test.

The problem with personal experiences of schools is that they are just that - personal. I recommend that you do a tour of some schools and go with your gut feel about how the school looks and how the teachers and kids are behaving and interacting.

BB

GarryP

All schools do this, it's one of your typical metrics problems - everyone has to cheat, and cheating is the easiest way to win. However, that means the rankings are still somewhat relevant, since they can all only cheat using similar methods, and it all washes out.

Personally I'd say the 'culture' is more important. Some schools are still very much 'chalk and talk' - drilling facts into heads both as a way to pass tests, and because parents like it. Problem is, it's not really where the ball is anymore - things will change quickly and google can always provide facts. It's much more important to learn how to learn and to get the habit of "getting off your arse and making things happen". And that is very difficult to pin down in rankings (where are the alumni now is about the closest you get). Oh, and ask about 'flipped classrooms'. Even if they aren't doing it (and they should be) the response will tell you much about how they are moving forward.

Buzzy--Bee

Or perhaps how many kids do VCE vs VCAL?

Flipped classrooms is probably something that will not be encountered until Secondary school I reckon.

BB

GarryP

True, though I think it should probably be introduced early (if they can watch cartoon, they can watch a lesson) and it brings with it the opportunity to leap ahead at your own pace, rather than get held back.

However the response is the interesting bit. If they brush it aside as "we don't worry about such new nonsense" then the kid is going to get a chalk'n'talk; if you get a "what?" then they aren't keeping up and changing with the times, etc.