Can anyone help?
we have been in perth for two weeks and have three weeks left on our short term rental. We are looking for long term renting in the woodvale, cuurambine, connolly, tapping areas.
Does anyone have any advice?
also, any advice on where to buy a good used car would be appreciated.
One last thing, does anyone have any advice on good senior schools? We have heard Woodvale,Ocean Reef, Joondalup Baptist and st Stephens are the best in these areas.
Thanks in advance for any advice.

Take a look on www.realestate.com.au for rentals in all these areas.

Woodvale and Ocean Reef both have good reputations, then St Stephens and Lake Joondalup are both private and you have to pay to go there.

For second hand cars, there are loads of garages in Wangara, which is on the Wanneroo Road just past Ocean reef road. We both had our cars from there, also you could buy a copy of the auto trader magazine which list where all the garages are.

If I were you and had to pick a house, I would pick one in an area with a good high school close by. We live in Ashby which is next to Tapping and my son goes to Tapping primary school, but there are no local high schools, the nearest is Wanneroo High School and I have heard many mixed reports on the school.

Sarah

Hi. All those all good arounds, but be aware you'll struggle to get the kids into St Stephens, there's a massive waiting list.

Only advise I can give on getting a rental is to check online at the realestate website. We spent days driving around real estate offices to find they only had one or two houses in, with dozens of people going for each. The one we've got now, we got from that website. Tell them how desperate you are, the agents have swing with the landlords, and if you can afford it offer to pay 3 or 6 months rent up front - as we weren't working, this was the only way we could secure a rental.

Depending on the age of car you're looking for, we found cheaper to buy new. I was happy with a 1 or 2 year old car, but the same car was actually more expensive than a new one, which comes with 3 year warranty etc.

Good luck,
Karen

Is St Stephens Carramar any good? We've had our kids on the waiting list about 4 years but don't know many people with kids there

My key measure of school success is the TEE results. Narrow, I know, but critically important to me.

I'm not impressed with any schools in those extreme Northern Suburbs and wouldn't send my kids to any of them. I obtained the forms for St Stephens' but even their TEE results were not that impressive - equivalent I think to Carine SHS (which I don't rate much either!)

They're on the list for St Marks too, now that school does have good TEE results. St Stephens is the backup.

Maybe - depends which measure you use.

I still think that it's a worry that a fee paying school such as St Marks on the measure which I think is most important - the % of TEE students (4 or more subjects) who finish in the top third of the state (average will be 33.3%) - only achieves 34%.

Compare this with state schools - Churchlands 45%, Shenton 45%, Rossmoyne 54%.

(BTW Carine 32%, Ocean Reef 16%, LJBP 26%)

Hmm, good point.

If I was staying in Perth and assuming that I couldn't afford the top fees of the 'elite' schools, I'd either get my kids converted and send them to Sacred Heart or move to the Churchlands, Shenton catchments or on one of the high performing southern suburbs' schools' catchments.

I think that you might be wasting your money at any of the mid-range private schools or spending just to avoid the likes of Ocean Reef SHS (but in the whole scheme of things, not actually gaining that much - just getting up to 'average'!)

We did actually send our kids to Wesley for three semesters, what a disaster that turned out to be. Neither myself, the Mrs or the kids liked it there, regardless of exam results I just didn't want my kids in that environment.

That's interesting. Can you say what it was in particular?

BTW I think that the results for some high schools are so dire that parents should seriousl;y consider whether they want to live in that suburb.

Ocean Reef SHS is one such.

Woodvale is another below average school.

The primary school was no better than the school they were already at (Ocean Reef) some of the teachers had a "couldn't give shit" attitude. The parents too, some were OK, but a lot were really up themselves and (I know I'll get slated for this) - too many Chinese with their beat the crap out of their kids to make them succeed attitude.

Plus we realised we wanted our kids to go to a co-ed school. We rushed in to it too quick.

Has anyone got a link for TEE results please?