humpy

We fly out to Gold Coast on Jan 5th, we have temporary accomodation arranged for us at Bluewater Bay Complex in Southport, we intend to then move in/around robina area as my wife is to be employed at Robina hospital. We have a few questions that could do with some help on if anyone can help out.

We have a boy who is 5 in April 09, Can we put him into school, if so can anyone recomend some good schools to have a look at. We have heard differing things on the age he starts

Does anyone work at Robina hospital, my wife is going to be working in childrens/youth mental health.

Does anyone know of any local car garages that offer finance on 457 visa.

What areas in/around Robina are nice to live in, we have looked at property on realestate.com.au and are impressed with some of the prices for rentals

How long does it take to drive to the nearest beach

What is the commute by road/public transport to Surfers and Brisbane

Does anyone who goes on here acutally live around Robina and want to meet up,

I'm Jonny (30), Sally (27) and Jack is 4.
Well into Rugby League, playing and watching, also well into fishing if anyone fancies throwing a line or two..

happyscot

Hi,
I can't offer you any advice about the other stuff but I do work at Robina Hospital in Mental Health. I'm an RMN too and I've only been at Robina for less than a year but I really like it. I'm fairly new to this site and haven't managed any meet ups that have been posted lately as I've been working. I'm sure there will be a meet early next year but if you'd like to meet up that would be great.

sammyg

Hi
We live in Varsity Lakes, (on the border of Varsity and Robina) and are very happy here.

It takes about 10 mins to get to the beach-Burleigh, which is a mighty nice beach to live near and then you just drive up or down the coast line to other beaches.
We've also gone a bike ride to the beach a few times and that takes about 20 mins.
I like to get up early on a saturday morning and do the Burleigh Heads National Park walk over the edge of the ocean -never get bored of it, its beaut!

It's about an hour to Brisbane by car and train (it took us so long to get to Brissie once on the train we thought we'd just drive in future) However, there is no real need to ever go to Brisbane if your not working there, everything you need is on the Coast. Infact, Robina town centre is undergoing development now and is going to be huge( it's already got everything you need - David Jones, Woolworths, Coles etc) and it's going to have 10 river front restaurants. I think is going to be very nice!!

It's about 15/20 mins drive to Surfers (25/30 mins on a bus).

I'm not too sure about your son and prep.
Our daughter goes to Varsity College which is a good school and the Principal is a very well put together chap who takes no messing.
However, i have heard that most schools around Robina/Mugeeraba are good.

It's also a fib distance from the nice pretty parts of Northern NSW, , Byron Bay -40 mins!!

There are a LOT of expats down here who do meets, so keep your eyes out when you get here in the 'meet ups' section.

Very nice place to live -sure as hell beats Derby!!

sammyg

Here's how to find out about your son and if he can get into prep

http://education.qld.gov.au/strategi...hood/prep.html

and here's some infor on Robina Town Centre

http://www.robinatowncentre.com.au/

dinner-dash

we are moving to robina in january.

we have a 17 year old daughter who is going to carry on with her education, completed gcse exams in uk and wants to get a australian pathway to university. would she be able to complete year 11 & 12 at robina school or would you suggest she went via TAFE college route due to her age.

A lot of uni's are suggesting she completes year 11/12 at a TAFE college to get a Queensland Certificate of Education while keeping her options open for her chosen qualification and Overall Position (OP) score.

Are there any local TAFE colleges that run this course ?

chilli33

Hi

I just wanted you know about TAFE here .... my son has been doing the Tertiary Entry Preparation (ATP) course in Southport. This is the equivalent of yr 12. When we enrolled they suggested 4 subjects, i wanted him to take 5 as he is very bright. They said it wasn't necessary but now he's struggling to gain entry to Bond Uni (who require 5 subjects). It has now been explained to me that TAFE qualifications are very poorly received

If there is some other route i suggest you take it...

You can get in to Griffith and the others ...which Uni's recommended TAFE?

My son was originally planned to do yr 11 & 12 at a school but thought the TAFE course was gonna be perfect as it's only one year....i did a lot of research and found that you can only go to a QLD Uni (that was fine), no where did it mention about BOND (which is private and has a fantastic reputation).

Ok...but the worst thing about the GC TAFE is the apathy that exists here...the teachers sometimes don't turn up. They treat the young students as idiots and one was only teaching them the criteria to get a pass, when they questioned it the teacher got annoyed and said that's what all the previous students wanted!!

IMHO....stay away from TAFE!

Tracey

ps i am not trying to worry you but just be realistic...getting into uni doing 4 subjects, which is about 16 hours of college a week ?

mand8002

When we came our daughter was 17, the local school suggested she go to TAFE but to do a diploma, not the equivalent of year 11 and 12. The diploma is a good qualification in its own right and you can get credit for it at uni, in fact some unis have automatic pathways for students on the diploma, so well worth looking at. There are diplomas in a range of subjects, our daughter did multimedia, and I did one in accounting.