carolinephillips

Don't start your son in school until the start of term 2- give him time to settle into Australia, and you and his mum to look around for housing and choose a school that you like. After Easter hols (which gives you a good 4-6 weeks) is soon enough, then 3 months on from that takes you to the end of July-ish.
By then you might have got a visa, or a plan B in place.

Good luck with it.

gregster10217

Thanks Caroline. We'd always planned to start him after the Easter break, didn't realise it as so late into April so might look to get him in sooner, but it won't kill him to bea home schooled,for a few weeks

carolinephillips

I don't have exact dates for state schools, as DD is now starting university this year, and dates vary between state and private schools too. As Easter is on the 19/20th this year, then school terms will generally begin on 28th April.

And as an ex- primary teacher, I'd say that the new experiences your son will get here will be better for him than rushing him back into education.(They don't start school until after they are 5 here anyway, so he is probably on par or ahead of the curriculum, which is far less academically focussed here, though that is changing.) Get him to beaches, aquariums, zoos, koala parks, museums etc. Lots of educational stuff that is fun!!

Hope that is helpful.

gregster10217

Again, thank you Caroline. We plan on keeping ourselves busy in the three weeks between arriving and me starting work. We're in a furnished holiday rental, so it won't feel like home until we get our own place so no reason to stay at the house. Lots of friends to catch up with too.