jayne311

can anyone tell me what ages children start each school?

at the minute here they start nursery at 3, reception year at 4 and then year one at 5 and continue that school untill they are 11. (yr1 - yr6)
after that they go on to a secondry school at 11 untill 16 (yr7 - yr12)

a friend has told us children dont start school untill they are 6!!!
sorry if this is a daft q's.
jayne.

Wendy

Depends where you are going, it varies a little from state to state.

Here is SA they start Kindy at 3/4, then start primary at 5. High school is age 13 to 17/18.

They start later, but they also finish later.

jayne311

Thanks for the reply were heading for brisbane. . When is the start of the school year?

Wendy

End of Jan - beginning of Feb.

woogle

We're in QLd, & my eldest was born nov 02 - so will be 5 this year, he starts prep Jan 08, but prep is not compulsory, so he could go straight into year 1 in Jan 09, when he would be 6

jayne311

so the friend was sort of right, i couldnt imagine my now 5 year old still being at home untill next january he has already done almost 2 years in full time school.
we have 3 children ages 4, 5 and 12 weeks but are not planning on coming out for a few years. (starting the visa process next year) and i wanted to make sure ben wasn't in high school before we came out (to make friends etc) i think it will be easier for him to make friends before having to take exams etc.
jayne.

UK_2_OZ

We are hoping to move to Brisbane and I did some research a few months ago and I am sure I read that children start school at 5 and must be 5 before the January intake. I was interested because my daughter is an August baby and started school here at 4 yrs and 12 days old so I think she will go back a year.

I added all the school links I had in my favourites to this thread

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=424851

but not look through them all to see if they state a school age.

Tracey

carmele

Yeh that's like me and my youngest son, He is due to start reception this september in the UK and He will only be just 4, (aug baby!), does this mean (depending on which state we go to) He will start in January '09 in aus?

My eldest biy started school in september just gone here and assume he will continue to be in full time school once we reach aus?

C

UK_2_OZ

I am sure I read that when a child reaches 5 they then start school in the January of their 5 birthday (depending on state). I wish I could find it now. Anyway that sounds right to me. 4 in 2007, 5 in 2008 start school Jan 2009. I don't know how there years work and if they have reception. We need someone with more experience on starting school in Australia.

Nizcac

I think I have read somewhere that the kids can start school in the next term following there 5th birthday - would be one of the Aberfoyle Park primary schools. Will try and find it and let you know. So that would mean there are 3 or 4 intakes a year.

BAY

Yes its a tricky one and one thats giving me a lot of concern. I too have a child born in August. He's now 4 1/2 and is currently in reception year. He is currently doing his 'jolly' phonics and is half way to being able to read and write. He is also learing basic maths. We plan to go to Oz at the beginning of 2008. When we get to Oz I wouldn't want him to spend a year just doing nursey rhymes etc etc. . I've heard some children have managed to be put up a year in Oz. The down side of this is that socially they will be with children 1 - 2 years older.

Anyone got any advice/experiences of how children born in June - August cope with school in Oz ... particuarly in the age range 4 - 6 ?

UK_2_OZ

my daughter is now 10 (august) and is still in a uk school she has struggled because all the children are mentally older (age 11). The older kids didn't want to play with her and she plays with children in the year younger at playtime but this has it's problems because they are not in the same class.

She is looking forward to going down a year and I think it will be excellent for her. This is one of our main reasons for wanting to go to Australia because she is not aloud to go down a year over here.

In the early stages of learning it is a big game for them and hopefully in Australia they will be able to place your child at their academic level.

Spikey

My 6.5 year old son has an August birthday and was in Year 2 in the UK before we came out here in November. He went back into Prep (Reception) for 3 weeks and has just started Grade 1 this year here in Melbourne.

I always felt he started school in the UK far too early anyway, I looked into deferring him for a year over there but was told that he'd go straight into Year 1. So far in Oz I've not noticed the academic standard seems any lower than his year in the UK, and he fits in better socially as he's always been quite young for his age. We have a parents' evening on Monday and I'll be interested to see how he compares to his class here as we were told in the UK that his reading fluency was way above average for Year 2.

My daughter has started 4 year old kinder here (she is 4 in April), she's one of the youngest in her year. Again so far it doesn't seem that much different to pre-school in the UK, maybe more emphasis on playing rather than learning the alphabet. But studies have shown time and time again that children this age learn best through play so I'm not at all bothered by them not sitting learning the alphabet.

I dunno, my POV is that they have enough to cope with settling into a new country and making new friends so it's not really a great problem if the work is easier. Though I think I would have found it difficult if I'd been used to him doing full time school in the UK and then come out here and he was only doing 3 sessions a week.

Spikey

To answer OP - this really confused me before we came out. It seems to vary from state to state. We're in Victoria and the cut off date for a year is 30th April, the year they start school they have to be 5 by this date. My daughter is 4 on 2nd April so she is at 4 year old kinder and can start school next January. She'll be one of the youngest in her class and will be 4 when she starts school.

My son was 6 last August and is in Grade 1. If we'd been here when he started school he would have been 5.5 when he started.

However there does seem more of a trend here to defer children if they are not ready, especially boys. A few of the Aussie mums suggested I defer my daughter (but I think she's more than ready for school).

BAY

Thats another good point you've thrown up. My 4 1/2 year old son currenly does 5 full days in the reception year. He'd be bored stiff if he had to go just part time in Oz. He loves going to school.