SCHOOL YEARS IN VIC
Jan 9th 2009, 5:00 pm
#1
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Thread Starter
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 123
SCHOOL YEARS IN VIC
Have done a search and even posted on another thread with no help.
Can someone explain how the school years work in Vic. I have 2 small children who are not ar school here in the UK, so all this year 1,2,3,-11 don't mean anything to me.
I know the school year starts in late January in Oz. But at what age do they start year 1. my kids were born in oct 06 and sep 07.
Many thanks
Can someone explain how the school years work in Vic. I have 2 small children who are not ar school here in the UK, so all this year 1,2,3,-11 don't mean anything to me.
I know the school year starts in late January in Oz. But at what age do they start year 1. my kids were born in oct 06 and sep 07.
Many thanks
Jan 9th 2009, 5:47 pm
#2
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Joined: Apr 2005
Location: Melbourne
Posts: 4,553
Re: SCHOOL YEARS IN VIC
Kindergarten - 4 by 30th April
Entry age into Year One : 6 by 30th April
Compulsory starting age: 6th Birthday
More information here:
http://www.det.wa.edu.au/education/ece/enrolments.html
Entry age into Year One : 6 by 30th April
Compulsory starting age: 6th Birthday
More information here:
http://www.det.wa.edu.au/education/ece/enrolments.html
Jan 9th 2009, 6:08 pm
#3
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Joined: Nov 2004
Location: Melbourne
Posts: 957
Re: SCHOOL YEARS IN VIC
Have done a search and even posted on another thread with no help.
Can someone explain how the school years work in Vic. I have 2 small children who are not ar school here in the UK, so all this year 1,2,3,-11 don't mean anything to me.
I know the school year starts in late January in Oz. But at what age do they start year 1. my kids were born in oct 06 and sep 07.
Many thanks
Can someone explain how the school years work in Vic. I have 2 small children who are not ar school here in the UK, so all this year 1,2,3,-11 don't mean anything to me.
I know the school year starts in late January in Oz. But at what age do they start year 1. my kids were born in oct 06 and sep 07.
Many thanks
Jan 9th 2009, 7:40 pm
#4
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Joined: Sep 2007
Location: Canberra
Posts: 8,378
Re: SCHOOL YEARS IN VIC
A good reference page is here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Australia but Pootle has encapsulated it all for you.
Jan 10th 2009, 12:47 am
#5
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Posts: n/a
Re: SCHOOL YEARS IN VIC
Victorian government schools welcome enrolments for children who turn five years of age by April 30 of the year in which they start school.
The full explanation of your starting dates is:
Oct 06 child will turn 5 in the 12 months ended Apr 2012, therefore starting in 2012.
Sep 07 child will turn 5 in the 12 months ended Apr 2013, therefore starting in 2013.
If a child was born on April 30th, they would be eligible to start school in late January, at age 4 years and 9 months.
My own daughter (birth date just before the NSW July cut off date) was 4 years and 8 months, when she started school, and was 5 years and 8 months when she moved up to Year 1.
If she had been born a bit later, and missed the cut of date, she would have started at 5 yrs and 6 months, with year 1 at 6yrs and 6 months.
Children between the age of six and 15 years must attend school. www.education.vic.gov.au
Kindergarten, (in Victoria), is a one-year education program in the year before school, primarily for children aged four years.
Most children attend primary school from Prep to Year 6, and Secondary school from Year 7 to Year 12, but can leave once they reach 16 years of age.
This page will give you an idea about schooling from prep to Year 4: http://www.education.vic.gov.au/abou...reptoyear4.htm
The full explanation of your starting dates is:
Oct 06 child will turn 5 in the 12 months ended Apr 2012, therefore starting in 2012.
Sep 07 child will turn 5 in the 12 months ended Apr 2013, therefore starting in 2013.
If a child was born on April 30th, they would be eligible to start school in late January, at age 4 years and 9 months.
My own daughter (birth date just before the NSW July cut off date) was 4 years and 8 months, when she started school, and was 5 years and 8 months when she moved up to Year 1.
If she had been born a bit later, and missed the cut of date, she would have started at 5 yrs and 6 months, with year 1 at 6yrs and 6 months.
Children between the age of six and 15 years must attend school. www.education.vic.gov.au
Kindergarten, (in Victoria), is a one-year education program in the year before school, primarily for children aged four years.
In some cases, a child attending kindergarten may be assessed by the early childhood teacher to be eligible for a second year of funded kindergarten. When this occurs, the child may turn six years of age (compulsory school age) while attending the second year of funded kindergarten and therefore must be exempted from attending school by the Department.
This page will give you an idea about schooling from prep to Year 4: http://www.education.vic.gov.au/abou...reptoyear4.htm
Jan 10th 2009, 2:24 am
#6
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Joined: Mar 2005
Location: Melbourne's North East Outer Suburbs
Posts: 689
Re: SCHOOL YEARS IN VIC
The biggest confusion is the social one rather than the legal one. Schools and kindergartens encourage parents to keep their children back a year so they'll get full benefit of education - I'm not convinced but it's the way things work here and at some stage it helps to fit in.
As has been said:
Kids can start prep in the year in which they turn 5 by the April of that year but are often held back.
Then they'll move on to Grade 1 in the year in which they turn 6 by the April ..... until they finish Grade 6.
They move onto Grade 7 at High School in the Year in which they turn 12 by the April but if they have not achieved certain academic/social markers then they may be kept back a year - one of my daughter's friends in her class is 18 months older than her and is a nice kid working at a good academic standard for her grade.
In Years 11 and 12 (legally minimum aged from 16 in the April) they work on their VCE - at some advanced school classes known as Alpha classes they might cover more subjects earlier so they can increase their scores in Grade 12).
Incidentally they can start to learn to drive from age 16 but can't get their full licence till they're 18. Oh and they usually have to wear uniforms right up to and including Grade 12.
For these reasons a kid moving out here age 16 will find that getting a decently paid job at 16 is unlikely despite excellent GCSE results and without being able to drive might find all the freedoms they'd been looking forward to suddenly taken away.
Anyway back to the primary school set-up. I'll explain our experience for anyone with a spare half-hour.
My youngest was 4 in late April 2005. He'd been at school 1/2 time in the UK from September 2004. We arrived in Australia July 2005.
He arrived here and there was no space for him in local kindergartens and I was encouraged to send him to 3 year old kinder if we could find a place elsewhere. Then he would have done 4 year old kinder in 2006 when he was five (I was rather confused to say the least) - these involve 3 or 4 sessions a week of between 2 and 4 hours or 2 "full day" sessions. For this we would have to pay but he'd be "in the system".
He was so bored when we arrived. We didn't have the mothers groups or any of his friends, and so we took up gymn classes, he went a day a week to an expensive child care facility (permanent residents got a small rebate but we didn't qualify as we were only temporary at that time), and went to the park a lot - where I have to say it is very easy to strike up conversations.
Anyway despite the "expert" opinion we decided to send our very bored, very rusty son (he had missed 6 months of school development between leaving his English school and arriving here) to our local free public school prep in 2006 where he was the youngest child in school. There were plenty of other kids in his class who'd clocked him and add six months (ie. they'd turned 5 in September 2004 while he wouldn't turn 5 till April 2006).
In many ways it was a great decision - he's very social and very sporty but had no-one else to learn or play with and he wanted to be busy, was ready to learn and without seeming a complete cheapskate - remember it was free!
In other ways it could be seen to be the wrong move. Kids were expected to know the alphabet, seasons, etc and to be able to write their own names and other short words. My darling couldn't even wipe his own bum but he learned that before he went at least. Some of the cleverer kids became teacher's pets while his teacher gave up on him from week 2 saying he'd be repeating the year anyway so it was just a holding place for him. I didn't realise till very late in the year that while she was expecting him to read she didn't know he still hadn't learned his alphabet and was relying (not very successfully) on memory for the words. He was also bullied slightly though he's pretty tall, enthusiastic and resilient and had already made friends quickly so was generally cushioned from these "smart" and/or bigger kids.
Anyway we moved schools when we moved house and he repeated the prep year (as is also common) and he's nicely settled at the new school - he's at the upper age level but by no means the oldest, at the larger size level but by no means the biggest, is more sporty than many and pretty good at maths but less good at reading and writing so he's at a happily average level and loving school and all his activities like biddy-ball (youngster's basket ball), trampoline, soccer and judo.
He personally would have struggled through school if we'd left him at his legal entry level while now he'll be perfectly comfortable but if your kids are gifted or studious then they may well fit in to the older grades.
I have no regrets but am happy that he made the move to the new school as with all the difficulties I'm sure I became known as the awkward "pommy mum who thinks she knows better" and if your face doesn't fit ...
As for the quality of education here, our current school is wonderful - they learn independence, public speaking (starting with "show and tell" while they show a small table of friends a toy or medal of which they are proud and say a little about it), to try many activities and sports, IT, movie making and this year his class size is only 16 kids. At the same time my daughter's in a class of 30 at the same school. However it isn't particularly academic and those who think their child to be particularly clever can be disappointed in the public system (sometimes justified, sometimes just pushy mums).
Just to finish off, and again by example, my daughter who was born in July 1997 is just moving up to Grade 6 - her final year in primary school - she'll not move up to high school till February 2010 (18 months after her friends in the UK). It is quite surprising how the homework levels differ - she has far less than her UK friends though I'm hoping she'll catch up when she gets, finally, to high school.
Hope this has helped someone as it's all quite different from the UK experience.
Good luck
Carolyn
As has been said:
Kids can start prep in the year in which they turn 5 by the April of that year but are often held back.
Then they'll move on to Grade 1 in the year in which they turn 6 by the April ..... until they finish Grade 6.
They move onto Grade 7 at High School in the Year in which they turn 12 by the April but if they have not achieved certain academic/social markers then they may be kept back a year - one of my daughter's friends in her class is 18 months older than her and is a nice kid working at a good academic standard for her grade.
In Years 11 and 12 (legally minimum aged from 16 in the April) they work on their VCE - at some advanced school classes known as Alpha classes they might cover more subjects earlier so they can increase their scores in Grade 12).
Incidentally they can start to learn to drive from age 16 but can't get their full licence till they're 18. Oh and they usually have to wear uniforms right up to and including Grade 12.
For these reasons a kid moving out here age 16 will find that getting a decently paid job at 16 is unlikely despite excellent GCSE results and without being able to drive might find all the freedoms they'd been looking forward to suddenly taken away.
Anyway back to the primary school set-up. I'll explain our experience for anyone with a spare half-hour.
My youngest was 4 in late April 2005. He'd been at school 1/2 time in the UK from September 2004. We arrived in Australia July 2005.
He arrived here and there was no space for him in local kindergartens and I was encouraged to send him to 3 year old kinder if we could find a place elsewhere. Then he would have done 4 year old kinder in 2006 when he was five (I was rather confused to say the least) - these involve 3 or 4 sessions a week of between 2 and 4 hours or 2 "full day" sessions. For this we would have to pay but he'd be "in the system".
He was so bored when we arrived. We didn't have the mothers groups or any of his friends, and so we took up gymn classes, he went a day a week to an expensive child care facility (permanent residents got a small rebate but we didn't qualify as we were only temporary at that time), and went to the park a lot - where I have to say it is very easy to strike up conversations.
Anyway despite the "expert" opinion we decided to send our very bored, very rusty son (he had missed 6 months of school development between leaving his English school and arriving here) to our local free public school prep in 2006 where he was the youngest child in school. There were plenty of other kids in his class who'd clocked him and add six months (ie. they'd turned 5 in September 2004 while he wouldn't turn 5 till April 2006).
In many ways it was a great decision - he's very social and very sporty but had no-one else to learn or play with and he wanted to be busy, was ready to learn and without seeming a complete cheapskate - remember it was free!
In other ways it could be seen to be the wrong move. Kids were expected to know the alphabet, seasons, etc and to be able to write their own names and other short words. My darling couldn't even wipe his own bum but he learned that before he went at least. Some of the cleverer kids became teacher's pets while his teacher gave up on him from week 2 saying he'd be repeating the year anyway so it was just a holding place for him. I didn't realise till very late in the year that while she was expecting him to read she didn't know he still hadn't learned his alphabet and was relying (not very successfully) on memory for the words. He was also bullied slightly though he's pretty tall, enthusiastic and resilient and had already made friends quickly so was generally cushioned from these "smart" and/or bigger kids.
Anyway we moved schools when we moved house and he repeated the prep year (as is also common) and he's nicely settled at the new school - he's at the upper age level but by no means the oldest, at the larger size level but by no means the biggest, is more sporty than many and pretty good at maths but less good at reading and writing so he's at a happily average level and loving school and all his activities like biddy-ball (youngster's basket ball), trampoline, soccer and judo.
He personally would have struggled through school if we'd left him at his legal entry level while now he'll be perfectly comfortable but if your kids are gifted or studious then they may well fit in to the older grades.
I have no regrets but am happy that he made the move to the new school as with all the difficulties I'm sure I became known as the awkward "pommy mum who thinks she knows better" and if your face doesn't fit ...
As for the quality of education here, our current school is wonderful - they learn independence, public speaking (starting with "show and tell" while they show a small table of friends a toy or medal of which they are proud and say a little about it), to try many activities and sports, IT, movie making and this year his class size is only 16 kids. At the same time my daughter's in a class of 30 at the same school. However it isn't particularly academic and those who think their child to be particularly clever can be disappointed in the public system (sometimes justified, sometimes just pushy mums).
Just to finish off, and again by example, my daughter who was born in July 1997 is just moving up to Grade 6 - her final year in primary school - she'll not move up to high school till February 2010 (18 months after her friends in the UK). It is quite surprising how the homework levels differ - she has far less than her UK friends though I'm hoping she'll catch up when she gets, finally, to high school.
Hope this has helped someone as it's all quite different from the UK experience.
Good luck
Carolyn
Last edited by flip; Jan 10th 2009 at 2:32 am.
