Schools?
 

What are the school times in Oz?
i have found the term lengths but not working day times.

How do you rate the schools?
did your kids settle well?
Private or state? it seem more afforable in Oz to have private schooling but is it better.

thanks in advance
Rich

Re: Schools?
 

8.50 to 2.35 minus 30 mins for little lunch and 45 mins for big lunch, and 10 mins lie on the floor to cool down after big lunch in summer :eek:

Each school is going to vary one here has shifts (2200 kids), some start from 7 am or be on the shift thats still there at 4.30.

Rate the schools, you want honest, crap! ;) underfunded, no ratings system that public can get at, far too easy but one hell of a social life kids love it its like holiday camp.

Private make sure your comparing private not catholic school fees, catholic is not really private its funded by the gov just like state schools thats why the fees are so cheap. Check wating lists too, some good privates have waiting lists from birth and a bit of who you are and who you know ;)

Re: Schools?
 

Hi

Times - I can only tell you my experience. My first high school 7-10 was 9.15 am - 4.45 am. I changed at year 11 (my choice) and we went 8.05 am - 3.05 pm.

Schools are not rated the same way as they are in the UK, however there have been a couple of threads recently showing HSC / VCE results, you can assess this way. Primary is obviously more difficult.

Can't answer, don't know

This depends entirely on your perspective, what your child excels at, where you live and what you want, ie, how much involvement you want in their education. Some government schools are excellent, offering programs such as music and sport, others are not so good. Some private schools are excellent but so expensive that they are prohibitive (plus the waiting lists are phenomenal) but they do tend to offer that 'bit extra' - that is what you pay for.

Yes, they probably are more affordable as you are essentially only paying the excess over government payments.

Hope this helps at least a little.
Regards
Abby

Re: Schools?
 

cheers thanks for taking the time to reply, i like the sound of the lie down myself.
i was hoping you would say they were fantastic though but your honesty is better.

regards
Rich

Re: Schools?
 

Hi

I can only comment on the Queensland Schools in which I have worked as a relief teacher over the last couple of years.
Basically the school day starts around 9am and most schools end their day between 2.45 and 3pm. Lesson lengths vary from school to school - some have 4 lessons a day of 70 mins approx. Other school I have worked in have 9 x 35 minute lessons. In many schools, the seniors (year 11 and 12s) have one day off a week - in order to work a part time job or do an apprenticeship. To make up their school hours they have an extra lesson every day that they do attend before the rest of the junior classes start - so they have a lesson between 8 and 9 am.
I would generalise and say that paying for private education in Australia is well with the budget of most families (unlike the UK where you would have to take out a second mortgage!). Private education probably has more middle class families enrolling their children and schools tend to have a stricter uniform and behaviour policy. Most private schools are attched to church demoninations - Anglican schools, Christian colleges, Catholic schools. I would not say that the actual teaching is of a higher standard than in the state schools but that is just my opinion - you can have good and bad classes in any school just as you can have good and not so good teachers.

We chose to send my daughter to our local state school - she had just spent her first year in Australia making new friends and settling in so we thought it best to let her choose which school she wanted to attend. She has enjoyed her first year in High school, has made some very firm friendships, gets the bus to school and home and has had good reports.

Hope this helps although it will probably just confuse you more!! Which state/area of Australia are you planning to head for??

Sarah

Re: Schools?
 

Hi

My daughters school day is 8.45 to 3pm

I find her school very good. The teacher has taken the time to set her individual work in maths as she is ahead and yes she does find the school work easy but she did in the UK. In fact in I.T she had a lot of catching up to do.

She settled in really well as everyone made her so welcome.

She has a place at a private school for high school, that is what a lot of people seem to do.........state for primary then private for secondary.

Hope this is of some help.

Amanda

Re: Schools?
 

Thanks Sarah, were not 100% sure yet we are undecieded between goldcoast, perth and melbourne. varied i know but thats the way it is at the minute, we are researching like mad hoping that one will become clear favorite but there not so far.

once again thanks.

Re: Schools?
 

Personally I quite like the schooling here. My 7 year old had come on in leaps and bounds since arriving 4 months ago because she says it is fun therefore wants to be there and wants to learn. I know this is only one child but I think to say schooling in Australia is crap is too much of a sweeping statement. Hell yeah it is different but take it as YOU find it and judge for yourself.

Re: Schools?
 

The Australian government subsidises all private schools, whether religious or not.

This is one of the reasons why private schools are easier to set up in Australia than their UK counterparts - not to mention much cheaper and far more accessible to the public. Of course, we don't have a class system either - and that obviously helps.

My experience of British youth tells me that the quality of the education they receive is mediocre at best. It's either that, or they somehow forget everything (including the ability to speak, read and write English in any recognisable form) the moment they leave the school gates

My wife is English and has worked as a teacher for nine years; I myself worked as a teacher's aide for a while, back home in Australia.

To date, I remain profoundly unimpressed by what I have seen of the British school system: crumbling buildings, over-crowded schools, shoestring budgets, endless tiers of unnecessary management, outdated classroom structure, nerve-wracking racial tensions, and extraordinary levels of violence.

I am looking forward to the day (about two years from now) when I finally go back home and line up a local private school for the kids we will have by that stage. :)

Re: Schools?
 

Absolutely agree with you here!

My children are older, 17,15 and 10, we have had enough time here to comment on UK and Australian equivalent now (over 2 years), I think it is fair to say Australian schools are laid back in attitude in the state schools, but firmer in the catholic schools (both my elder children go to state school, my youngest goes to catholic school) however, I feel they get a better education here in Australia because it is more hands on learning and not the tedious mental work they do in the UK, my children have all said they enjoy the schools here in Australia than they ever did in the UK simply because they are 'allowed to have fun'.

Judge each school on it's merrits not because somebody has said schools are crap here in Australia it just isn't so.

Re: Schools?
 

Our two daughters go to a state primary school and start at 9.00am and finish at 3.30pm. They have both settled in really well and seem to be enjoying school altogether. I have to say that I think Australian schools give the kids a more rounded learning curve in the fact that they learn all the usual maths, english etc but also learn life skills which I think are very important. There is a more laid back approach to school life here and it rubs off on the kids really well and they seem far happier than they did with all the pressurised schooling in the UK.

Lorraine

Re: Schools?
 

I said we have found schools crap, thought it would be taken for granted that I am writing about our opinion not an answer for a forum which has several thousand members.

Our opinion is is based on 3 kids now 19 12 and 8 one over 5 years in OZ and in three totally different parts of australia. Some of the main bugs, teachers we again have had one kid with a year with 4 different teachers, with them going off on compo or stress leave, generally they seem very undedicated and are out the gate usually before the kids.

One child has mild dyslexia, it opened our eyes into how little is done for kids with even the mildest problems. This term hes been taken off the support list (half an hour a week) it took us 2 years to get him on it :rolleyes: now hes off again as we have worked with him at home and his school testing proves his reading is better than many in the class without dyslexia

No 2 is like many UK kids branded as gifted, it seems any kids whos as much as sniffed a UK school book is gifted can the work really be that far ahead. Doesnt anyone else find it strange so many UK kids are gifted ; when they start school here) Even tho hes now a genius :rolleyes: no extension work is provided.

I think before people knock my opinion, keep in mind its formed over 5 years not 5 minutes, sure the kids are happy as larry and I'm happy about that but to be honest if we moved anywhere overseas we have huge concerns. In their words, they fear they would be dumb and dumber (their assessement of the whole experience not mine :scared: ) and yes that does worry me.

Re: Schools?
 

Please don't think I was knocking your opinion I wasn't. I just felt to say Australian schools were crap was a sweeping statement, a bit like saying that all scousers are thieves. One thing I found when i lived in Canada prior to here where the schooling in our area really was sub-standard is that it only ever becomes an issue if your children leave the country in which they are educated. If they do their entire schooling and any further education here in Oz then they are competing in the workplace with other Australians for the most part with similar educational backgrounds. Even if this isn't the case their differing education can sometimes bring other skills and experiences to the table.

Didn't mean to offend. I appreciate that I have only been here 4 months but surely my opinion counts as much as anyone elses. I think someone in another thread summed it up perfectly - this board can sometimes be really unfriendly particularly to people who don't post that often and don't word things in a certain way.

Carole

Re: Schools?
 

Absolutely agree with you. My 7 year old is just about to finish her first full school year here (Perth) and she has loved it (as has my 5 year old in Pre primary). I am more than pleased with the work she has covered in English and feel it is more relevant to her needs than what she was doing in England. She really enjoys maths now because it's fun.
We did quite alot of research before we came to earmark possible schools then when we got here we spoke to as many people as possible-estate agents, people in shops, car salesmen -all the people that you are dealing with on arrival. Soon we had the same couple of schools cropping up again and again as having a good reputation. We eventually chose one and rented in that area specifically to get them into the school and have now gone on to buy. Keep your ear to the ground and ask lots and lots of questions.
No doubt some schools are crap...just like in the UK so you've just got to do your research first so you avoid them.:)

Re: Schools?
 

We have 4 kids aged 3,7,10 and 16 so schools were pretty high on our priority list. The children had all been in International schools in Belgium so we were worried about them settling into the Australian system but have been very lucky. We enrolled the kids in the local Catholic schools but don't really feel that they would necessarily have been worse off in any of the other local schools. The headmaster told us that he would recommend any of the local schools to parents as they are all very good and it is a matter of personal choice. Ours had been in Catholic schools in the UK and we just went with gut reaction after visiting all of the schools.
The primary schools here start at 9am and then finish at 3.20, the Secondary school starts at 8.45 and finishes at 3.30 so it is very similar to the UK.
The primary schools here are very focussed on foundation skills with a lot of project work. My children are all settling very well and enjoy school tremendously, the school have helped them to settle and have arranged meetings with the occpational therapist for our son to help him to adjust to the new routine. This sort of thing in the UK is reserved for the very serious cases but in our sons case he has no academic problems but they are trying to help him with the differences in the writing style etc. I am a trained secondary school teacher and am very happy with the schools here.
The secondary school has a huge range of subjects with the opportunity for apprentiships in year 11 and 12 which run alongside the VCE. As far as I am aware the University system here is very well thought of throughout the world and I would say that if the schools here were really terrible then it would be very difficult to achieve this international regard. Our eldest has chosen his subjects for his VCE and is more than happy with the options available and I feel that he will have a good base for University with the subjects that he will be doing. He isn't able to drop English and Maths right through his final years which makes a lot of sense.
I do think that the UK is very caught up in testing kids and pressurising them, providing statistics for everything. This is part of the reason that we left, we want our kids to have a balanced education with a good social life free of the pressures of the UK. It is a case of each to its own but I have no complaints here I expect that when you get into the cities or in more deprived areas then problems would become more pronounced.
Feel free to PM me if you want any more info on the Victoria system as a lot of things differ from one state to another and I can only comment on what we find.
Good luck with making your move.
Nicky

Re: Schools?
 

A book I found invaluble when deciding my 12 yr olds school was - The good Schools guide by Hobsons, i managed to order online when i was still in the uk it gives information on all types of schools, catholic, private, state, vce scores, prices, activities etc etc.

Re: Schools?
 

I don't think they are; I think that's a load of cobblers.

I lived in Australia for 30 years and worked as a teacher's aide in several multicultural classrooms; not once in all my time did I see any UK kid labelled as "gifted."

This comes as no surprise to me, since...

Source.

See also: An Ofsted report revealed that despite a 'marked improvement' in English standards, many pupils are leaving primary school without basic skills in reading and writing.

So much for British education standards.

Re: Schools?
 

Looks like it has just been circumstances that have formed your opinion of the Australian education system and I can see why that has happened.

Although I can't agree that UK kids are any brainier than Australian kids to be honest, the children attending the schools my children go to are very competive in all subjects, especially in high school where they give out prizes for achieving a first place in each subject.

I do know that a survey of Queensland kids entering the University system in NSW has caused a bit of a stir recently (sorry to anyone living in Queensland ;) ) as they have found they have lower skills in Maths and English, now I don't know how true this is it was just a piece in the Daily Telegraph I read the other day. It might highlight the differences in education between the states though.