Tajay

Hi There

Could anyone help me with some school/childcare queries?

We have just arrived in Sydney and looking for a place to rent near to primary school ....Please help us solve our dilemma regarding schools.

Please help us with the names of some fairly good primary schools in Sydney.

Do schools have before and after school care? How much does this cost?

Do you have school buses or equivalent?

Now childcare.

I get the impression that there are loads of daycare centres around. Is this right?

How much (approx) does childcare cost?

Is the quality good?

What age do children move from daycare/kindergarten to
school?

Thankyou so much for your answers to these...

Waiting for all your replies

Cheers

NickyC

Without knowing the area you're moving to it's impossible to give you specific info about schools. There are thousands of childcare centers/schools in Sydney.

All places that look after children (pre-school, childcare centres etc) have to be licenced. They also have to be accredited if they want to qualify for government-subsidised places so the quality is monitored and generally excellent. When my kids were small, there were heaps of childcare options in my area.

Officially kids in NSW start school (in Jan/Feb) if they are five by 31st July (in that year). So kids can be aged 4.5 to 5.5 at the time they start - it's totally dependent on when their birthday is. However the trend is to hold kids back a year if they are going to be the youngest in the class. Many private schools will only allow kids to start school if they are five by the end of March or April. Different private schools have different cutoff dates.

All schools will offer some sort of before and after school care. If not on their own premises, it will be nearby. No idea of the cost.

As far as 'good' primary schools go - you tend to find that the 'better' the area, the better the schools. So expensive suburbs have good schools (makes sense as the parents are better educated themselves and are more involved in the school). Avoid schools in areas with a high level of non-english-speaking migrants.

WHEEZY

Hi

Totally agree with Nicky, need to say which area you are looking at. We have two children 6 and just 5, and are living in the lower north shore area of Sydney so have done our homework as far as schools and child care centres are concerned in that area. My 6 year old girl attends a private school and is in year 1 until the end of the year, she would have gone up to year 2 in UK. My 5 year old boy attends a long day care centre, he turned 5 at the end of August so missed the cut off for starting school this year. We arrived in Sydney in March this year and he had been attending school in the UK, he now only does 3 days a week at Kindy :scared: I do try not to get hung up about this and remind myself daily that he is only 5 after all Should we go back to the UK I'm sure he will catch up.

What sort of visa are you here on? If, like us, you are on a temp 457, then you will have to pay for schooling whether its public or private. This is around $4500 per child per annum.

With regards to pre-school child care, there are various kindy's available. Long day care, which takes kids from around 18months - 5 years, the hours are usually 8am - 6pm, costs are around $60-$90 a day. Then, if you are lucky, there are places which do the usual 9am - 3pm which obviously is a lot cheaper around $30-$50 a day.

There's load of info on schools and kindys in the Sydney's Child mag, its a free monthly publication you can pick up from libraries, schools and info centres etc. The August edition had a huge feature on Education, ie starting school, class sizes, also contains a the 2005 Independent Schools Directory, and a list of playgroups in Sydney. If you cannot get hold of a copy of this issue, send me a PM with your address and I'll send you mine

If you are thinking about the north shore area, good public primary schools include: Neutral Bay Public, Middle Harbour Primary and Mosman Public, which all have good reputations.

Good luck

Louise

JAJ

Except that in the Eastern Suburbs this is not so much the case, because of the number of children attending private schools. If choosing a public school in this part of Sydney, choose with care (even though most of the East is categorised as 'better off').

There are quite a few good state schools in the better parts of western Sydney, eg the Hills District.


Jeremy

NickyC

Good point - that particularly applies to public High Schools in this area. Public Primary schools are generally fine around here. Clovelly and Double Bay have very good reputations - though Bondi Beach might be one to avoid

Tajay

Thanks a lot for all your answers. I am concentrating on areas like Strathfield, Epping, Burwood , Castle Hills, Baukham Hills to name a few. My son would be starting prinmary school in Jan '2006.

Just in case if someone can suggest better areas to stay for families. My husband is working in CBD - Wynyard station.

Also, I am keen to go for a townhouse or 2 bedroom apartment in fairly nice building and my rent limits are around AUD 350/pw.

All suggestions are welcome ...

poshrice

Hiya we are moving to sydney beginning of october we have a 20mth old son so were also looking for nice family areas we have managed to narrow it down to Dundas, Carlingford, North Rocks and possibly North Mead as Hubby was out in Sydney for 7 weeks in april and he said these areas looked quite nice his office is in gladesville but as he is a mobile service engineer he will be doing a lot of work in the CBD he said it takes roughly an hour to get into the CBD by car from Baulkaham hills so is quite a trek we are looking at a budget up to $400 and have seen some lovely property for this amount on www.justlisted.com.au and also on realestate.com. WHile he was there he was stopping in Marsfield which is where we will be for the 1st month courtesy of the company so at least we have a month to find something we like. If you want to get in touch when you get to sydney pm with your email and we can arrange to meet.

Poshrice

poshrice

Sorry forgot to mention that we are looking from $280 per week but most properties i like are approx $330 for a modern 3 bed house with a nice garden.So you can see the areas we are looking at are quite reasonable hubby went house hunting in strathfield with some firends while he was there but he said he thought it was rough (although he is a fussy wotsit) i don't know what it is like cause i have never been looks quite nice to me from what i have seen from my searches on real estate sites.

Hope this was a help for you
poshrice