Originally Posted by DavidandAlex (Post 6260624)

Hi all,

Can we join you? I'm Alex, 28, a part time palliative care nurse, and hubby David is also 28 and a full time intensive care nurse. We have a 15 month old little boy called Theo and are in the beginning stages of planning our journey to Perth. We are hoping to come in January 2009, but have no idea where exactly in Perth at the moment! Hoping to get some idea from you guys! ;) Our initial plan is to come for a year, rent our house out in the UK and see what happens - we're bit too scared to take the plunge completely! :unsure:

Have just applied to the nursing board of western australia for both our nursing registrations and are in contact with a nursing agency who will hopefully help find hubby a job. Haven't started applying for visa yet as not sure what our best option is - we're a bit worried having read some other posts about nurses being stuck in jobs they hate because their employer sponsored their visa. Would be interested to hear any advice/thoughts/experiences of other nurses on here about this?

Alex

Originally Posted by The Clarkeys (Post 6261418)

Hi!
Another newbie I'm afraid! Love this forum!
We are a teacher and a plumber hoping to move to perth at some point this year! visa submitted in Feb and just had meds done.

We've been researching perth and originally thought Mandurah and now thinking Secret Harbour (OH saw it on one of these Down Under progs).

How do you decide:confused: Daughter is nearly 4 and should be starting school here in sept but out there she wouldn't start pre-school til next feb.
Anybody recommend any schools?

Originally Posted by mick69 (Post 6264512)

It depends on which part of Secret Harbour you live in to which school they will go to. There are two (that I am aware of) Comet Bay and Secret Harbour Primary School. Both my girls went to Secret Harbour. My youngest was also 4 and went to kindy there. Personally it was a lovely school and they both enjoyed going. All the parents were friendly I wouldn't hesitate to recommend here.

Lynne :)

Originally Posted by The Clarkeys (Post 6273408)

Thanks Lynne. We found Secret Harbour Primary on the internet, don't remember seeing Comet Bay.

Our problem is that Niamh is due to start Reception in September but if/when we get over there she wouldn't even start pre-school (Kindy?) until the following Feb. Worried she will totally confused especially as she is really looking forward to starting BIG school!

Originally Posted by allankate (Post 6275586)

I know what you mean, it's going to be confusing for them I'm sure. My youngest George would start reception over here in Sept and can start pre-primary in February. Luckily we haven't mentioned 'school' to him much so as long as we go over before Sept he'll be OK.

My concern is my daughter who is in year 1 in the (UK) and moves to years 3 in September. Under Oz scheme she starts Primary in February, I'm not sure how that will work, she can already read books like Charlie and the Chocolate factory and the likes yet in Oz she'll be going back to doing her ABC's :ohmy:

Nothing we can do about it until we get over there and sit down with the schools though.

The other thing is that over in the UK our two are two school years apart and over in Oz they'll be 1 year apart.

My wife was hoping that we could get our kids into Secret Harbour primary however our new build house is one street away from the SH primary catchment area. So looks like Comet Bay primary for us.

See you over there later this year ;)

Allan

Originally Posted by tawkins1 (Post 6276695)

A friend of ours went out 3 years ago when their daughter would have then been in reception. As she was well advanced for the reception class they put her up to the next year so she could carry on her education without having to re do a year. This now means that she will leave school a year earlier tho. Not sure if all schools do this but thought i'd mention it.:confused:
As for being in the catchment area for a school, if they have places they may allow your child to enrol in that school. We have found this when looking for High schools in the Southern River area. A High school in Thornie has said they have places at the moment & that if we wanted to enrol our eldest there would be no problem. :thumbsup:

Originally Posted by The Clarkeys (Post 6284676)

When are you heading off there? your visa came back fairly quick! Already getting impatient and ours was only submitted at beginning of feb!

Originally Posted by allankate (Post 6286928)

Thanks for that info, hopefully they will consider her based on her ability rather than her age. It's catch 22 though really as we'd rather her not be mixing with other who are much older than her, as they want to grow up quick enough as it is. Ho hum I'm sure we'll find a happy medium.;)

Cheers

Allan

Originally Posted by SalSa (Post 6287056)

I shouldn't worry about it too much :) There are loads of kids from the UK at Comet Bay so the teachers are well used to it :lol: My daughter goes there and she's skipped a year and gone into year 4

Did you manage to get some updated pics of your house??

Originally Posted by allankate (Post 6291358)

Yep we did get some very kind offers of pics of our house build. Only at foundations (slab) at the moment and a recent drive by shows no change. But with the house market here as bad as it is, a slow build is suiting me at the moment.

Here are the pics http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php

So are your kids at Comet Bay primary? How are you / they finding it? Were they ever at SH primary before the split?

Cheers

Allan

Originally Posted by allankate (Post 6286950)

Yep we were really really lucky with the visa, applied beginning of Sept and got the visa early January!

House been on the market now for 3 months with 18 viewings, but so far no sniff of an offer, so realistically we won't be over until we can shift it (may have to fly over and validate if too slow). I think it's time for a change of estate agent and a drop in price to generate some more interest.

Good luck with your visa, hopefully the process will start speeding up again for you now that a lot of July / August apps have been granted recently.

Allan

Originally Posted by allankate (Post 6291358)

Yep we did get some very kind offers of pics of our house build. Only at foundations (slab) at the moment and a recent drive by shows no change. But with the house market here as bad as it is, a slow build is suiting me at the moment.

Here are the pics http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php

So are your kids at Comet Bay primary? How are you / they finding it? Were they ever at SH primary before the split?

Cheers

Allan

Originally Posted by tawkins1 (Post 6291417)

We have been on the market for 3 months & only 1 viewer
e asked another EA to come & value our house to make sure it wasn't overpriced & they said that it was on for the right amount & couldn't understand why we hadn't had any viewers :confused:
We changed EA's yesterday, dropped asking price by another 5k (20K in total now!) :curse: so hopefully we should get some viewers soon.
Good luck & hope you get a buyer soon. :thumbsup: