skinnyhips

Hello to all! Ive just found out my husband will be transferred to a new project in perth , australia in early 2010, we have 2 kids, a girl aged 8 and a boy aged 2 and currently live in scotland. Im keen to hear from anyone who can help me make the transition as easy as possible for the little people and can anyone tell me how do you go about finding a great school as this is my number one priority and there seems to be so many! Im feeling a bit overwhelmed as to where to start but since making sure my kids can adapt, settle and be happy i thought id ask for advice on getting the right school first.Any thoughts or tips will be greatly appreciated!

Englishtart

Just wanted to say Hi and Welcome to BE. I'm sure the folks in OZ will be along shortly to offer help/advice, if not, pop into the Australia forum and post your questions in there
Good luck with your move

Ka Ora!

Welcome to the forum, You might want to try the OZ Section and Wiki`s

Sue

Hi,

Welcome to the forum.

I see you are moving to Australia. Go dig right in and post your questions in our Australia forum. We have a great bunch of members and you wil find they are all great at sharing their expereinces.

Again welcome and I hope you enjoy using the site.

skinnyhips

Thanks for the welcome and advice on where to look, there seems to be millions of posts on everything under the sun so im sure it will come in useful, so far i havent seen much specifically on schools or how to choose one in perth but ill keep looking !

Nu-Shooz

Any chance you could do a reccie?

That's what we did and visited afew schools while we were there, spoke to locals and got the low down on certain schools.
Thing is, you have to live in the catchment area, so choose the area you want to live in first, then the school.

skinnyhips

Hi Nu shooz, thanks, yes the company will send us for a go see visit , problem is we will only have a week to try and find a place to live and a school! bit of a tall order i know, ive been looking at some areas i liked but like people have said things are different once there so ive got an open mind about it all, i was going to try and find a school then a house because figured if i got the house first but the good schools were elsewhere that would be a pain whereas if i find a school thats good i can look for a nice house in the catchment area but i see the sense in your suggestion! Are you in perth? which areas do you like if you dont mind me asking?

Englishtart

We have moved around the US and Europe a few times, I always do the school search first, as you say you want to be in the district with the best school. It's usually easier to find a place to live after you have chosen the school, rather than the other way around...jmho

Nu-Shooz

Yes it probably is best to find the school of your choice, then the house...but you have to provide evidence that you live in your chosen area to get into the school. We lived in a different area to the school we chose. So we had to 'pretend' we lived there.(got someone to sort it out) We lived in Carramar and my kids went to school in Kinross.
We have now moved back to UK, many different reasons, but in general we prefer UK afterall.
Give it a go, you never know. Can't suggest any good schools, to me it depends on the individual and how they want to learn. The school we chose was wrong in the end up, but we weren't to know.
All the best

mabozar

Does your husband work in the oil and gas industry? I know that there are alot of new projects kicking off soon in that field.

Please keep in touch
Carol

Kingseat

We can certainly give you some ideas but first of all where about in the city will your husband be working?

skinnyhips

hiya, yep hubby is an engineer. oh my even the toss up between, suburb or school first is a dilema, think this is going to get complicated haha! good food for thought though!

skinnyhips

Kingseat, still waiting for all the info from my hubbies company but pretty certain he will be in the CBD! will update with more details as i get some, sound a bit lame how little i know yet, but hubby is in brazil finishing off last job and when he gets back we will be meeting his work to get all the low down properly!

movin'on

I'd choose North or South of river first just to narrow things down. Then ideally locate near the freeway so your OH can easily get to work (drive or public transport is very good). Then go a couple of suburbs outside of the city as those near the city are very expensive (but of course have lovely schools!).

Pretty vague advice I know but everyone has their own preferences and they'll probably be a big North Vs South of the river debate.....

We are South - initially as we knew people who lived south when we first got here. We are a 20min drive to the city (30min in heavy traffic) and about 40mins door to door on public transport (bus and train). I would recommend Bull Creek, Leeming, Kardinya, Winthrop, Booragoon, Como, nice schools, near freo, near the freeway, not TOO expensive ....

I'm sure there will be others on here who can make recommendations for suburbs North of the river.

Most areas down the Stirling Highway are also LOVELY (but pricey) and reasonably easy to get to the city, and near the beaches....

All depends on the budget -Perth is expensive. Before we got here on paper we were going to be pretty well off however it's a lot more expensive than we thought - bear that in mind when looking at rentals etc.

Also check out http://www2.eddept.wa.edu.au/schoolprofile/home.do to get basic information on schools.

Good luck!!!!