UK schooling vs Australia for young children
Aug 16th 2010, 10:02 am
#76
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Re: UK schooling vs Australia for young children
I agree...it will definitely take more effort than a local. Personally I question everyone I meet in the new area. Real estate agents, tradesmen, shop keepers and ask them about the school I am considering....had to do it recently as moving to different part of town. Amazing how many have good advice. Good luck.
Last edited by fish.01; Aug 16th 2010 at 10:06 am.
Aug 16th 2010, 10:51 am
#77
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Location: Perth WA
Posts: 23
Re: UK schooling vs Australia for young children
I was really looking forward to us returning to Australia as I wanted our daughter to be educated here. Now four months on I can honestly say I am rather disappointed. I did not appreciate how supportive and nurturing the school in the UK was until I came back here to Perth.
We intially had to find a school that would accept her into the year above as she is born a day after the cut-off. Fortunately they agreed she was ahead for her age and allowed her to go into year 1. We had spoken to her teacher throughout her first term about the level of reading books she was getting as they were far too easy for her and asked if they could give her higher level books and the teacher suggested we visit the local library instead
I was annoyed that the teacher couldn't be bothered to find reading material more challenging. Then we get our daughter's report and the teacher made comments that our daughter hasn't been listening and tunes out (although she has had plenty of opportunities to mention it to us when we have asked how she was doing). We spoke to our daughter about it and she says she is bored and that they are doing work that she has done before in Reception year in the UK. The teacher just does not seem to be listening to the concerns we have raised so we have decided that we will just get her doing other little fun workbooks at home and learn an instrument. Hoping for a better teacher next year or we will have to look at switching schools.
We intially had to find a school that would accept her into the year above as she is born a day after the cut-off. Fortunately they agreed she was ahead for her age and allowed her to go into year 1. We had spoken to her teacher throughout her first term about the level of reading books she was getting as they were far too easy for her and asked if they could give her higher level books and the teacher suggested we visit the local library instead
I was annoyed that the teacher couldn't be bothered to find reading material more challenging. Then we get our daughter's report and the teacher made comments that our daughter hasn't been listening and tunes out (although she has had plenty of opportunities to mention it to us when we have asked how she was doing). We spoke to our daughter about it and she says she is bored and that they are doing work that she has done before in Reception year in the UK. The teacher just does not seem to be listening to the concerns we have raised so we have decided that we will just get her doing other little fun workbooks at home and learn an instrument. Hoping for a better teacher next year or we will have to look at switching schools.
Aug 16th 2010, 11:31 am
#78
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Posts: 2,237
Re: UK schooling vs Australia for young children
, so the school system here was just as much a shock to me as it was to you.
Aug 16th 2010, 11:52 am
#79
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Joined: Oct 2009
Location: Perth
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Re: UK schooling vs Australia for young children
I was really looking forward to us returning to Australia as I wanted our daughter to be educated here. Now four months on I can honestly say I am rather disappointed. I did not appreciate how supportive and nurturing the school in the UK was until I came back here to Perth.
We intially had to find a school that would accept her into the year above as she is born a day after the cut-off. Fortunately they agreed she was ahead for her age and allowed her to go into year 1. We had spoken to her teacher throughout her first term about the level of reading books she was getting as they were far too easy for her and asked if they could give her higher level books and the teacher suggested we visit the local library instead I was annoyed that the teacher couldn't be bothered to find reading material more challenging. Then we get our daughter's report and the teacher made comments that our daughter hasn't been listening and tunes out (although she has had plenty of opportunities to mention it to us when we have asked how she was doing). We spoke to our daughter about it and she says she is bored and that they are doing work that she has done before in Reception year in the UK. The teacher just does not seem to be listening to the concerns we have raised so we have decided that we will just get her doing other little fun workbooks at home and learn an instrument. Hoping for a better teacher next year or we will have to look at switching schools.
We intially had to find a school that would accept her into the year above as she is born a day after the cut-off. Fortunately they agreed she was ahead for her age and allowed her to go into year 1. We had spoken to her teacher throughout her first term about the level of reading books she was getting as they were far too easy for her and asked if they could give her higher level books and the teacher suggested we visit the local library instead
I was annoyed that the teacher couldn't be bothered to find reading material more challenging. Then we get our daughter's report and the teacher made comments that our daughter hasn't been listening and tunes out (although she has had plenty of opportunities to mention it to us when we have asked how she was doing). We spoke to our daughter about it and she says she is bored and that they are doing work that she has done before in Reception year in the UK. The teacher just does not seem to be listening to the concerns we have raised so we have decided that we will just get her doing other little fun workbooks at home and learn an instrument. Hoping for a better teacher next year or we will have to look at switching schools.Our eldest switched off, and our youngest is acting out and switching off, because they are given work that is far too easy. This just cannot be healthy for long-term learning. They're not the only ones in their classes who need more challenging work.
I spent 6 months researching other schools NOR, but if the system and the people working in it aren't listening to parents, it's very hard. You can be accused of being a pushy parent, or told that they won't get harder work if they're not doing the easy work first. I don't get this - why should capable kids have to do 2 lots of work and even more homework than the other kids
. Unfair on the kids, whichever way you look at it.
Aug 16th 2010, 1:15 pm
#80
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Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 61
Re: UK schooling vs Australia for young children
Zenshin, we went through exactly the same thing, with both our kids, down to the class books, where the Year 2 teacher wouldn't lend the Year 1 teacher some of her books - made worse by the fact that the year above my son is the "half-year cohort" born in the 1st half of 1997, so she only had half a class to give books out to. It was hard to find suitable books at the library, as their reading ability was above their emotional maturity to read scary-content stuff more suitable for older kids.
Our eldest switched off, and our youngest is acting out and switching off, because they are given work that is far too easy. This just cannot be healthy for long-term learning. They're not the only ones in their classes who need more challenging work.
I spent 6 months researching other schools NOR, but if the system and the people working in it aren't listening to parents, it's very hard. You can be accused of being a pushy parent, or told that they won't get harder work if they're not doing the easy work first. I don't get this - why should capable kids have to do 2 lots of work and even more homework than the other kids. Unfair on the kids, whichever way you look at it.
Our eldest switched off, and our youngest is acting out and switching off, because they are given work that is far too easy. This just cannot be healthy for long-term learning. They're not the only ones in their classes who need more challenging work.
I spent 6 months researching other schools NOR, but if the system and the people working in it aren't listening to parents, it's very hard. You can be accused of being a pushy parent, or told that they won't get harder work if they're not doing the easy work first. I don't get this - why should capable kids have to do 2 lots of work and even more homework than the other kids
. Unfair on the kids, whichever way you look at it.There are pluses and minuses to each system, I think. I'm not getting into a huge debate on which is better but I will say this: I have lived in Dubai and the UK and met Aussies in both places who have gone through the Aussie education system who had very successful careers so it couldn't have done them too much harm.
Aug 16th 2010, 1:19 pm
#81
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Joined: Apr 2008
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Re: UK schooling vs Australia for young children
Independent international testing shows that some of the state based education systems in Australia are slightly above some parts of the UK (Scotland I think) and slightly below some others. All in all didn't seem enough to worry about. Neither nation was at the top. Seems like choice of suburb and school within each country would make far more difference than the country itself.
Aug 16th 2010, 1:21 pm
#82
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Re: UK schooling vs Australia for young children
Aug 16th 2010, 1:27 pm
#83
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Re: UK schooling vs Australia for young children
Aug 16th 2010, 1:31 pm
#85
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Re: UK schooling vs Australia for young children
Yes. And as I said, me included. I had a very successful 'career' in London. I was educated in WA. As were my friends who also managed to support themselves and survive in the business/teaching/oil worlds of the UK.
Aug 16th 2010, 2:00 pm
#86
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Re: UK schooling vs Australia for young children
Aug 16th 2010, 2:24 pm
#87
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Re: UK schooling vs Australia for young children
Aug 16th 2010, 2:35 pm
#88
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Re: UK schooling vs Australia for young children
I realise that people go entirely through the state education system and are successful and thrive. However, I can't see that light at the end of the tunnel when I see how the WA system is working at the moment. I have kids in it at the moment, you don't, and you aren't returning to WA, are you? As you have seen from this post, there are more people on here dismayed at what's going on, in state and private, than are happy.
Aug 16th 2010, 2:46 pm
#89
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Re: UK schooling vs Australia for young children
I realise that people go entirely through the state education system and are successful and thrive. However, I can't see that light at the end of the tunnel when I see how the WA system is working at the moment. I have kids in it at the moment, you don't, and you aren't returning to WA, are you? As you have seen from this post, there are more people on here dismayed at what's going on, in state and private, than are happy.
When they were in school in Perh I made sure they were in a school with a good reputation in a good suburb. We rented in an area where we knew even state school education would be okay. I did have to make an effort myself though, the school we chose didn't have a strings program so I had to make the extra time to take my eldest to private cello lessons, I had to try a couple of ballet schools before I found the right one for my girls - everything's about trial and error, if you don't get it right the first time, try again.
Aug 16th 2010, 3:08 pm
#90
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Joined: Apr 2010
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Re: UK schooling vs Australia for young children
Hi there, I just anted to flag something up at a secondary school level, I've been teaching for four years (UK based) and we have a lot of Aussie teachers in our school. The things I will say that is VERY noticeable is that whilst they are good teachers they are not used to differentiating their lessons in the way that UK trained teachers are and therefore sometimes they struggle to meet the needs of each child.
Of course the issue of whether teachers actually do this day in day out is a separate one. However the way we are taught to do this at uni and the expectations that parents have of how we do this is different when compared with Aussie teachers. I line managed one teacher and what was clear from his teaching was that he wasn't accustomed to tailoring his lessons for the needs of each child, unless the child had English as a second language, which is in some ways easier to differentiate for. His teaching style was more formulaic and teacher led and this is a pattern I have seen in a lot of Aussie teachers. Obviously other peoples experiences may be different, but I do have a number of Aussie friends who have also noticed a difference between the way we teach and the way they were taught.
Of course the issue of whether teachers actually do this day in day out is a separate one. However the way we are taught to do this at uni and the expectations that parents have of how we do this is different when compared with Aussie teachers. I line managed one teacher and what was clear from his teaching was that he wasn't accustomed to tailoring his lessons for the needs of each child, unless the child had English as a second language, which is in some ways easier to differentiate for. His teaching style was more formulaic and teacher led and this is a pattern I have seen in a lot of Aussie teachers. Obviously other peoples experiences may be different, but I do have a number of Aussie friends who have also noticed a difference between the way we teach and the way they were taught.