angelpie

Hi Guys
Thoughts on this appreciated.
I have just been reading through forum postings and have come across some very negative people….. Obviously I wowould expect everyone to sing Oz praises and everyone has different experiences, so no offence ment by this!

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=364946 this is the forum I have been reading

One thing I hadn’t really thought about was what do British teenagers / education leavers tend to do? When we came over to Oz for a reccie a lot of 20ish year old Aussie’s we spoke to couldn’t wait to go off travelling London, Europe etc being the most popular choices also if you go to London there are so many young Aussies (which by the way I am not moaning about) I was just wondering do the British kids go off too?

Also with regards to Education have any of your kids really suffered if returning to UK to work when older?

And do they tend to go back and live in UK when they can make there own choice?

Thanks
Jaime

sassenach

what you have to remeber on the forum part where they are thinking or going back to the uk these people have by and large have well informed opinions on australia and the uk as they have lived in both ,i dont believe anyone on the forum is negative they are stating opinions and real life situations and have arrived after probably a fair amount of mental anguish that they are or will be happier in the uk .I have been here 15 years and personally tried to fit in and in general try and look at life in australia in a positive light ,but in your mind you are fighting abattle in most cases on a daily basis in the end you have to do what is right for yourself ,this in no way means australia is a bad country it is not it has faults not much different to the uk the hearthache most people who want to return feel is they cant work out why they dont like it because so many come here so it must be good ,then they analyze themselves thinking they must be failures when in reality the motto is ''tried it didnt like it so what ''.The problem with this site is the people who are full of enthusiasm and are coming here and by and large have spent a lot of time and cash to get to their dream dont want to see people airing their opinions and possibly ruining their dreams because they dont know for sure in thei own minds wether they are going to like it after all 4 in 10 dont .The fact is nothing is different here to the uk really you still got work ,taxes,blah blah so its down to personal choice do you prefer the uk or aussie as simple as that

Amanda&Paul

I have been working at my present job for 18 months - International banking and only 5 out of the 6 aussies that have left our small dept have gone over to the UK. I think that those that can afford/have the right qualifications/visas are very tempted to go at least for a few years. I know of several people that have relatives that have never come back.

As Sassenach says what is paradise for one is not for another. I would die if my kids moved back to the UK when older if I had stayed here for their sake. I guess you have to not only think about your kids and their lives but yourself as well because once they come of age they are going to do what makes them happy regardless.

angelpie

I was afraid that i would come across not wanting to listen to other opinions and i obviously did! This was not intended!
We all went to live in Spain for 6 months and really didn't like it there so i am under no illusion to the difficulties we will face + all the extra ones that the distance will throw into the mix. I just wanted to try and balance out the education thing really as alot of people on that thread basically said it was very behind UK standard and i think that you need to be able to justify this - especially if it would affect your children if they (god forbid!) decided to return to the UK

arkon

And this is the main reason we are staying here to get Citizenship. Our son was born here so now he is an Australian citizen. If we were to move back to the UK now and say in 20 years time he wanted to move to Australia, we would be unable to return if we don't get citizenship too. Not that I would want to come back but the thought of him being on the otherside of the world doesn't bear thinking about.

Anastasia Beaverhausen

Hubby was educated in Oz, he has had no problem getting work here in the UK.

Your kids wont grow up thick, so dont worry. There is no point in comparing the two systems unless you think you may bring them back mid education.

My sister in law (10) loves school, is bright as a button, has won so many award for behaviour and achievement, is polite, fit and healthy and bloody clever to boot. All this under the Australian education system. Cant be all bad.

In my mind, education is more than just words and numbers, you need to think also of the environment your kids will be in as school, and the encouragement they get from their teachers. I wasnt academic, so the teachers didnt bother with me, it didnt matter that I was artistic, just not academic(uk school). Thats not to say that it wont be the same in oz, but according to the hubby, his musical talent was nurtured well, and he had a lot of encouragement for his weak areas.

Cam1977

The general feeling seems to be that kids in Oz enjoy school more, but don't learn anything. But there's an OECD programme called PISA (Programme for International Sudent Assessment) which evaluates the literacy, maths and scientific abilities of 15-year-olds which shows that the Aussie kids aren't so dumb after all. I haven't gone through the whole chart, but Australia comes in fourth in literacy and sixth in science, while the UK is not in the top six in any category.

It seems that if you want the best in education, then you'd best move to Finland. (Brrrrrrrrrrrrr)

Check it out:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Program...ent_Assessment

jothefw

I've read the link and I've got to say that the UK that they're talking about isn't the one I think we live in!

My son is at primary school, first year about to turn 5 in May, and he spends a lot of his day playing in the sandpit, building lego, knex etc

My younger son goes to preschool and plays some more too. He can't write a jot and I'm not worried about it. Hes happy, generally polite and plays nicely with his friends. I'm not hoping to bring him to Oz to change any of that.

If we do end up in Oz by the time they go to Uni I would be more than prepared for them to come back to UK if necessary but I'd be surprised as it is all relative.

With respects to NHS dentists, you can't find one for love nor money - those that have opened recently have had newsworthy queues outside them. My husbands just had some treatment privately and its the same price as if he had it done NHS anyway!

My conclusion .... everyones different, I love the UK and I want to go to Oz and love Oz too. Its an experience, good, bad, challenging but hopefully fun at the end of the day.

angelpie

It is interesting when you actually start to look at fact and not opinion.
Happiness has always been highest on my list of priorities for the kids so Oz sounds good for that. Anyway if my son gets his way he'll be playing cricket for England! so it won't really matter

HiddenPaw

On this forum:
-Facts/statistics are good when Australia comes out favourably (education).
-Facts/statistics are bad when Australia comes out unfavourably (crime), and people start to dispute the validity of the stats, or suggest that opinion and experience count for more than fact!!

Seriously, I am just inclined to think that whatever category of life you are looking at, there is good and bad everywhere - good schools, bad schools, low crime areas, high crime areas, etc.

Opinion on these forums is divided re education - there have been loads of threads on here in the last couple of years about the UK v Oz education systems, and the conclusion I have drawn is that neither system is definitively superior than the other. The systems seem different but, time and time again, both appear to be able to churn out intelligent, educated, well-rounded children.
(I don't have school-age children so my 'opinion' is just based on what I have read, not experience!!)

lollyno1

It seems that if you want the best in education, then you'd best move to Finland. (Brrrrrrrrrrrrr)

fellow colleague just come back from Finland having viewed a number of numeracy session within primary and secondary settings..his opinion...our standards are higher than theirs!!

and it was -17 all week...

sassenach

we are in that position now our eldest is staying here because he prefers the laid back lifstyle and feels he will get on better here ie housing ladder i dont know how he arrives at that conclusion i dont know because just about everywhere in australia and the uk is un affordable at the moment .Our youngest who is 18 is coming back with us and is looking forward to a more up beat lifestyle and heaps of places to go and see .We dont really mind if they both end up in aussie or uk as its one of the by products of having both passports and we look at it as an advantage in stead of a negative after all if work is crap in the uk then work in aussie is always an option and vice versa ,what you have to remember our children can live in any country in europe so the possibility of you not seeing them is always on the cards .

sassenach

yes i agree with a lot you say here but we all experience rose tinted glasses in both directions [uk ,ozzie] .A lot of the stuff i read on the forum with people who are copming here ie lower crime rate ,less drugs blah blah is fantasy land .Drugs for instance here are very bad and in my sons school they where dealing drugs on the oval at break times every day and in fact we went outy last night for my boys 18 birthday just as a family and we got on to the topic of drugs and i was even more horrified than i realised ,its rife here in perth and a constant battle for youth not to take something .Now iii guess all this goes on in brit schools too so to me where the advantage to coming here if its the same here ,i can uterly guarantee every single parent here will worrry about their kids and drugs it doesnt dissapear here the australians love drugs .I have focussed on only one aspect of life when considering a move there are many many more and you have to way it all up ,because to me there is no difference and im back to where i started really it just depends where you feel comfortable and at home .We have had friends here who where from one of the most violent places in britain [belfast,shankil road ]they dealt with bigotry and violence from all sides over there and decided to move to perth for a more peaceful life they moved back after 2 years and couldnt stand the boring monotony of living here .

Vash the Stampede

Were you educated in the UK?

angelpie

"The Australians love drugs!" Thats a strong statement!

I think drugs are a problem all over the world in one way or another, it wouldn't be my main concern as i think that some will try it some won't but it more comes down to the people that they are than anything else. Personally i never felt the need (it was going on all around me) so i am trying to give my children the same mindset as i had.