jduncanbrown

Hi, just joined this forum and am hoping someone can give us some guidance on how to get our daughter started in primary school.
We are planning to come over to Perth around Aug / Sept 09 and hoping she will be able to start foundation class primary school in the Feb 2010.

Not sure how to find out which are good / bad schools and the whole private school / state school choices are a complete maze to us.

Does anyone have any advice?

emelems

I am on the sunshine coast so its all different wherever you go.. heres what we did...

You need to ask around when you arrive - we did.. managed to get ours into the state primary school up the road which has a rep as a good one, whereas the one DOWN the road hasnt got such a good name..

State vs Private.. thats just a personal choice.. usually one that comes from the ability to afford or not to afford... or choose to afford..

Em x

PS I personally have found the state system not so cut throat as I thought it might be... if people want a better school/different school they tend to just go private as opposed to trying to get them into a better/different state school.. again, just my opinion..

quoll

Yup, nothing beats the eyeball test and the backfence review system. When you get here, ask around and folk will tell you what's what. Also, pass by the schools at going home time and see what they look like - you can often get a good impression of the school by the way the kids act when they get out. Once you have picked one or two then go and visit and look around the school. All state schools are obliged to take kids in their catchment area and schools very much reflect the suburb they are situated in so if you wouldnt want to live in the suburb, chances are you wouldnt want your child at the school there either. The public/private thing isnt such a big deal as in UK - we have a thriving Catholic parallel system which is effectively a de facto state system except it has slightly higher fees. If you want the elite private schools then think about $10 -15k a year so you either need deep pockets or exceptional budgeting and restraint.

Dont panic, you will have plenty of time once you get here to get things sorted.