A better future for our kids in NZ?
 

Hi,

Like many people wishing to migrate, a better life for our kids is one of the
prime reasons.

I feel the UK is letting them down in the following areas and would appreciate any
experiences of what NZ has to offer as an alternative.

A generally poor standard of education at their primary school, plenty of funded
inhouse schemes to bring underachievers up to average but nothing to advance talented
children either academically or in sport. Refusal to encourage any competiveness
means the kids PE consists of game playing with no real outcome. At my last sons
sports day he looked totally perplexed at the lack of winners, losers, trophies etc.
We would like to see them taught "real" sports ie rugby, football,cricket etc. This
philosophy seems to be creeping into other areas of education incuding the grading
system where a lot of the time you either pass or fail. Like many aspects of life in
the UK only the mediocre is catered for and people with exceptional talent can be
made to feel guilty, unless of course you can afford to pay for something better!

High costs of providing out of school activities for our kids scouts, ballet &
swimming leaves us broke!

The teenagers by us seem to have little to do but hang round outside the local
offlicense and I want better for ours.

I could go on more but this will do for now!!!!!!!!

This is a genuine enquiry please do not let it turn into a stage for airing
personal agendas.

Thanks

Paula xx

Re: A better future for our kids in NZ?
 

On Fri, 12 Jul 2002 00:06:29 +0100, "Watt Dabney"
<[email protected]> wrote:

    >Hi,
    >
    >Like many people wishing to migrate, a better life for our kids is one of the
    >prime reasons.
    >
    >I feel the UK is letting them down in the following areas and would appreciate any
    >experiences of what NZ has to offer as an alternative.
    >
    >A generally poor standard of education at their primary school, plenty of funded
    >inhouse schemes to bring underachievers up to average but nothing to advance
    >talented children either academically or in sport.

From my personal experience of moving a child from a nice private prep school to a
nice private girls' school in NZ, I would say that the education she was receiving in
the UK was better in many respects. However, this is just *one* person's experience
and may very well not reflect the larger picture. We have subsequently changed her
school and are much happier.

    >Refusal to encourage any competiveness means the kids PE consists of game playing
    >with no real outcome. At my last sons sports day he looked totally perplexed at the
    >lack of winners, losers, trophies etc. We would like to see them taught "real"
    >sports ie rugby, football,cricket etc. This philosophy seems to be creeping into
    >other areas of education incuding the grading system where a lot of the time you
    >either pass or fail.

This isn't something we had experience of in the UK: we lived in Lincolnshire, one of
the few areas to still have grammar schools and competitiveness was a way of life.

    >Like many aspects of life in the UK only the mediocre is catered for and people with
    >exceptional talent can be made to feel guilty, unless of course you can afford to
    >pay for something better!

Ask about "Tall Poppy Syndrome" when you get here! :)

There are still school fees for many schools in NZ. My daughter's present school,
which is part of the state system, charges $75 a month. Then, there is the cost of
school stationary to be bourn. However, this is a pittance when compared with the
£600 we used to pay a month in the UK.

    >High costs of providing out of school activities for our kids scouts, ballet &
    >swimming leaves us broke!

Sport isn't something that we personally have much experience of in NZ.(Yes, we are
bucking the trend!) However, from what I have seen, sport often has a very low
priority on weekly timetabling in school time and most serious sport normally
happens on Saturdays when, very often, there may be a fee charged. It is not
compulsory for children to attend on Saturdays in most schools, altho some private
schools will make it so.

Ballet, I think, cost us less than in the UK and riding lessons are much cheaper.

    >The teenagers by us seem to have little to do but hang round outside the local
    >offlicense

Same here :( Except it is a "Bottle Shop"

    >and I want better for ours.

Despite what I have said in the above, I think you would get a better life for
children in many ways in NZ. I certainly feel it is safer here. There are more
facilities and sport is taken more seriously and with more respect than in the UK.

NZ is much cleaner and less built up than the UK. Mainly the weather is better
and life on the beach is wonderful! However, if you live a distance away from
your children's school, you will find yourself spending quite a lot of time as a
taxi service.

Personally, my daughter (aged 10) is having a wonderful time here! We are about to
shift out to a lifestyle property and she dreams of owning a horse and of helping
with the chooks etc. She loves her school and has good friends. In the holidays the
local council organise an activity programme for children who's parents are at work.
She enjoys them so much that, even tho I am not working when she is on holiday, she
still goes to some! There are a lot of parks with good playgrounds and we are
welcomed in most pubs/restaurants with her. (NZ has a far less ageist society. If you
go to a pub, you will normally find all ages there from under one to over 80, not
just the 14-18 year olds)

I think she has better life than in the UK but there *are* flies in the ointment, no
matter where you go. Feel free to e-mail if I can be of any help on this.

Ange

Re: A better future for our kids in NZ?
 

On Fri, 12 Jul 2002 13:08:13 +1200, Angela and Kevin Metcalfe
<[email protected]> wrote:

Replying to my own posts! Damned bad form, what? :)

But I remembered something else: no BSE and no Foot & Mouth. Having just read a
report on UK.food & drink.misc about chicken doctored with beef protein (BSE risk *
offensive to Hindus) and containing high % of water, 43% in one case! Arrrggghhhh!

Mind you, there is something of a storm going on over here about GE atm.

Ange

Re: A better future for our kids in NZ?
 

    > owning a horse and of helping with the chooks etc. She loves her

Been in NZ for while then... <g>

--
Regards -Terry

Re: A better future for our kids in NZ?
 

Ange

Thanks for your insight. Although it has to be said that our experiences of the UK
education system seem to be at opposite ends of the scale. We take comfort in the
thought that you are satisfied with the NZ state system even having come from the UK
private system. On that basis we are confident of an improvement on a badly run UK
state primary school based on the edge of a run down council estate. Inside my sons
school here are a few of the problems that have really worried me: children caught
carrying knives! children caught carrying boxes of matches! A 6yr old girl pinned
down by a group of 6yr old boys and her pants forcibly removed! My sons 6yr old
classmate actively encouraging him to smoke! An 8yr old child that I look after
verbally assaulted by a parent of another child in the playground! and then there is
the head lice problem which is rife as the school does not have a nit nurse anymore
and it does not exclude infested kids resulting in quite a few kids riddled with
lice! Outside of school gangs of kids ranging from 4 to late teens roaming the
streets to all hours, I know of a gang of 6 yr olds caught by the police smashing up
an empty council house! Some of these children are now calling for my son to come out
to play we are running out of excuses and the older he gets the harder it is going to
be to keep him away from them! By the way we don't live in a city we live in a small
town in the midlands. So we are very much looking forward to a safer environment, a
bigger house and a bigger back yard!

I keep catching myself humming the tune from The Great Escape!!!!!!!!!! :o)

Paula xx

Re: A better future for our kids in NZ?
 

"Watt Dabney" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > Hi,
    >
    > Like many people wishing to migrate, a better life for our kids is one of the prime
    > reasons.
    >
    > I feel the UK is letting them down in the following areas and would appreciate any
    > experiences of what NZ has to offer as an alternative.
    >
    > A generally poor standard of education at their primary school, plenty of funded
    > inhouse schemes to bring underachievers up to average but nothing
to
    > advance talented children either academically or in sport.

This appears to be happening in New Zealand at the moment with the intruduction of a
new secondary school qualification system (NCEA), but this is only it's first year of
use so only time will tell if it will dumb down education.

    > Refusal to encourage any competiveness means the kids PE consists of game playing
    > with no real outcome. At my last sons sports day he looked totally perplexed at the
    > lack of winners, losers, trophies etc. We would like to
see
    > them taught "real" sports ie rugby, football,cricket etc. This philosophy seems to
    > be creeping into other areas of education incuding the grading system where a lot
    > of the time you either pass or fail.

You have just described New Zealand.

    > Like many aspects of life in the UK only the mediocre is catered for and people
    > with exceptional talent can be made to feel guilty, unless of
course
    > you can afford to pay for something better!
    >
    > High costs of providing out of school activities for our kids scouts,
ballet
    > & swimming leaves us broke!

Out of school activities get more and more expensive each year - where I live it was
NZ$150 for one season of cricket, that was the last season I played, about 4 years
ago. I don't know about other sports but understand they are expensive.

    >
    > The teenagers by us seem to have little to do but hang round outside the local
    > offlicense and I want better for ours.

I think that is a curse of any Westernised country (NZ,Australia,UK,USA) and
activites vary between cities/towns.

    >
    > I could go on more but this will do for now!!!!!!!!

New Zealand is a fine country. I've lived here all my life and would only consider
one other country to live in, that being Australia.

Re: A better future for our kids in NZ?
 

On Fri, 12 Jul 2002 14:43:08 +0100, "Terry R Brooking" <[email protected].> wrote:

    >> owning a horse and of helping with the chooks etc. She loves her

    >
    >Been in NZ for while then... <g>

You're right.... I should have put chook's <g>. Was forgetting my grocers'
apostrophe!

Ange

Re: A better future for our kids in NZ?
 

On Fri, 12 Jul 2002 22:58:16 +0100, "Watt Dabney"
<[email protected]> wrote:

    >Thanks for your insight. Although it has to be said that our experiences of the UK
    >education system seem to be at opposite ends of the scale. We take comfort in the
    >thought that you are satisfied with the NZ state system even having come from the UK
    >private system.

Yes, we found very little in private education that we liked here. She now goes to a
Rudolf Steiner school which has a very different philosophy behind it and it seems to
suit her very well. My experience of mainstream state education is that it is very
variable here, just as it is in the UK. Select your area carefully and perhaps
consider renting a house rather than buying, initially, as it will be much easier to
move on if you find the school does not live up to what you were expecting.(Selling a
house here is a nightmare!)

    >On that basis we are confident of an improvement on a badly run UK state primary
    >school based on the edge of a run down council estate.

You should get an improvement, as long as you don't chose a badly run primary school
on the edge of a run down council estate here!

    >Inside my sons school here are a few of the problems that have really worried me:
    >children caught carrying knives!

Can happen here: a boy in my daughter's class found a knife and was threatening other
children with it but was not done with the violent intent I have seen in UK schools.

    >children caught carrying boxes of matches!

Again, can happen here.

    >A 6yr old girl pinned down by a group of 6yr old boys and her pants forcibly
    >removed!

Not heard of that one happening here, yet, but it could do.

    >My sons 6yr old classmate actively encouraging him to smoke!

Not heard of that one here yet, although there are plenty of children in primary
schools who do smoke and take drugs.

    >An 8yr old child that I look after verbally assaulted by a parent of another child
    >in the playground!

A parent in my daughter's class has done this inside the classroom at least once.

    >and then there is the head lice problem which is rife as the school does not have a
    >nit nurse anymore and it does not exclude infested kids resulting in quite a few
    >kids riddled with lice!

*Never* found a nit nurse here and my daughter is frequently sent home from school
with notices to check her head for lice as someone in her class has become infested.

    >Outside of school gangs of kids ranging from 4 to late teens roaming the streets to
    >all hours,

That, I think is far more unlikely, at least round here.(Hawkes Bay). Our local
centre, Hastings, is very quiet at night. There is a certain amount of "hanging out"
but there is not the same feeling of aggression coming from groups of teens/children.

    >I know of a gang of 6 yr olds caught by the police smashing up an empty
    >council house!

Not as likely here.

    >Some of these children are now calling for my son to come out to play we are running
    >out of excuses and the older he gets the harder it is going to be to keep him away
    >from them!

Eeeeek! I can understand your feelings!

    >By the way we don't live in a city we live in a small town in the midlands. So we
    >are very much looking forward to a safer environment, a bigger house and a bigger
    >back yard!

Mulling over this whole subject, I think the big, big difference is that there is
far less aggression here. I no longer walk around with my eyes on the pavement,
not making eye contact with anyone in case you find yourself in trouble. Indeed,
the normal practice is to smile at passers-by or say hello, even when you don't
know them.

When we revisited the UK after 2 years spent in NZ, we were very struck by the "in ya
face, pal!" attitude.....and the dirt. Could not live there now as it all seemed so
high pressure, high aggression, too many people going too fast.

NZ does not have the problems (and the ones that you have touched on are perhaps more
likely in the suburbs of large cities) that a country with a high density population
has and that brings enormous benefits, in fact, to the extent that although we feel
education standards may not be perfect, there are enough compensations for that not
to be an issue. We have more time for our daughter and for family life and, when all
is said and done, academic brilliance is not the be all and end all of life! I just
feel that I would be misleading you by giving the impression all in NZ is perfect.
For us, it has certainly been a big improvement.

All the above is only my opinion based on my experience and I would be very glad to
hear different form other ppl!

    >I keep catching myself humming the tune from The Great Escape!!!!!!!!!! :o)

That's the spirit! You *will* find a better future for your children here despite it
not being perfect......but then, where is?

Ange

Re: A better future for our kids in NZ?
 

Hello everybody!

Mr Krinkle <[email protected]> wrote:

    > New Zealand is a fine country. I've lived here all my life and would only consider
    > one other country to live in, that being Australia.

I am going to emigrate to NZ soon. I have already started the procedure (I have NZQA
evaluation). But the question I would like to ask concerns gliding in NZ. I live in
Poland and I used to glide. Could anyone tell me something about gliding (costs,
requirements, weather conditions! etc.)?

I read couple years ago about a man who flight over 2000km, as I remember he was
NZer.

Thanks in advance.
--
Radoslaw Garbacz

Re: A better future for our kids in NZ?
 

Very popular sport, given the mountains/hills and thermal activity see
http://www.gliding.co.nz/ - most world records set around the Matamata area jsu up
the road from me.

"J.tar" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
    > Hello everybody!
    >
    > Mr Krinkle <[email protected]> wrote:
    >
    > > New Zealand is a fine country. I've lived here all my life and would
only
    > > consider one other country to live in, that being Australia.
    >
    > I am going to emigrate to NZ soon. I have already started the procedure (I have
    > NZQA evaluation). But the question I would like to ask concerns gliding in NZ. I
    > live in Poland and I used to glide. Could anyone tell me something about gliding
    > (costs, requirements, weather conditions!
etc.)?
    >
    > I read couple years ago about a man who flight over 2000km, as I remember he
    > was NZer.
    >
    > Thanks in advance.
    > --
    > Radoslaw Garbacz