Kentishgirl

Hello everyone.

Arriving - OH mid March (hopefully). Still waiting for visa. Have had silly problems getting medical clearance, submitted consultants report and supporting ultrasound clearance and now have fingers and toes crossed. Have been told good to go on everything else. We will them join OH probably end of April.

Location - Christchurch. OH has a job on the re-build

Who - husband, me, son 13, daughter 10. Daughter is keen, son NOT and I am very worried about how he will settle.

Why - looking for more space. Looking for a place with land to have chickens and a dog and maybe some sheep. Grow our own veg, not have to queue for ever. UK is just so crowded.

Interested on views on Rangiora High. Son is currently at good grammar school and doing well (not top of the pile, but not struggling). He is good at sport (very good at football, are there any local teams to Rangiora?)

What is the commute into Chch like at rush hour?

Would love to speak to anyone with son in Y9 who may be able to help son settle in.

Thank you.

Tom1983

The Northern Motorway from Rangiora to Central Christchurch can take around half an hour to an hour during rush hour. The quicker route is the southern motorway, a glorious traffic free stretch of road. There will be some queuing, especially from the end of the Motorway through to the city centre.

BEVS

Indeed Helen256.

Kentishgirl. The posts have been moved to a thread of their own.

jjg

You will be coming over just before the football season starts (I think it is a couple of weeks before Easter Break).
You will want to get yourselves down to Waimak United to register your son.

Woodlea

Hi,
Both my kids went to RHS and did well, both now at uni. It is like a good UK secondary school, if they want to do well they will help you and have all the resource in the world, if they want to drift along they can. If your son is good at football in England he will be a star here, that should encourage him! More people play soccer in Rangiora than rugby. If your OH is working on the rebuild he probably won't be travelling at rush hour, I travel to the south side of Chch (Woolston) in 40mins, 36kms (but I leave at 6.30am and come back at 4.00pm).
Good luck!

Kentishgirl

Thank you for that. I do feel for him. 13 is a difficult age and are we taking him from his friends and dragging him half way round the world! He will be pleased that he will be able to play football (although obviously he won't admit it!).

Woodlea

My boy was 13 when we got here in Sept 06 so he got a term in primary school before going to RHS which was great as he was a senior pupil and made friends before going up to the 'big school'. I'm sure this helped him.

Kentishgirl

Woodlea - I thought that if you were 13 you would be in Year 9. Is that not the case? I would be far more comfortable if he went to Primary until next January.

Woodlea

He was born in August 1993 and we moved in Sept 2006 so he was only just 13 so went to primary (Fernside) for term 4 and then RHS in Jan 2007. However my niece was born in Mar 1994 and moved over in Oct 2007 and went straight to RHS, maybe because she was zoned for Ashgrove. Perhaps you should contact the school you intend to be zoned for.
http://www.school.nz/school/ashgrove-school
The above should link you through to the school's websites and from there to a map of their zone.
Good luck.