Puddy

Hi everyone,

Moving with hubbys job in next 3 months and are required to live in Wellington. Currently looking on trade me for rentals, but there appear to be very few good quality rentals. Are there any other good sites? Also looking at primary schools for girls 9 & 10. I have been looking at ERO reports and decile ratings but to be honest it all seems rather vague. Is there anywhere else I could look where schools are measured.

Many thanks
Puddy

MrsFychan

where abouts are you looking to move to?
Decile rating just gives an indication of the wealth of the area the school is in. Higher the decile rating the less support from the Government and more "voluntary" money required from the parents.
The only way to really know about the school is to ask the parents at the school gates but in our case when we came only we had only one option where we were living, and the school was very poorly run.

Puddy

Sorry, yes Wellington was a bit vague. Hubby works in the city centre, Thorndon Quay I think. He says he'll need to be within roughly half an hour walk.

MrsFychan

think you better check that the building is still being occupied

BEVS

Yes. Sensible advice.

Puddy

Yep all still there. Just one bottle of water fell on the floor!

Munchkjn

Hi, we moved to Wellington just over 3 months ago and found rentals and schools a real stress. We also have 2 kids of similar ages.

We started off spending 4 weeks in a holiday let (owner overseas) and spent 4 weeks frantically trying to find the next house and school combination. In hindsight I wish we had gone to another holiday let, the kids would have missed a bit more of school but it would have given us more breathing space. Finding a rental in Wellington is tough. It's a landlords market and you are essentially being interviewed when you look round. Sometimes there are 5-10 other couples looking and filling in application forms. So you won't get to choose so much as be chosen!

We looked at about 30% of primary schools south and west of the CBD, which was exhausting. They all seemed fairly good and the one we went with is fair with some good aspects. schooling has a different focus than the UK so prepare yourself for that. My son complains the maths is too easy but he gets to do sea fishing!

Wellington is lovely when the weather is good, but bloody awful when not. so i would advise (if you can help it) finding shelter from the southerly wind and the north wester.

All the best

MrsFychan

also don't take the principals answer to class they go in. My daughter was 10 when we came over and was put in to a 6/7 class as a year 6 because she had met a girl in year 6 the week before we went to register. If I had known how things were done I would if insisted that she stay in that class but as a year 7. As it was she was SO bored we moved her to college - year 9 - a year earlier so she spent 3 terms in yr 7, skipped to year 8 for the final term in that year then onto college. Luckily the college agreed to take her and she has got on so much better as its much more aligned to the UK system with set periods each week.

Puddy

Thanks for the replies.

I have been in Oz for 4 years and have only recently bought a house here! My hubby already working in NZ and has been commuting for last 18 months. He already has a small apartment in the city, but I was hoping to try and rent a house first before shipping all furniture and store some here, but think will probably just ship it, look for a rental and schools and store what I can't fit when I get there.

The schooling sounds similar in Oz although schools much bigger. I have already made mistakes with their education here. What my youngest doesn't know about animals is beyond me, I sometimes think she could give David Attenborough a run for his money but if you ask her times tables that's a completely different matter. They insisted my eldest start prep again although she had already started year 2 in UK and there are at least 2 years age gap with some of the children in her class even in a school of 1000 pupils.

Probably best to keep them out of school and try and find the right fit for them rather than just getting them into a school.