isleofmanmike

sorry i spelt your name wrong, ezzie, its 6.00 am in the morning and i have been on this site for an hour or so......no excuses......

St.Georges Girl

I think you must be, seriously. Either that, or there's something missing in your life that you are still searching for?

They do vary, but as Crystal has said, if they aren't on the medicare subsidised list, then they are very expensive. I pay $38.90 every 28 days for what I need (no, not the contraceptive pill )., but only afew months ago I paid $21.30 for the same drug. My doctor told it may not be on the subsidised list much longer, so I will pay around a third more very soon. My OH was given a prescription for some strong anti-inflammatories not so long ago and they were $23. Children only get free dentist care whilst at school and that is only for fillings, check ups etc.. All cosmetic work is private, ie:braces.

rabsody

It recently cost me $80 just to get some eye drops and nasal spray for my hayfever (over the counter ones weren't cutting the mustard). My 11 year old daughter's braces are costing me $5,500. This is coming out of my pocket; even though I have medical insurance, it does not cover this. Every time you go for an xray or blood tests or to see a specialist, you pay.

We spend a small fortune on medical stuff in our house, on top of the $1000 I pay a year to go halves with my ex for family medical insurance. :curse:

isleofmanmike

[QUOTE=Major Edmund Lockyer;5747724]do you think, alot of americans cant believe what us brits have to pay for here, and what kickbacks we get.

I dont see the influx of yanks and aussie to britain do you, even tho a few have visited,....wonder why that is.[/QUOTE

my aussie nephew, from perth, has been in london for the past 9 years. he travels all around europe, earns much more money and pays much less tax than he would in aussie. He has no plans at the moment to move back and has just returned from a new years break in new york.....my sister who has lived there for 34 years misses him and can't believe that her blonde haired aussie son prefers to live in london.

St.Georges Girl

That's just reminded me of the Rhinocort spray I needed for allergies, it cost $115 here.

isleofmanmike

HOW MUCH FOR PRESCRIPTIONS........I NEARLY FELL OF MY CHAIR

my main draw for W A is that my sister, mum and brother live there, however my 2 teenage kids do not want to move to perth. My mum has boomeranged more times than i could mention, twice in one year but now in her 70's i think her traveling days are over.....such as life.....she always has said that her biggest regret was moving the family out there in 1974. I think being on this site has made me appreciate more what we have in the UK....it is not half as bad as how the media portray it.

quoll

One of the things to take into consideration is that most of the kids in Finland are Finnish - to my knowledge they dont have a huge, almost unfettered, non english speaking immigrant population. Unless the figures are adjusted to take into account those kids for whom English is not the first language then of course you are going to get distorted figures. Australia's influx of non english speaking immigrants is, at the moment, manageable and the school systems have a variety of approaches - our system has an intensive English program which will accommodate kids for up to 12 months until they acquire proficient English to enable them to participate in an age appropriate mainstream education. Our generic ESL is not as helpful and if parents are unwilling or unable to take the intensive option those kids really struggle. I dont know that the UK has the resources or capacity for such intensive language tuition and so those kids are lumped into the mainstream with the general result that they would depress the levels - not being critical just factual.

It would be interesting to compare with other countries with high levels of non native speaking immigration - Denmark is one that could be compared although it still doesnt have the same level of unfettered immigration.

Countries like Japan and Korea feature highly in those lists - very monocultural which gives them an advantage.

I taught in inner city high schools in UK many years ago and for a long while I thought the Aussie teachers were whinging about very minor problems when I first arrived - the HS kids were pussy cats in comparison however in the past 10 years or so I think there has been a real deterioration in the HS standards here (speaking for ACT if nowhere else) - much as the local government hates to admit it, parents are voting with their feet away from government high schools and 50% of secondary students now go private. I think that is a huge indictment on this system. Of course the ed bureaucrats blame it on parents wanting the one upmanship - bollocks! most parents would prefer not to shell out even $4000 a year, let alone $14000 a year per kid!

I have met UK kids (mainly primary) who have emigrated to Aus and in almost all cases (the one or two exeptions were kids with disabilities) their standards of basic education was well in advance of their age peers.

I dont know that kids are really any happier here than they would be in UK - we have terrible bullying problems (often swept under departmental carpets), real drug problems and a cohort of teenagers who are developing mental health problems like they were going out of style. Another interesting thing is that a number of kids cannot wait to get out of Aus once they get out of HS - if you talk to them about going to uni, more often than not they will be off to Europe (or at least hoping to).

(Should I say, just retired from 28 years in education here?)

quoll

[QUOTE=isleofmanmike;5766849] Mine went for a gap year 5 years ago and hasnt come back! In my case, I cant blame him!!! He had a school reunion with about 12 lads from his HS who had all ended up happily in London quite recently.

St.Georges Girl

You don't only pay for the prescription when you go to the doc's, you also have to pay the bill. You can claim a percentage back from medicare, but even that is getting smaller every year. On $93k last year, my OH paid almost $28k tax. Is there no way you could come for an extended holiday to spend some quality time with your family here? Your teenage children will find a huge difference in the schooling here at that age. I don't envy your decision in the least, but what your mum said struck a chord with me. I have met quite afew elder people who have said the same, that's one of the reasons I want to go home as soon as our son graduates. He has a serious girlfriend of 3 years now and luckily she is a Londoner and wants to go home also. Whether he stays with her or ends up with someone else, I would hate it to be here.

St.Georges Girl

Thank goodness someone has finally said it and may I say, much more eloquently than I could have myself. I couldn't agree more with what you have posted Q'. One of the reasons I ignore stat's such as the ones' Ezzie quoted is because it's almost an impossibility to compare like with like. As you say, Australia has a large number of non English speaking students and it's the same in the inner cities of the UK. As for bullying, drugs etc. in schools, my son had more than his fair share of bullying, in both primary and high schools here. Drugs I know have been a problem in some schools, but I don't have any personal experience of it. Thank you for posting this Quoll.

TraceyW

I can agree with quoll about the fact a lot of HS kids want to leave Aus asap. At my uni, so many of the people on my course whom I talk to about europe and the places I've been to, cannot understand why I came here to live in the first place! So many cannot wait to qualify, then bugger off on their travels to see something of the worlds other than "the best bloody place on earth" (according to their Dad who's never left it!)

isleofmanmike

It must be very hard for you.....I know when I returned to UK nineteen years ago it took a while to get settled, make friends etc but it can be done. on a salary of $93k on the isle of man the tax bill would be $5k. plus national insurance contributions....If you pay into the Isle of Man tax system for 10 years before you retire the state pension is 50% higher than the UK. The health system is second to none, new hospital etc...if they can't treet you here the IOM govt pay the UK govt to treat you and even fly your family with you. It sounds promising if your son continues to date the English girl and she returns to the UK your son should follow.......However you do not want to end up being a boomerang....

LouiseD

There are lots of them. And not just in London. My daughter works in a rugby league shop in Merseyside and gets lots of Aussie customers. Quite a lot of people I met in Australia had kids who had moved to UK.

manc1

I'd stay there if i was you. Sounds great. I spent a few years in Jersey many moons ago and that's a great place also.

brits1

What I do is visit all these "Malls" etc North and South of the River as I treated them like "towns" back home....our family know all the suburbs North and South of the River because of this and for the first few years it was fine but after ten yers it is just so.....oh I don't know but I cannot keep kidding myself that these are "towns" as they are not and I just cannot see myself doing this for another 10 years....it just makes me feel...."is this it"? kind of thing.....we have even gone to York in the past......and we are usually in Freo once a week but I have to admit even though these places are situated in nice settings....it is just not enough.......when we have family ovr (we have my dad at the moment and he's been here 11 times) and when I suggest going to Rockingham, Mandurah....Kings Park etc our boys groan.....we do as even though these places are lovely going to them time over again does get a bit boring.....I know it's them same the world over but when you really know that there are not many other things to "see" out there unless a very long journey or a plane ride (and we have done all that so many times) it just feels so constricting...
Anyway off to Freo I think today...I think minus our sons....(we did that Christmas Eve.....everywhere was closing for meals at 3pm..you could get fish and chips on the quay but we did that last year) but even after 2 weeks of my dads visit we have run out of places to go....(and we have had a few days at home!!!!! for a change)
Jackie