School years in Australia (NSW) - confused!

[HighFibreDiet]

Are there any NSW mumsnetters around? I am a bit confused about how old kids have to be for each school year. I have a 6 year old (birthday middle of July 2004) and an 8 year old (birthday end of March 2002) and they have just started UK Year 2 and Year 4. If they move to a Sydney school what year will each of them move into in January 2011?

Also, I have read that the cut-off date is 31 July so that would make ds2 one of the youngest in his year. But I have heard that you are allowed to let kids drop a year in this case - what would you advise in his situation? In the UK we don't have this flexibility and I have often wished I had not sent him to school at such a young age (He started Reception at 4y3m but wouldn't have been at compulsory school age until the term after he turned 5, i.e. the September when he started Year 1.)

One more question, if we arrive sometime around the end of Dec/early Jan, will anyone be at the school or will we have to wait until term starts before we apply?

Sorry for all these questions, I'm sure there will be loads more at some point!

[AvidDiva]

So your 8 year old would be turning 9 in March 2011? Then they'd most likely be going into Year 4. If your 6 year old is turning 7 in mid July 2011 they could be in Year 2 or you could opt for him to go into Year 1.

In NSW it goes like this:

Preschool (optional, play based) start the year you turn 4 (if before cut-off).

Kindergarten - first year of school, start the year you turn 5.

Year 1 - the year you turn 6 and so on up the grades.

All, of course, based on a pre-cutoff birthday.

However, there's lots of flexibility in terms of when your child starts. Some people would opt to hold a March born child back a year too. My DS is a Feb baby and is one of the youngest in his year.

However, you might find that the content is easier in the younger years here and that holding back would lead to boredom. School in Aus in the early years also sounds much more relaxed than similar years in the UK, so you may well find that both your children cope really well with their correct years here.

There's also the option to repeat a year here, a decision usually made on social and emotional rather than academic terms as differentiation should mean all academic levels are catered for.

Interestingly, given the purported choice in education in the UK, parents seem to have a much greater say over their child's education here. We can decide, within an 18 month frame, when our child starts. Schools are not closed, and never locked, and parents are much more welcome in the classroom. Outside of a few, densely populated areas, catchments are pretty big and unless a school is totally full (pretty rare) you can choose to go to another local school however, most schools are pretty similar so it's pretty unusual for children to travel to school.

It's highly unlikely that there'd be anyone around and available in late December/early Jan as it's right in the middle of the summer holidays. However, the school you are in catchment for has to take your children, even if they are full, so you are not at risk of not getting in anywhere. If you leave a message, and email, you may well find that someone from the school contacts you during the holidays anyway. If you know where you'll be living, then you can probably sort much of it on the phone and via emails before you arrive anyway.

Good luck with the move, and feel free to ask any questions!

[AvidDiva]

Sorry for all the repeated anyways and prettys and all. Just dashing this off before the school run

[HighFibreDiet]

Thanks v much AvidDiva, that's all helpful. I didn't even notice all your repeated 'anyways'.

[sunnydelight]

Hi. There is a lot more flexibility here as AvidDiva says which is good - there is an 18 month age range in most classes. 31st July is the cut off for NSW public schools but private schools often use 30th June or even earlier preferring to put younger pupils into a "transition" class. A few public schools have transition classes for 4 year olds but it is unusual. My DS1 has a 1 August birthday which was a disaster for his schooling so I was very pleased that when we arrived here he naturally "went back" a year. He will be entering his final year of schooling next year (Y12) and is doing much better than we ever hoped.

6 is compulsory school age so basically with both of yours you could have chosen to send them to kindy in the year in which they turned 5 by 31st July or kept him back until the following year when he would have had to start as they would have turned 6 by the cut off. Essentially then at the moment your 6 year old would either be in kindy or Y1 here so next January he would be in Y1 or Y2. Your older boy would be either going into Y4 in January 2011, or Y3 if you had held him back but it would be more unusual to hold back a March born child (though I held back a Feb born because of a history of dyslexia in the family). Probably then your best bet would be to put them in Y2 and Y4 in January so they will move into the same year they are in in the UK but will obviously stay there an extra six months.

My personal experience is that the school my children attend here (private) is miles better than either the state or indie schools they attended in the UK and the major advantage for me when they started was having pre-school, Y3 and Y8 on the same site. I had a bad experience with a public high school here though - I took DS1 out after 7 weeks - and a lot of English people moan that the public primaries are fairly lax. There is a different approach to learning here - on the one hand they don't really do "play based learning" in the early years - that's what pre-school is for, on the other hand they are more interested in producing rounded individuals than the youngest readers possible. Depending on where you live in Sydney you will find a lot of people send their children to public schools for primary, but private for high school. A lot of kids also move in Y5 to get them in the right place for Y7 which might impact your Y4 if a lot of his friends move on after a year (you definitely want to be thinking of high schools for your Y4). We were a bit surprised when we visited a public primary school on a reccie and said to the head "I assume most of your pupils go on to the high school NEXT DOOR, and was told that 2/60 had gone there the previous year.

One of our biggest mistakes was arriving when the schools were on holiday so by the time they opened DS1 was so desperate to get back to school and make friends we just went for our local catchment school which had to offer him a place and it turned out to be crap. Your problem I'm guessing will be trying to find somewhere permanent to live before you have a chance to look at schools so risking having to go to your local school whether you like it or not. Most schools will take out of catchment kids if they have spaces, but they don't have to if they are full. What kind of visa will you be on? I'm sure you know that if you come on a 457 (business visa) you will pay $4,800 per child per year for public school and I have heard of really popular schools refusingto take 457 kids. If you give me an idea of where you want to live I can tell you more.

Good luck whatever you do, Sydney is the BEST city to live in with kids.

[HighFibreDiet]

Thanks again sunnydelight, that's all really helpful and it's good to hear that Sydney is a good city for kids. Yes, we will be on a 457 and have realised we will have to pay for schools but I didn't know that some schools might refuse to take our kids .

Also it's a shame that ds1 is in Y4 as moving up to high school will coincide exactly with the 2 years being up and we might end up with difficulties getting into secondary schools back here if we do end up coming back.

Also, I thought it was going to be Melbourne right up until this week so I haven't started investigating Sydney suburbs at all. Dh is going to be working in the CBD so we would like somewhere without too much of a commute for him, otherwise we won't see him very much and that would be a great shame.

Personally I would be looking for an area with lots of families with kids, near to a large park or beach, and ideally with shopping/library/preschool within walking or cycling distance or with good rail links so I don't have to drive too much. (Is it too much to ask for all of that in one place ?)