A good thing about living in Australia...

[Arana]

...is that they haven't sold all their school playing fields to be built into housing estates.

This means that a) the schools aren't horrendously oversubscribed, and b) a big proportion of Australian Olympic athletes don't come from a privately schooled background.

Hearing my UK based friends going through the rigmarole of finding a school place within 5 miles of their home makes me very grateful for this.

And if you are in their catchment they have to take you :) All the schools around here not only have their own Oval but seem to built on beside a park.

And each school has an awesome playground!

I wish I'd gone to school here ;)

Schools here (in SA at least) rarely work on the basis of catchment areas. It is very rare for a school to be zoned & even when they are it is very difficult to refuse an admission because of location of the family. They will say that you are on a list, and will be bumped if a local family want the spot (as they tried with me in a kindy I wanted to use for dd2) but in all probability you will get that space you want at pretty much any (non private - not sure on rules for private) school you choose!

We were discussing this in our Gov council meetings & it is hard to get DECS to agree to zoning. We are the biggest primary in SA (with regards to pupil numbers, not overall space) & we can't get zoned because we have 2 rooms that could be used as classrooms. The fact that you can't get teachers in is, apparently, a non issue. It is the space that counts, not the teaching body.

Our school has 2 of it's own playgrounds, which is common in schools here too. :)

Schooling varies state to state in Australia; in NSW you get the school you're zoned into, but you can also apply for schools in adjacent zones if you prefer - I have the choice of 3 for DS (plus one private Catholic one, but we're not doing that) but the nearest is the best option in many ways anyway.

I wouldn't describe its playing field as "awesome" though. And the school DH went to back in the 80s and early 90s didn't even have its own playing field, so I don't know that it would have been so great back when you were going to school, OP.

Queensland stats are quite low as well against the national average...

Queensland stats may be low vs the average, but they're better than Bradford.

(Also all my local schools are above average)

It is lovely to not have all that worry. A lot of the schools round where I live are zoned but it was easy to find one that wasn't. I really like the more relaxed system and I like the way that schools are more relaxed in general. If my dd forgets her packed lunch, I can just stroll right into her classroom. And give it to her.

We do have a nice playground but our school is about 10 times bigger than the one we went to in England. Our school outdoor area has got smaller every one of the years we have been here. The school has got bigger too and my dd is in one of seven year three classes. And we have no reading scheme books which I would rather have than a playground.

hmmmm, here in tiny town central qld... we have lovely playing fields, and, yes, probably better outcomes than Bradford, but I have mixed feelings. There doesn't seem to be quite the same aspiration for the children...unless it is related to sport! (Disclaimer, I am viewing through homesick eyes and am going through one of those phases, if it's not Yorkshire it's shite!!)

I don't think anyone has any aspirations any more, regardless of where they live - all the kids want to get famous by winning x-factor our becoming a wag.

Not my eldest, she wants to be an archaeologist!

how lovely different I have a couple of friends who are archaeologists and seem to genuinely love what they do.

You want decent education in QLD, you need to pay for it...IMO

Depends where you are Pommy - check your school results locally. We were going to pay for our kids, but it turns out that our two local state schools are miles ahead of any private schools within about 8k (Brisbane).

hmm, our local primary is getting larger all the time (currently 6 kindy classes), has no playing fields and a tiny playground. I almost cried when we went back to the UK and saw the beautiful playground for the four-form entry primary school my kids used to go to. I guess it depends where you live. Also in my admittedly limited experience, I don't really think the kids were stretched academically in either school.

Our school has brand new playgrounds in both the Kindy and Preprimary and there our a couple of other playgrounds doted around for the older kids. Compared to school my son would of gone to in Ireland it is heaven. They don't have any play equipment at all.