Secondary schooling in Australia and New Zealand

[summerbreeze]

Can anyone tell me how the secondary school system works in Australia and/or New Zealand, please? In particular, I'd like to know what is their equivalent to the UK's GCSEs and A levels and at what age do the children start working for them and actually finish the courses. Maybe there is also an option to do an International qualification in the subjects so that it's easy to compare it to GCSEs and A levels when you go home (to the UK) again? Any advice welcomed. Thanks.

Bump.

Another bump.

I know some independent schools in New Zealand offer the international cambridge exams, the IGCSE - international GCSE - and A levels.

In NSW (Australia)...(it varies slightly from state to state, but I'm not sure about other states)
There are 6 years of secondary school
years 7-12
in year 7 kids turn 12 early in the year (ie before June I think) or 13 later in the year, so they finish at 17 or 18 years, edpending on their birthday.
In year 10 you do the School Certificate, which is like GCSEs. Years 11 and 12 are the Higher School Certificate (HSC). The HSC gives you a University Admissions Index (UAI) which is a rank. (So whoever gets the highest mark in the state gets a UAI of 100). Universities use this rank to select their students.
Some private schools offer the International Baccelaureat, but not many. From what I have heard, the HSC is quite well recognised, and so should be ok for enterance into UK universities.

HTH

here in QLD - go to high school year 8 ( year they turn 13) and finish in year 12 ( year they turn 17)

They do junior - 8 - 10 and then senior 11 and 12. They do not do exams like the UK exams. Assessment is school based and then moderated by an independent panel.

In year 11 and 12 they work towards what used to be called a senior certificate. They then would undertake a Core SKills Test - done over 2 days added to their school based assesment and given what was called an OP score ( used to work out uni entry).

There are some schools in Brisbane who are starting to offer the Bacclaureate (sp?) system and so that may be an option.

My DS is only 6 so I don't know a whole lot about it but this is what I do know.

In NZ - the years go similarly to the UK 1 - 12/13

Finish primary at the end of year 6 then go to Intermediate School for Years 7 and 8. These are usually totally separate sites (and different catchments zones) to secondary school.
Year 9 start secondary school or 'COLLEGE' ... Then my knowledge gets a bit patchy .... I am not sure when they start doing their exam courses - could be year 10 like in the UK and do the exams in Year 11. By the time they get to that age they are talking about being in the 6th Form and 7th Form - I know that 7th Form is the University exam entrance age (like A Levels) but those exams are called Bursary (or it used to be)
The whole system was revamped a few years ago and they replaced School Certificate (GCSE levels) with something called NCEA - and this has caused an uproar with many people. Big political 'for' and 'against' groups. As a result some schools have opted for International Cambridge Exams (A levels) ... which is one of the reasons we chose to move to this area as DS's future school does them.
But, of course, we are now moving to Aus so I have absolutely NO IDEA where we are going to be by then .... grrrrr!!!

Just a question for you Aussies ... why is each state so different in Aus?????

Beattie ... not just independent schools in NZ offer International Cambridge

I don't know Ghosty, only knnow that it is very confusing! They have been talking about changing it to a single system for years, but at the mo the State Governments are responsible for education.

Thanks Astrophe ...
Been dying to find out how the public kindergarten system works in Victoria but can I find any proper info like "Your child can start Kindy at x age for x amount of sessions and it costs x amount" ? No chance ...

SueW ... you are the link queen - can you find me anything?

ghosty - here in QLD we have the creche and kindergarten association and then we have child care centres who run their own kindies and then we have private kindies - all very different.

Dd1 attends a creche and kindy ( c and K) kindy and she was able to start the year after she turned three. SOme kindies allow what is called pre kindy - for children who are three early in the year. However with the intro of prep here in QLD - that is changing =- kindy may disappear and not start anything akin to kindy until they are 4 as dd2 is so ready for kindy at 2!!

See if I can find a link for you.

here this lists child care by areas - perhaps that is a help. Can't see if they have an organisation like C and K though.

Traditionally QLD did state exams but felt that it was not the best for children - to have a mixture of school based assessment and exam work as well marked according to criteria and moderated by panels to assess comparability better than the stress of huge end of year exams.

there seems to be a number of associations - eg geelong kindy assocation etc. Rather than a statewide thing like c and k.

ghosty - we pay 14 dollars a day and dd1 attends 2 days a week. I am able to claim some back under the childcare rebate thingy - but it works out about 300 dollars a term and I get about 50 bucks back.

Thanks for that Eidsvold ... there doesn't seem to be a 'state' kindy system in Victoria does there? If we were to stay here DD would start 3 afternoons a week sometime between 3.5 and 4. Then she would start 5 mornings a weeks sometime between 4 and 4.5 ... then start school on her 5th birthday.
In the meantime, here, she goes to a community run creche (govt funded) for 2 mornings a week. I really don't want to go the childcare route .... I just want her to have a couple of mornings a week so she can have fun and do the arty stuff that I can't stand doing
She is 2 and a half now.

Gosh, $14 a day sounds fab ... I pay NZ$13 a session (3 hours) and don't get a rebate ... AND it is govt funded
When you say 'a day', is that 9 - 3

drop off between 8.45 and 9 and pick up between 2 and 2.15.

some child care centres - whilst they offer full time childcare also do a kindy program that works on kindy times - well they do here not sure about Melbourne.

child care centres might be more expensive but I think you get more rebate iyswim. Not a lot of rebate but that pays the next terms swimming fees so it all helps.

$14 a day and childcare rebate no wonder my SIL leaves hers in "nursery" most of the day just to go to the gym! 1000 pound a month here in good old London (bet that's made you smile!)

we used to pay around 700 pounds a month for dd1 to attend nursery when I worked full time in the UK.

$14 a day is for kindy - as well as other commitments - don't do kindy 5 days a week - either 2 or 3. I know childcare is a lot more expensive.

We also had to pay other things like a resource levy and a maintainence levy - get mlevy back if you participate in 2 working bees a year. Resource levy is instead of fundraising so you are happy to pay that.

Ghosty try this www.portphillip.vic.gov.au/child_care_kindergartens.html#L3

I suggest perhaps giving some of the listed kidy's a call to get an idea of cost / sessions. It's for the Bayside 'burbs area of Melbourne but I think this will be much the same in terms of costs etc as the rest of Melb.

Thanks very much for the posts and links. It's about 8.20am here so I was just checking this thread before going to work. I'll look at it properly this evening and may come back with more questions. Thanks again.