Wellington, New Zealand

[hiphophippity]

So, tentatively looks like we could be moving to Wellington early next year. We are currently in the Southern Hemisphere though not NZ/Oz, I have NEVER been to NZ, but I have lived all over and in some pretty weird places :) so I am not put off by black mould (I read that is a problem) or windy days.

I am however confused about schooling - my DDs are just 6 and 9 a few months ago. Looks like a lot of state primaries finish at grade 6. would also look at private options but want co-ed which doesn't seem to be very common.

Also... we would want to rent to start with, but so many listings say no pets - we have 2 dogs and 1 cat :( is that going to be difficult?

THANKS to anyone who can give me any tips or advice. Or just general positive info about Welly.

The coffee in Wellington is to die for!

I'm a secondary school teacher here in NZ if you have any questions about education. I've also taught in intermediate school and have dc at primary so most ages covered! I don't live in Wellington though.

A school that is years 1-8 is known as a full primary, and often they are in the more rural areas. The kids have one teacher even at year 7 and 8. In the rural schools they can have the same teacher for 2 or 3 years (my dc's school have 1 teacher for yr 6, 7 and 8). At yr 7 and 8 they have a technology curriculum they take part in, which might be on site, or they will bus to for a couple of hours once a week.

In the more urban areas the primaries tend to be years 1-6, and then kids from several primaries go to an intermediate for years 7 and 8. They still have 1 main teacher, but will also normally have specialist teachers that they go to, such as art, technology, science, music etc. So a good stepping stone to high school, and starts to get them used to moving around to different teachers.

Personally I think the intermediate system is much better and gets them much more used to the high school system. My eldest dc is yr 7 in a full primary and is bored as it is now too small for her. We are considering sending her to my college a year early (she is the eldest in her year group and there is a lot of flexibility here). My dc's school loses a lot of kids at the end of yr 6 as parents either send them boarding (mostly the farming families) or to the larger schools with year 7s and 8s. As a teacher we really struggle with trying to instil the homework and work ethic with new yr 9s, when year 8 has been so laid back. It's a massive jump for them and doesn't make transition easy.

High school is then yr 9 to yr 13. Same set up as UK with specialist subject teachers. Yr9 and 10 are known as juniors and they have a range of compulsory subjects plus modules (such as music, woodwork etc) that they rotate through. Year 11-13 are seniors and do NCEA, the national exams. Yr 11 is level 1, yr 12 level 2 and yr 13 is level 3. Feel free to pm or ask any questions.

I love Wellington and try to go for weekends and holidays whenever I can. There is so much to do there! I would happily live there.

OP, if you go back to that site, there's a thread that has some input about Wa ora. . .