*BACK* Melbourne 'preschools' - 2 year work assignment - please give me some advice!

[DaddyCool2]

Hello Y'all. I'm back on mumsnet after many many years though I can't remember my sign on or password and I don't even think my old email is still working so I'm now 'DaddyCool2'. I haven't been on here since about 2008 but it's time to get involved again.

I now have 2 kids - My DS who is now 11 and my DD who is 3.

I'm moving to Melbourne for two years on a work assignment. I must have my DH (who will be 4 on April 17th) into full time with some proper 'schooling' so she isn't left in the dust when we return in 2017. I was up late last night and early this morning trawling the net on this but can't find any definitive answers. Does anyone know what my options are? Price isn't so much the issue as it's a full work assignment arrangement. All I can find is just daycare services but I'm not sure they cover the type of educational stuff that she'll need when she returns. Help!

I'm bumpin this mutha.

Basically, by the time she starts the 15 hour per week preschool in Oz in January 2016, where they roll playdough and pick each others noses, back in the UK they'll be half way through reception. She already writes words and likes to learn so I need a 'top up' whilst in Australia. If this was my DS, I wouldn't be worried as wasn't as... umm.. keen to learn but my DD is a knowledge sponge it seems.

You can look at private schools that run a 'four year old kinder' program.

aha! that's a good start. Thanks!

www.tintern.vic.edu.au/education/elc/

If she had been born 18 days earlier she could have started school in what is newly called foundation. (What was prep).

You can start school in prep at 4 but only if you turn five before the end of March.

your info is absolutely perfect. thank you so much. it gives me the top level price estimate for my employer and gives me someone to call to discuss. brilliant. I wouldn't normally pursue such a 'high brow' approach but I have to take advantage of whatever my employer offers.

sucks about the prep thing.

Your 11 year old would be going to secondary in January so you might be able to find somewhere that does 'K-12' and then they will be in the same place.

Secondary admissions are happening right now though. The government school that is your catchment school has to take a child in their catchment. Even if they are full. But other schools don't.

he'll def be a state/government school. I guess it'll be a matter of choosing a rental house that's within the catchment for a decent secondary school and that being a main factor in choosing an area. It looks like we have a good choice because the office is based in Dandenong/Bayside area.