Aus Schooling questions

[JoVincent]

Hi All,

 

I need a bit of an education on how the schooling in Aus works. I briefly googled it yesterday, and my basic understanding is:

 

 - When your child is 4 turning 5, they go to "Kindy", which is the year before "official" school starts (by official - I mean, from Year 1, when all children are required to go, as Kindy is not compulsory - please confirm this for me?)

 - The following year (5 turning 6) they start Year 1

 - And so on and so forth, until they complete school in Year 12 and get their certificate

 - There is also the option of doing Pre-school, which is the year before Kindy

 

We will be arriving in Aus in March next year, my oldest will be 3, turning 4 in October 2017. So she will then begin Kindy in 2018 if I understand correctly.

 

My other questions are:

 - Being on PR (189) visas, is there any kind of subsidy we receive for pre-school (if I decided to send her for a portion of next year), and for Kindy also? What would this equal to? We are looking at moving to Sydney, in case it works differently in different states.

 - Are there long waiting lists to get my daughter into a Kindy, and also for Primary School (Year 1 on), for both public and private? Or are you guaranteed a spot in the local public school if you live in the catchment area?

 - Any tips you can send me, to ensure my daugher gets a spot in a decent kindy, please let me know.

 

Sorry for the ga-zillion questions - I really should spend more time researching online and getting all my answers there, but I'm feeling a bit frazzled and have lots of work commitments to finish up before I resign, and other moving admin to do, that I am not finding the time. But I will get there! I thought I would put feelers out in the forum for now. I have now just recently started stressing that I may not get her into a good Kindy or School, it's hard enough that she is leaving a fantastic little pre-school here :(. But I know it will all work out in the end and that there will ve fantastic options in Aus, just hoping I can get her into them ;).

 

Thanks for your assistance!

[Tntaglia]

I'm not in Oz yet so can't help with on the ground advice - but I do know that if you live in the catchment area, the public schools have to accept you. Although they can put up some hurdles as well, such as requiring that you show a 6 month lease, it's not enough to book into a hotel or airbnb or have a 1 month lease in the area. 

[AFreshStart]

Hi @JoVincent

 

Firstly, every State IS different, so the information you've found will not server you in Sydney as NSW has the following rules/regulation for schooling.

 

Firstly Kindy here IS the first year of school, the equivalent of Grade R in South Africa. All Children must be enrolled in school buy the age of 6, and your child can enter the year they turn 5, provided they make the cut off, which is currently late July, so their birthday needs to be before then.

 

So given the information you've provided your child will enter Kindy in 2019.

 

RE subsidies, yes, being on PR you are currently eligible for the Child Care Rebate, which is 50% of your fees, up to $7500 a year (Jul-Jun), but bare in mind Childcare in Sydney costs around $120 a day, average, some places more, others less.

 

Depending on where you are based in Sydney (Sydney has 600 suburbs) it can prove really difficult to get a spot, we had our name down on 6 waiting lists and were only able to get a day a week at first, making it up to 3 by the end of the first year and only in our second has our daughter been able to move to 5-days a week.

 

State Primary schools are VERY much connected to school zones, known as Catchment Areas, MANY local schools are over prescribed, but they have to take you if you fall in their catchment area, so that's that best way to secure a spot, but know that because they might be over prescribed you don't want to be just inside of the boundary line as these can, and often do, shift year to year.

 

Hope that helps

 

Cheers

 

Matt

 

 

 

Edited November 1, 2016 by AFreshStart