Changing schools, be it down the road or transcontinental is every parents nightmare.
So the keyword here is research, research and research. I aim to help you as much as I can as I have just recently been through the whole rigmarole in searching for and securing a place for my two primary school aged kids.
Education in Sydney is mainly divided into Primary education or K-6, Secondary education or Y7-Y12, and Tertiary Education provided by University's like the University of Sydney and University of New South Wales (UNSW); and tertiary vocational training provided by TAFE (Technical and Further Education) institutes.
My main focus today will be on Primary Education.
Primary Education in Sydney is mainly provided by the Public school system. Almost every suburb has its own local primary school. Catholic schools are the other main stream of primary education. These places are fee paying. the third stream is the Private or Independent school stream. Whilst Catholic schools can be deemed to be Private schools in a sense the fees one would have to pay at a Catholic school is much less than what one would pay at an independent school. Most of the independent private schools have a run through kind of education where they cater from Kindergarten to year 12. Some of the prominent Private institutions have long waiting lists and some parents even try to put down names prior to the birth of the child!
The decision of where to educate your child is entirely a personal choice. This choice will mostly be governed by the financial/budgetary limits, educational ethos subscribed to, residential locale and so on and so forth.
If you are entirely new to Sydney in one way things are very much easier. You can decide where you want to live depending on where you want to educate your child/children.
1. Where to live - this will depend on the budget, place of work and location of schools. I would advise to make a shortlist of suburbs that are within an acceptable commute for either or both the parents. http://www.realestate.com.au and http://www.domain.com.au are both good sites that can give an idea of what property's cost to buy or to rent. Bookmark them as they are going to be your new best friend. Take into consideration train lines, travel times, desirable amenities etc when coming to your decision.
2. Which School - Next make a short list of the schools in the possible suburbs. www. bettereducation.com.au and the my school website are great resources to check and compare schools and how they perform academically. Also run random searches on google with your preferred schools name and see what comes up. You can always get valuable snippets of information from various forums etc. Try and get in contact with a few schools and check for spaces etc. If you know when you will be going they may be willing to hold a space for you- ask, for you never know!
Another thing to remember here is that if your kids are academically gifted/talented there seems to be more of a trend in catering to their needs in Oz. Certain public primary schools run Opportunity classes with these kids in mind and entry to these classes are competitive.
See http://www.schools.nsw.edu.au/learning/k-6assessments/ocplacement.php
Again there is the opportunity for kids to sit the competitive selection tests for the selective high schools as well. So these are avenues that you might want to explore before deciding on a school.
There are also enrichment program's for gifted and talented kids in other schools which do not run OC classes. So it might be well worth enquiring about what else your school offers by way of enrichment program's, support program's, extracurricular activities and classes/clubs, presence or absence of after and before school care etc.
So the keyword here is research, research and research. I aim to help you as much as I can as I have just recently been through the whole rigmarole in searching for and securing a place for my two primary school aged kids.
Education in Sydney is mainly divided into Primary education or K-6, Secondary education or Y7-Y12, and Tertiary Education provided by University's like the University of Sydney and University of New South Wales (UNSW); and tertiary vocational training provided by TAFE (Technical and Further Education) institutes.
My main focus today will be on Primary Education.
Primary Education in Sydney is mainly provided by the Public school system. Almost every suburb has its own local primary school. Catholic schools are the other main stream of primary education. These places are fee paying. the third stream is the Private or Independent school stream. Whilst Catholic schools can be deemed to be Private schools in a sense the fees one would have to pay at a Catholic school is much less than what one would pay at an independent school. Most of the independent private schools have a run through kind of education where they cater from Kindergarten to year 12. Some of the prominent Private institutions have long waiting lists and some parents even try to put down names prior to the birth of the child!
The decision of where to educate your child is entirely a personal choice. This choice will mostly be governed by the financial/budgetary limits, educational ethos subscribed to, residential locale and so on and so forth.
If you are entirely new to Sydney in one way things are very much easier. You can decide where you want to live depending on where you want to educate your child/children.
1. Where to live - this will depend on the budget, place of work and location of schools. I would advise to make a shortlist of suburbs that are within an acceptable commute for either or both the parents. http://www.realestate.com.au and http://www.domain.com.au are both good sites that can give an idea of what property's cost to buy or to rent. Bookmark them as they are going to be your new best friend. Take into consideration train lines, travel times, desirable amenities etc when coming to your decision.
2. Which School - Next make a short list of the schools in the possible suburbs. www. bettereducation.com.au and the my school website are great resources to check and compare schools and how they perform academically. Also run random searches on google with your preferred schools name and see what comes up. You can always get valuable snippets of information from various forums etc. Try and get in contact with a few schools and check for spaces etc. If you know when you will be going they may be willing to hold a space for you- ask, for you never know!
Another thing to remember here is that if your kids are academically gifted/talented there seems to be more of a trend in catering to their needs in Oz. Certain public primary schools run Opportunity classes with these kids in mind and entry to these classes are competitive.
See http://www.schools.nsw.edu.au/learning/k-6assessments/ocplacement.php
Again there is the opportunity for kids to sit the competitive selection tests for the selective high schools as well. So these are avenues that you might want to explore before deciding on a school.
There are also enrichment program's for gifted and talented kids in other schools which do not run OC classes. So it might be well worth enquiring about what else your school offers by way of enrichment program's, support program's, extracurricular activities and classes/clubs, presence or absence of after and before school care etc.
