Kck74 Posted February 27, 2014 Report Share Posted February 27, 2014 Hi all, Would anyone know how long it would take to get our son into a secondary school in Perth? How long after we arrive would we expect him to be able to start? Would you advise us to contact a school prior to immigration, or are the schools free for prospective pupils to turn up and start within a matter of days/weeks? Also, any recommendations on good state schools? Our budget for buying a house will be around 700k (AUS) so would that afford us a nice house in a good area, with a good school? Thanks in advance! Marie & Kev Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SJT Posted February 27, 2014 Report Share Posted February 27, 2014 School admission here is so different to the UK. If you live in catchment they have to give you a place, there is none of this we can only take so many children so you have to wait until a child leaves, they take you straight away but you have to prove you live where you say you live. Where we moved to as the High School was a really good one we had to provide, long term rental agreement, gas bill and electric bill as well as birth certificates, copies of passports and reports. None of the schools are "free" like back in the UK with all of them you have to pay something, but it is not a lot. It also depends on what subjects they are studying. I have two boys in High School and their contributions are charges are $871 for my son in year 10 and $567.00 for my son in year 8, but all school contributions are different. I My daughter who is in year 4, whose contribution was $280. You have have a book list, unlike the UK you provide everything, books, folders, sellotape, everything and again this depends on what year one was $249, one was $149 and my daugther's was £130, but it so easy to get, they give you out a printed list and you either do it on line or walk into the shop. In most high schools you now have to buy them a laptop and most schools dictate which ones you can have. Most of the uniforms you have to get from the school, none of this popping to Asda's and getting five shirts for a £10. These are mostly in the form of polo shirt with school logo and shorts with the school logo. We arrived here last July just as the UK kids broke up for their long holiday. Once we had secured our long term let, which only took us six weeks, we signed the lease on the Fri morn, enrolled my two youngest who were going to primary straight after, we picked up uniform on the Mon and they started school on the Tues. My middle son did three and half months at primary, then started high school here in Feb. My eldest took a bit longer to start High School as we had to get the utilities details as well, in the end they accepted the letter from them both stating that they were our suppliers so my son started two weeks later, then when we had the actual bills just had to send them into the school. From my experience as the schools are so use to having new students start, and leave, they are well equipped to deal with this and help you and your children as much as they possibly can. That budget should be fine for most areas, depending on what size of house you are looking for and what other features you want. Like most cities, the closer you live to the city, the more expensive it can be. When are you planning on coming over and good luck with everything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elaineh33 Posted February 27, 2014 Report Share Posted February 27, 2014 Hi Kck74Hope you don't mind if I jump in here to just ask a school question too. I was wondering if anyone knows if it's possible to enrole your child in school if you're in a holiday let? I was thinking of taking a 3 month let but if it means I can't enrole my daughter in school I might need to rethink that idea. Thanks Elaine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SJT Posted February 28, 2014 Report Share Posted February 28, 2014 High school they won't consider it, depending if its a high demand school. Primary school depends on them, one said they would take my children, others said not. We had an eight week holiday let and to be honest found this to be too long. Here when they advertise long term rentals they normally are free within 3 weeks, so we found that we could not look for a long term rental which was frustrating. We only got ours because it had been empty for six months and then we asked for us not to take the lease for another four weeks, but we still had an overlap of one and half weeks in our holiday let. Hope this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elaineh33 Posted February 28, 2014 Report Share Posted February 28, 2014 It does indeed, thanks for your reply SJT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scot01 Posted February 28, 2014 Report Share Posted February 28, 2014 A good State school has a knock on affect on the surrounding properties so depending on what you are looking for you may struggle. Shelton college in western suburbs, Churchlands high and Rossmoyne high school are consistently the top performing govt schools and give the high fee, prestigious private schools a thrashing each year. Other schools that make the top fifty list Duncraig, Willeton, Leeming, melville, ocean reef ,Balcatta Como and Applecross. Starting point for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ali Posted February 28, 2014 Report Share Posted February 28, 2014 My son attends Leeming Senior High School and my daughter (now 2nd year of Uni) also attended and was in the academic extension programme from years 8 - 10 (after which it's exam subjects). My children are chalk and cheese - one sporty one studious and they've both been happy at the school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kck74 Posted February 28, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 28, 2014 That's brilliant is that people! Cheers for the replies, obviously we are going to get on the ground and then start our accommodation search, we didn't want to pre-admit our boy and not like the area. Once again thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lou8670 Posted February 28, 2014 Report Share Posted February 28, 2014 Kck74 this is my worry too. We're staying with family when we arrive and I want to enrol them in school ASAP but it's likely they will go private and whilst waiting, which may be a few years, we want them to go to the local school in the area we know we will live not the area where we are staying with family. I would hate them to be out of school too long; it will be a month anyway when we arrive :-/ Louise Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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