Aldinga Beach - Pre-school and primary help

[Guest Mrs Bon Jovi]

We are just putting our house on the market and hoping to head out to SA end of this year/beginning of 2012 and I am trying to get my head round everything.

Our oldest will be 7 in September and is starting Primary 3 here this month and I'm trying to work out what year she would start in there after the Xmas hols. I can't seem to find any defininte info on the Dept of Education site.

Also, our littlest has just turned 4 and is away to start his pre-school year at nursery. He gets funding for his 5 sessions here. Will he get funding in Oz or do we have to pay? I'm getting confused with pre-school, pre-entry kindergarten and kindergarten and what he would be in. I had a look at Aldinga Community Kindergarten, is there anywhere else he could go?

 

[Guest Sam74]

Hi

 

My daughter will be 8 in September and she is currently in year two, if we were in the Uk she would be going into year 3 in Sept.

Here the years go Reception, Yr 1, 2, 3 etc not sure what they are in the UK. Charlotte attends Tatachilla near Mclaren Vale which I

really recommend and the new school year starts in January. My son Archie attends Precious Cargo in Aldinga Beach and has done

since he was one and he loves it. The fees you pay for with some help from centerline (upto 50%) rebate. I Hope this has help and

Good luck with the move : )

 

Sam

[Guest Sam74]

Sorry forgot to say they usually do a year at kindy before they start school, in the private schools they usually start school year at the beginning of the new school year in January. In state schools they usually start school the term after their fifth Birthday, I found this very confusing as this meant they could do a max of six terms in reception. If you contact the school/kindy you are thinking of

Sending them too. They will confirm everything to you. Hope this helps and hasn't confused you!

[Guest mark&rachel]

Southern Vales and Gailee also have good reps. Aldinga State School doesnt have such a good rep. Private schools are much cheaper here too which is a plus.

 

 

As for the mindfield of Kindy / Pre School / child care whatever you wana call it. This is how it is (as far as i understand it)

 

Childcare is what Brits called Nursery. You pay for it up front and get 50 % of your out of pocket expenses back. Your intial amount is judged on how much you earn but they can pay an awful lot if your on low income. Go on centrelink site if you know what your earning. Whatever you pay you get 50% back so thats nice. You can get it straight off your bill, every 3 months or every year.

Kindy starts at 4 and is kinda like Pre School. Most day cares will take your child to a Kindy but it will maybe cheaper if you do it yourself.

there are lots of Kindys/ Childcare.

They are precious Cargo, ABC, Aldinga and Old Coach Road. Mine go to Old Coach Road and love it. Thing i would suggest would be look at them and dont judge a book by its cover. We did and messed up big time. Each person has their own opinion but we like the staff and nice vibe.

 

 

pm if you have any questions.

[Guest Mrs Bon Jovi]

Hi

 

My daughter will be 8 in September and she is currently in year two, if we were in the Uk she would be going into year 3 in Sept.

Here the years go Reception, Yr 1, 2, 3 etc not sure what they are in the UK. Charlotte attends Tatachilla near Mclaren Vale which I

really recommend and the new school year starts in January. My son Archie attends Precious Cargo in Aldinga Beach and has done

since he was one and he loves it. The fees you pay for with some help from centerline (upto 50%) rebate. I Hope this has help and

Good luck with the move : )

 

Sam

 

Southern Vales and Gailee also have good reps. Aldinga State School doesnt have such a good rep. Private schools are much cheaper here too which is a plus.

 

 

As for the mindfield of Kindy / Pre School / child care whatever you wana call it. This is how it is (as far as i understand it)

 

Childcare is what Brits called Nursery. You pay for it up front and get 50 % of your out of pocket expenses back. Your intial amount is judged on how much you earn but they can pay an awful lot if your on low income. Go on centrelink site if you know what your earning. Whatever you pay you get 50% back so thats nice. You can get it straight off your bill, every 3 months or every year.

Kindy starts at 4 and is kinda like Pre School. Most day cares will take your child to a Kindy but it will maybe cheaper if you do it yourself.

there are lots of Kindys/ Childcare.

They are precious Cargo, ABC, Aldinga and Old Coach Road. Mine go to Old Coach Road and love it. Thing i would suggest would be look at them and dont judge a book by its cover. We did and messed up big time. Each person has their own opinion but we like the staff and nice vibe.

 

 

pm if you have any questions.

 

Thank you both, that is a great help.

 

So if our daughter is 7 in September then she'd be starting year 2 in January, but that would be the 3rd year of school if you include reception. I think England have reception, I know they start earlier there than ours but I've never completely understood their system either! We just start in Primary 1 between 4.5 and 5.5 here in Scotland

 

And it's Kindy then that I want for Ryan. I won't need childcare as such but he has loved his anti-preschool year he's just done and can't wait to get back after the hols and 'socialise' with all his friends and teachers again and will miss it when we go so want to get him in somewhere for the interaction.

We are lucky that the nursery is part of the school so it helps with the transition to school as well. I see that Willunga has the same with their kindy and primary school. Does anyone have any experience of there or of Mclaren Vale? Or kindy in Mclaren Vale? Do these have catchment areas as I can't seem to find any mention of them online?

 

Thanks in advance

 

A stressed Mummy!

[Guest mark&rachel]

Your daughter will be starting in Year 1 here. They start school in Reception the term after your 5th birthday. Its very confusing as they combine 2 years into one a lot of the time. For example it will be Year 1/2 then move up to 2/3 etc and so on.

 

As for Mclaren Vale, its a great place. Very nice indeed. They do have a couple of Kindys there, one of which is attached to Mclaren Vale Primary School.

The other is on the main road but not sure what its called.

Willunga is quite small (very nice also) and not sure about Kindys there. Does have a Primary School and that does have a catchment area, well it did last year and Aldinga (although nearby) wasnt in it.

 

Mclaren Vale Primary is nice but also look at McLaren Flat Primary. Thats a lovely little school. 20 mins or so from Aldinga so depends wher eyou wana live.

[Guest hughescl]

Hi

 

We have just arrived and are living in Aldinga, my son who is 7 goes to Willunga Primamry. We are very happy with the school and would recommend we didn't look at Aldinga primary. They do apply a catchment area and Aldinga does not fall into this but we had no problem getting in as there was room in the year. Claire

[Guest lippy]

Hi, we used Old Coach Road childcare centre and Willunga kindy. Old Coach Road took him to and from Kindy - they also do the run to Aldinga. Willunga primary would be my choice of state school in the area - never looked at Aldinga. Due to time constraints and both working in Adelaide, we use a city school for convenience. He started reception here at the same time as his friends in Scotland started P1 but has to complete 18mths in reception before moving to yr1 as the school year here runs Jan to Dec. Hope some of this helps.

 

Julie

[Guest Mrs Bon Jovi]

 

Thank you all!

 

I've had a look at all your recommendations. There are a couple of front runners on paper but will reserve judgement until we get to the chance to see them all in person and get a feel for them. Once we've got a definite date I'll get in touch with them all about arranging visits and find out about spaces, exact catchment areas etc.

We're easy really on where we live, we want to be down south but are flexible enough to get the right school for the kids within that area.