Starting school in adelaide

[steph]

Hello

 

We are moving to adelaide in January from the UK and we don't know where we will be living yet, but basically we hope to arrive not long after new year and start renting somewhere when we have had time to explore areas and see where we would like to live. How long did it take others from moving to their children starting school, my daughter will be 6 and I would like her to start when the new term starts after the Christmas break? Did anyone have any difficulties getting into a primary school, was it straightforward?

 

Also primary school recommendations would be great, we're thinking of moving to one of the beach suburbs e.g. brighton but open to suggestions!

 

Thanks

Steph

[snifter]

Starting at a school is pretty straightforward so long as it isn't zoned and they are enforcing it. Meaning you'd have to live within the zone.

 

We did the school tour, met the principal, son liked it and started the following week. Starting at the end of Jan means you'd start the new school year so may not get to take a school tour while the school has pupils in it before starting. But perhaps could meet the principal and see round etc.

 

We then changed schools about 9 months later and it was a really easy good transition. No problems at all.

 

There is a thread on schools in Adelaide in this area of the forum and it has lots of info re links, naplan, childcare and more. Have a browse of that and other threads to get you started. Ask away if you've any questions

Edited August 24, 2015 by snifter
typo

[NicF]

My two started school about two weeks after we arrived, just as we moved in to our rental near the school. They actually started on the Tuesday as the school was having a sports day on the Monday. We had a tour of the school in the week we arrived, and completed the enrolement forms and everything. The school my kids go to isn't zoned so we didn't have to worry about proving we lived in the zone. Oh and my OH is from Adelaide and we had been several times before, including a trip specifically to consider a move so we already knew where we wanted to live and had already pretty much decided on the school before we moved over.

[samandcraig]

Hi, we live South of Adelaide, after arriving we went to see the school on about how the second week, we arrived at Easter time so the kids had to wait a couple of weeks before starting. we were shown around the school by the head and they have settled great....good luck x

[flossybeth]

We arrived at the end of July and ours didn't start school until September; we had 6 weeks of house-sitting lined up and weren't sure where we'd end up living and we weren't in a massive hurry to get then into school - they'd just finished a whole UK school year and moved half way round the world, it seemed only fair to let them have a bit of break and settle first. Although by the time they started school they were ready to be making friends and getting back into a routine.

 

We had no bother with the registration process either; our first school we picked because it looked like the closest one on the map and they got back to us first (although if we hadn't liked it when we visited we would obviously have gone elsewhere) and when we moved into our own house a year later (50km away so we had no choice but to move schools again) it was just as easy even though we moved 3 weeks into term 3.

 

The hardest part of the schools was actually accepting the differences between the UK and Australian system, 3 years in and some things still make us say "really?" but on the whole we've relaxed and our children are doing OK.