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Hello! My husband and I are moving to Perth for his work in the Summer (our Summer). We are both 40. I stay home full time but may return to work part-time (if my Visa will allow me to work in Oz). My professional background is in University recruitment and writing. I may train to teach yoga while I'm there or start a little weekend Mexican food cart near the beach (I make killer Mexican). Something to earn a little more $ to have fun with while we are there!
We presently reside in New Mexico, USA but have also lived in various parts of Colorado, California, and New York. We like outdoors activities, as well as urbanite happenings. We don't need tons of nightlife, but would like to know where to find it if we decide to go out.
Hubby was raised in California, and does surf. What are the good surf beaches? He would like to be able to get to a good surf beach a few times during the week before work, so we'd like to be a reasonable drive to the CBD as well as close to the beach. We like to ride on bike paths, go for family walks, hike in the country, fish, kayak and similar stuff.
We will be coming with 3 children (ages 5, 5, and 16) and our corporate relocation package will pay for private school. What are the good private schools? The International School comes to mind, but I'd still like to know what else is out there.
Are there any public high schools that are particularly good, especially for our teen who is a gifted artist? What sports do Australian kids play? What do typical elementary age kids get involved in? What age to teens start driving in Oz? Are teens in good schools struggling with drugs or pregnancy? (I'm a mom, I have to ask... I know its everywhere... just want to get a feel for teen culture there.)
Hubby will be earning about $180K Australian Dollars. Does this seem about right for a family of 5? Perth is an expensive rental market, and his company will subsidize the difference for what it would cost us to rent a 4 bedroom, nice home in the US and what it costs there. We will probably look in the $4000-4500 per month rental range (we'd NEVER choose pay that much here, but while abroad we do want a similar quality of life). We want a pool, and a back yard. We need 4 bedrooms and a 2-3 car garage. Hubby has a garage hobby & needs the space. I'd like a place that's updated and in a nice area.
I like the sounds of Fremantle, but I'm not sure if it's a place with leafy streets and surburban sized homes. What other areas should we consider?
Do Aussies like Americans by and large? Are people friendly? We're pretty laid back and friendly, but I'm concerned about making friends. I tend to be a little reserved until I get to know people. Are there cool mom's groups, or hiking clubs, or kayaking clubs... or even wine clubs?
Is there a local kids/community newspaper or website with what's going on?
What are some must see weekend trips (by car) for people living in Perth?
Last question... I'm freaked out by snakes. Like, I think I need therapy. Are they everywhere? Or are they a rare sight in the city & suburbs?
Any insight you all can provide is much appreciated. We are so excited. Sorry this is long-winded.
Three kids at the International School, at those ages, will run to $50k/year. On a $180k/year your effective tax rate will be ~30% so $126k after tax. That leaves you $76k to live on, including rent. I think you may need to lower your price point for schooling. Catholic schools are usually much cheaper and plenty of non-Catholics attend them because, generally, they're a sort of hybrid for those who can't afford full private school but want better than public.
You may also want to have a look at the government's MySchool website that gives stats for all Australian schools.
How long will you be in Australia? If only a year or two and money is no object, then I'd keep the kids in a school which easily translates to a US curriculum, even if it dilutes their cultural experience. Your 16 yr old would be in the home stretch of college apps, with extracurriculars and APs and all that crap, right? Australian university admissions are based on barrier exams, so our system is entirely different to yours. I'd hate for them to miss out on the college of their choice because an Australian school made them spend too much time on studying.
Except, actually, they're old enough enough to mess with all of that.
Will the 16 yo be 17 before June 30? If so, they'd be going to the last few months of year 12, which is the lead in for the final exams (Nov is swot vac/exam time), which is clearly impossible. If they'll be 16 after June, they still will be missing the beginning of WACE, and likely not able to come into that grade level, they maybe put into year 10 in a publc school. Also, Australian science and maths are integrated, which means you do geography, biology, chemistry and physics every year, and in maths you do some of each topic every year too. Your 16 year old may have holes which make transferring in any higher than year 10 to the academic track impossible.
* of course, is now yr 11 and 12, but the specific name is state specific, and also changed since us old fogeys were at school.
I would send your five year olds to the local public school. They are much nicer in Australia than the US.
Are your kids boys or girls? Sports are different here. They will have one practice and one game per week, unless your kid is on the "A" or Open team in high school (for cricket they're called first or second etc, eleven), in which case they might have two practices depending on the school. Sporty kids don't specialise, they just play several different sports, unless they're a potential Olympian or professional tennis player. No college scholarships based on sports, so that tier/pressure doesn't exist.
The biggies are football and cricket for boys and netball, hockey and softball for girls (sexist!). But everything bar ice hockey and grid iron and baseball will be available (they have expat adult teams, but not development for kids). Tennis is big, lacrosse, swimming, volleyball, soccer, basketball, atheletics, etc. We pride ourselves on being sporty. http://www.schoolsportwa.com.au/abou...-coordinators/
In general, teenagers in Australia don't struggle with pregnancy. Comprehensive sex ed, plus essentially free healthcare take care of it. I do know of someone who had a child very young, a friend of a friend, I think she was 16 or 17 when she had a baby. But I haven't heard of or met anyone else, ever.
Note, this is giving birth under the age of 20, and almost all of them are 18 or 19.
Quote:
Director of Demography, Bjorn Jarvis, said the fertility rate of teenage mothers has decreased to 16.1 babies per 1000 women in 2012, down from 17.4 in 2002.
We do not know how long we will be there. Some expats stay 10 years, others 2. Time will tell. We would certainly like our 16 year old to stay on long enough to graduate, and it seems like the International School will be the best for her, if she decides to go back to the US for college... in which case she will need the SAT or the ACT, and meet certain scholarship and admission deadlines. The International School is probably best equipped for this.
The twins are young and I think we can be flexible with regard to school. We do not pay for private school over here, but since the company is picking up the tab, why not? I just want to make sure they make Australian friends.
It's so hard trying to figure this out from such a distance. At some point, closer to departure, we will take a 5 day trip over to try to sort all this out. But, I'd like a short list of things to consider so our time can be spent wisely.
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After reading your update, it doesn't sound like Australian public school will work for her. She'll still be 16 after June, but she's a year ahead over here in the States. Your information helps a lot. I think the International School is probably her best choice.
Thanks again!
Last edited by downtownG; 01-20-2015 at 07:44 PM..
WildColonialGirl - Your post was SUPER helpful and I greatly appreciate the time you put into it.
Our twins are a boy and a girl, both 5 years old. Our boy is a "manly-man" type and will thrive in sports and physical activity. Our girl is super girly, and will probably prefer ballet or dance. But, who knows, as she is a super fast runner and may like something like soccer.
Our teen is female and will probably want to surf (like her dad) and maybe do some track & field. She likes tennis, but hasn't ever really played in an organized way.
Such a relief to hear that teens aren't having babies that often. In some places in the US, there is a high teen pregnancy rate. It is heartbreaking to see, knowing how much parenthood requires in order to grow good, responsible, stable children.
I will look at the public schools, for the twins. While I appreciate that private school will be paid for, if the public schools are good at the primary level, why have the company spend all that money? Given they are young, they can adapt to most things. While there are differences between American and Aussie culture, the differences are not huge. Thus, I don't think they will have a hard time adjusting.
You're welcome! BTDT, the most difficult thing is how much you don't know you don't know, and how much the other side don't know they don't know. It makes asking the right questions and getting the right answers impossible. Like the college admissions thing- without experience of both, no one is going to ask or answer the right questions.
For the college thing one possibility is admission as a foreign student, if she does year 12 in Australia, what are admissions like for colleges she's interested in as a foreign student copared to domestic student? Or, would she be eligible for university in Australia? That might be fun (and way cheaper for you), but if she doesn't get into honours then she might have to retrain to work in the US anyway. Or she could do the IB at the international school.
I wish you well for the look for the Public Schools. For me I was let down by the Public School system here in Australia and know others that were let down by the Public School system here in Australia. Too much bullying I seen when I was in the Public School system plus I found some of the teachers and even the School Counsellor unsympathetic in regards to seeing there were students out there mistreated. I was astonished the school teachers failed to address issues to all students regarding students with disabilities there. The students that suffered disabilities suffered the worse of bullying. There were other issues which I did not like about the School, as even if you looked different or sounded different you would certainly be targeted to bullying, yet maybe the schools have changed and hopefully they have become tougher against bullying. that is to be assertive enough to expel the really big bullys. If they have not then I still do not have faith in the public schools. Yet the school I went to was a lower than average Australian income area, but of course there are people out there that have praised the Public School system here in Australia.
I will look at the public schools, for the twins. While I appreciate that private school will be paid for, if the public schools are good at the primary level, why have the company spend all that money? Given they are young, they can adapt to most things. While there are differences between American and Aussie culture, the differences are not huge. Thus, I don't think they will have a hard time adjusting.
I went to a public school until year three then I was moved to a private school. The private school was much better and had a far better sense of community than the public school. It was also light years ahead academically although it was non-selective but the public school was a demonstration school. At my private school we had plenty of foreign students several of whom were completing their SAT's (they ended up going to Ivy league schools and Stanford) in parralel with their HSC. To be honest, from what I saw of the SAT's it was fairly basic stuff and not nearly as rigorous as the HSC.
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