Primary and secondary schools

Compulsory education for children in Australia start with Kindergarten(or Preparatory Year as it is referred to in some states) with children usually starting at age 5 or 6. Some parent opt to send the children to preschool or early childhood/long day care in the lead up to kindergarten but this is not compulsory. 7 years of primary school are followed by 6 years of high school(assuming students complete their higher school certificate)

In Australian schools students are encouraged to learn good communication skills, personal discipline, problem solving skills in numerous different subjects, personal respect, respect of others. Children are provided with support and encouragement to learn and progress in their education and social development.

Teachers provide parents with regular feedback as to the progress of the children through reports and parent/teacher meetings. Expect your child to receive ongoing feedback regarding their classwork and behavior. During their education expect your child to complete a broad range of subjects, including Maths, English, Science, History, Geography, but also hands on subjects such as wood and metalwork, cooking, computer courses such as graphic design, music, art and much more.

Australia has a public school system that is open to all Australian national an resident children to attend and apart from paying for material and some administration fees these school are largely free to attend. Australia also has a wide variety of private schools which charge fees for students to attend. These schools may be religious based, e.g. Christian, Jewish or Muslim based schools, teaching philosophy based, e.g. Rudolph Steiner or Montessori Methods, of perhaps they are schools with a particular focus, with schools for the gifted, schools of performing arts and athletics focused schools. Some states also have a number of public schools for gifted or talented students, more about these schools can be discovered from the relevant Board of Education Website for each State.

In many cases students will be eligible to subsidized or discounted travel fares on school specific buses or public transport especially if the live within the catchment area for their school but still live the prescribed distance from the school. For more information see the below websites

NSW Board of Education

VIC Department of Education and Early Childhood Development

WA Department of Education

QLD Department of Education

SA Department for Education and Child Development (DECD)

ACT Department of Education and Training

TAS Department of Education Tasmania

www.australianschoolsdirectory.com.au

www.myschool.edu.au