Starting school in 2012

Had a nice suprise today, DD had no tears before her transition visit and had a ball. She has 4 visits and each one is a longer until the 4th which is a full day. She is in the class with her teacher for next year. Unfortunately she will miss the last visit as the kindy end of term celebration is on the same day and she gets a certificate and they make a fuss of all the kids going to school in the next term

The other nice suprise was school fees are $211 and includes all supplies, no book list pencils etc needed, the teacher buys in bulk and hands things out as needed. Uniform is also reasonably priced polo shirts $15, shorts $10, dress $14 and hats $10 I forgot to ask about jumpers :wall: The uniform is navy and navy or navy and white. DD needs new shoes and I'll get her a new backpack and lunch box which she can pick as a treat

There is a fridge in the classroom for the kids to put their lunch in! Wish there was one when I was at school and had to eat sweaty cheese sandwhiches.

Kmart and Big W have school sections with basic polo shirts, shorts etc. Should be able to find plain white socks there. We need black ones so will be heading there soon to get some. DS1 can wear whatever sneakers he's got they don't have to be black. We need to buy him some velcro sandals. Crocs are a no, no and his buckle sandals will be a pain.

Think we will get the backpack also and just let him have a train name tag to hang off it (he wanted a train backpack). I didn't think about art smock...hmmmm does he need one I wonder. We have been using a library bag for kindy so hopefully he's happy to keep using that...though we will need a new lunchbox.

I was impressed with the fee's also $110 for the entire year (and some fundraising here and there)....certainly beats the $550 per term for Kindy!!!

So what is everyone's class size? DS's school has 50 preps starting this year with a class size of 25.

We have 77 preps, 4 classes if 19.
We meet her teacher on wednesday night! Fees are in two parts, compulsory $117.50 for stationary etc.. And voluntary $117.50, we will pay both lots

We have 78 kids across three classes. Dd2 is so excited and very ready. I spent $410 on uniforms but some were for dd1. I was ok with one at school but the thought of two makes me feel old. I keep thinking 'what I'd we had only had two?' then it would all be over ;( I live my babies and I think it's unfair they get them five days a week and I only get them two. Meanies!

We have 65 students in total in the school :)
I think they are trying to start DD's class around 15-20 as they take a few in during the year. It is reception 1-2 class I think. Yesterday when I dropped DD off the principal was in the class with the teacher and they were both teaching

I was suprised that the fees were half that of the kindy fees per year

Our class sizes are 21-22 we were told max for preps at the school was 22.
They also allowed us to put requests in for who we wanted in our kids class which was nice cause DD is in with her best friend. And I've been told the teacher they're having is lovely so we're happy.

Our fees seem alot more $350(includes book list/ excursions) then their is a ground mantenence fee of $40 then a voluntary fee of $150 and swimming lesson fee of $125. All adds up yet still cheaper than kindy which was about $1000 for the year.

There are 4 prep classes with the capacity for 100 students, but I don't think they've filled them all yet which is good, the less the better I say. They have a teachers aide full time for the first 2 terms and then part time for the last 2 so I'm quite happy with that.

We have other costs as shellbell mentioned like swimming in term 4, not sure of that cost, and excurisons as they come up throughout the year, but happy to pay for things like that!!

ETA - Sararose we also have a fridge, in ALL the classrooms up to year 7, which I think is very handy!

We have 4 classes of 20

eeeeek we have 4.5 classes, there are 119 students enrolled for prep and they've had to get another classroom. It's the only thing that worries me is all those students in the playground at break time....there's sooo many of them. I went to a school that only had about 70 kids in the entire school. It's been a huge adjustment for me getting used to the big schools here in the city.

we have 57 preps first time ever there will be 2 prep classes and a prep/yr 1 composite

I'm a bit excited - we are receiving our class/teacher allocation today via email - I'll be hitting the refresh button about 100 times per minute lol

Hoping for the nice young male teacher - DS responds to males and sees them as more of an authoratitive figure so it would do him the world of good - I didn't think to request this though. Damn placenta dementia!

so who's child who finished kindy had a graduation? Our teachers at my DS kindy don't seem to fussed on anything, he didn't get a certificate or anything.....is this the norm?

Make that tomorrow we get our emails. Poo.

Erin we had a graduation ceremony, they made graduation hats, wore formal black and white, had a ceremony with certificates and then a little party with food after. We then received a portfolio of their artwork a week later.

I think it is definitely becoming the norm, all of the other kids I know starting Prep next year that attend kindy/pre-school/pre-prep have had or are having a ceremony.

Well I got a nice surprise today. Got a letter telling me what teacher we would have next year. lol at orientation they told us we would find out on the first day.

We don't have a ceremony either. I have told DD she can take either her hat or school shirt and get all the kids to write their name on there. Her teachers thought that was a great idea.

We're having kinder graduation. Don't know what they do for it but we get presented with folders of work and photos from the year then afterwards all the parents and kids having BBQ dinner. Will be really nice.

we had a christmas celebration at kindy they got a certificate and on his last day wed he got all his work from the year and a few little bits and pieces to go in his school record book :)

We have a Chrissy party and they get a folder of their art. Considering J hates art I am curious about what he would have done! We found out his teacher on tues. he is in with 2 Of his friends so that's good.

Yeah we got the folder also, they all get those. DS1 is not really that full, he had a class with most boys and they were not too interested in crafts and it's got pics in it also. Many got sent home as he always wanted to bring his craft home so I will stick them in also and the christmas cards he got from his little friends (very cute). We had a morning tea on a Sunday where they sang some songs.....but I would have loved to see them each get presented with a certificate or something.