Moving to SA - Toddler/Baby support

Preschool Toddler Support

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey
Just found this forum and thought I would take a look (Ok. It was suggested I transpose this from the mens section :) )
Maybe someone out there can give us some pointers.
My name is Hugh and we (includes my wife and 51/2 month daughter [more if I can persuade her]) are selling our flat in London and moving permanently to the Adelaide region.
We will be looking for preschool/toddler education/day care and to be honest have no idea where to start.
We will be looking to live in a region that gives us the best support and facilities for our daughter.
Advice? Pointers? Anything welcome. Be warned as soon as you reply to this I will probably end up asking loads of questions.
Thanks
H :rolleyes:

Hi Hugh

I am in the northern suburbs of Adelaide (Paralowie). Just 5 mins up the road we have a Kindergarten with a newly built child care centre right next door to it. Both the Kindergarten and child care centre have good ties to each other as well as also having good ties with a couple of other child care centres in the area. If you child is of kindergarten age (4) but attends one of the child care centres with ties to the kindergarten they will transport your child by child care bus to and from the kindergarten each day on your behalf.

The kindergarten also runs playgroup for children from 0 - 4 years but with that a parent does have to stay with the child through the session and each session is around 2 hours long, but it is a good way to meet other parents within your area as well. There is also alot of good schools both public and private within our area. Our local school is Reception (pre-school) through to year 12, one of the few R-12 schools left in the state. I will be sending my 3 boys to it.

Not sure what other facilities you would be after ie if you need public transport or things like that. We do have a child & youth health centre 15 mins away in the neighbouring suburb of Salisbury where you can take your daughter for checkups, immunisations etc etc.

Love

HRising.....I find the whole of Adelaide, in general, great for families, so you can't go wrong really.

I have a 2.5 year old and a 1 year old and another on the way, and live in the eastern suburbs of Adelaide (Rostrevor, Magill, Burnside type of area.) We made the choice to live in this neck of the woods from a public schools/environmental/parks/community facilities perspective.....but it is still only 20 mins from the city.......it is a mish mash of different cultures (a lot of Italians and Greeks) and styles of housing (very new to very old, with a lot of 1960's) with a green leafy feel (on the edge of the Hills).........

In terms of pre-school/childcare options, my children go to a local ABC Centre in Magill (you will find very mixed opinions on these centres from parents and in the press....I love the one we use, but I think it really varies dependant on staff in local centres). My daughter goes 2 days a week, and my son 1 day a week. There is a great deal of choice in terms of child-care in this area, with plenty of available places (for part-time at any rate).

All that said, there are lots and lots of other areas of Adelaide that are equally appropriate for families.......you'll be spoilt for choice!!

Hi Hugh,

I also live in the eastern suberbs of Adelaide ( Magill area ) and I love it here I moved here about 3 months ago from the southern area of Adelaide Christies beach I loved it up there but to be honest I prefer the public schooling in the area I live in now,
my son has so many opurtunities in his new school ( Magill junior Primary ) it blows me away as to what subjects and opurtunities are available there and the teaching staff are so friendly and really care about the children, I am not familiar with the local kindergartens /preschools but have heard very good reports about them,

I also agree with Lucy I think that for day care the ABC centres are great as tehy offer an early learning programe to the children so it is very much like a pre school rather than just a place to drop your child off for a while so I would also recomend them.

It is hard because as Lucy said Adelaide is a very family friendly city and you will find good facilities almost everywhere, and feel free to ask as many questions as you need to I am happy to answer them or at least give it a go.

Good luck with everything

Sorry to jump in but you girls are making me very homesick!!!

Cheers

Awwww Kell!!! You poor thing!! How long have you been in Perth for?

Hi Hugh!!! What a huge move you are making!! You must all be so excited!! You are def spoilt for choice. I'm a northern girl myself - always have been LOL.

I live in Gawler which is what is referred to as the Gateway to the Barossa Valley! Gawler is about 50kms north of Adelaide (about a 40 min drive). It has trains for public transport but we have no buses here for some strange reason.... Gawler *I think* (or maybe just in my opinion) is a little more country then the other areas already mentioned. Its heading towards the outskirts and it was a small town that has just boomed over the last 10 years or so but has somehow managed to maintain some of its country charm. If you can't tell I love where I live.... and any one else please feel free to correct me LOL. I know you've all been down my way hehe!!

We have a great array of both private and public schools here. The cream of the crop would have to be Trinity College which starts from 3 years of age (Montessori Playgroup which I've heard fabulous things about) and goes through to year 12. It is an amazing complex and has a truck load of oppurtunities! Trinity is a private school but private school fees are much cheaper over here in comparison to England - at least so I've heard! There's heaps of other playgroups and kindergartens as well as great primary and secondary schools. Just to name a few - Hewett Primary & Xavier College (where I went hehe ;)). We also have a few ABC centres here and I have to agree with what Lucy says about testing your local one. I've never heard anything bad about the ones near here.

Suprisingly enough in my mothers group there are two mothers who have made the move with their families as well. They both didn't know any body before they came. They may be able to help you out with a few things. If you want to post your email addy I can get them to contact you if you like.

And fire away with the questions - we are a friendly and helpful bunch here! :) I think I have rambled on enough now!! I hope this helps!

Wow! Where do I start. Thanks for all the very positive replies.
I have included my email for correspondence as suggested.
Our most important thing is livingin the best possible place for our daughter.
We are the type of people who believe if you can give her the best education and look after her health, that when you go and meet your deity you can look him/her in the eye and say we did our best.
We visited Adelaide last year on a fact finding mission and although we only drove briefly through the hills, visited the city and the beach we decided then and there Adelaide was the place for us.
We will be buying land (we hope) and building on it and location for our daughter is the most important thing - why we are leaving London in fact. Education is the most important thing here so hearing all your positive replies is fantastic.
Private education is completely unaffordable in the UK unless you are upper income bracket, and thats upper income for England, and we definitely will want to explore the possibility in Aus. Everything I have read makes it affordable and although it is currently 36 degrees here we are looking forward to the climate.
We will need to find a place to rent near facilities for Inara while we organise a more permanent base, then I will worry about work and the rest.
Very excited and can't wait to get out there.

hughrising@hotmail.com

Hey Hugh

As most of the girls have said you can't really go wrong where you live. We do have our "Bad areas" like any major city, but once again someone living in that area will say there is nothing wrong with it. You can check google places like Elders Real Estate, L J Hooker, Century 21, The Professionals... just to name a few to check out rental properties and prices online if you want to get some idea of the cost to rent in certain areas.

If you do end up building your own home I highly recommend you DONT go through A.V. Jennings lmao ;)

Love

Hi Hugh

I will pass on your email to my friends the next time I see them. When I was speaking to them last we actually had a conversation regarding private schooling etc and I couldn't believe the price of private schools in England. It was amazing!!

Kat has pretty much covered the Real Estate agents for rentals. I built through Distinctive Homes and they were pretty good. I've heard great things about Rossdale Homes and Homestead Homes as well but there are heaps of display homes which I'm sure you'll enjoy looking at once you're over!

Good luck its sounds like you're about to embark on an exciting journey!

Hi Hugh,

the only other realestate site that was not mentioned is realestate.com and that is great for looking at rental properties all over Adelaide, it really depends on what you can afford to pay for land etc as to where you can buy, and also rent price depends alot on where you go in the area of Magill, Rostrevor, Burnside etc... you will pay from $250 upwards usually areund $280 per week seems to be a common price for rentals in the eastern suberbs, also the southern suberbs are roughly from $180 and can go up to around $300 per week but you really get what you pay for up there, as I said I loved it up there but as far as being a nice neighbourhood with great schools in my opinion it is not a good as other areas, We moved to Magill for my husbands work but also because we wanted our children to have the best possible education that we could give them and we could not afford private schooling anymore ( private schooling was all I was comfortable with in the southern suberbs ) and the public schooling in the eastern areas is fantastic and offers the children alot, and there is so many schools to choose from which is the other thing I liked as education is so very important to me,.
I cant really say alot about the northern suberbs as it has been so long since I lived out there and it has changed so much for the better over the past 10 years or so, and yes Gawler is a lovely town thats for sure it has alot of old charm.
hope this has helped a little, keep poping in and asking anything you need to

In terms of building, we are bulding 2 houses at the moment and have used Homestead Homes......amazingly they completed on time, handed over keys EARLY, and we have been pleasantly surprised at the relative simplicity of the building experience!

If you are thinking of building, the eastern areas may be a slight issue in as much as there is not much land left in the metro area, so you'd be looking at a "land value" block and have to demolish before you re-built.....and larger blocks of anything over 700sq m are as rare as hens teeth, sadly.

But Adelaide in general has lots of land opportunities, none of which is far from the city, which is a bonus........

I moved here in January 2001 ... so that makes it 5 and a bit years. I love it here and it is a lot like Adelaide in terms of the "pace" of living if you know what I mean. I would love to move back to Adelaide ... but Ryan needs to find a job there first! I keep encouraging him to look, especially now that Perth has the second most expensive houses in the country!!! Think it would be a good time to buy an investment property in Adelaide!

Hopefully we will be able to come for a visit in October when some friends of ours are getting married! Although having said that it is going to cost about $900 in airfares alone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cheers

LOL I saw that flights to Asia are going to be cheaper LMAO...

Hope you get to move back here to little ol' adelaide Kelly it is nice here I think as teenagers we dont appreciate where we live but now from a 'mums' point of view I love it here and am very happy to be bringing up my family here.

When we built we built with Rivergum homes they offer a very old fashioned weatherbord type of home as well as some very modern homes too they were great our home was finished in 5 weeks it was amazing I think it would take a little longer now because when we built there was not a 'boom' happening the other thing with rivergum homes is that some councils may not allow you to build their homes as they have rules and regulations about what kind of home they want in the suberb although rivergum do now build brick homes too,

I agree woth what Lucy said about land and there are some great new subdevisions going up all over adelaide that have plenty of land for sale.

Hi Hugh

I haven't forgotten about passing on your email addy I just haven't had the chance yet. I am getting together with my friend next week so I pass it on then!!

Hi Hugh.
I LOVED lliving the Port Adelaide area. Not only does it have great life but potential.
I know of a fabulous school and kindergarten in Ottoway.
Semaphore beach area is also great.
CANT WAIT until we can move back there. I dont really like living where I am now.
House is great, area isn't!