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I've just finished filling out Yasin's enrollment forms to start kindy next year.
I can't believe that my baby is starting school next year.
He'll be 'going to' the Sydney Distance Education Primary School for the first six months while we are in France and the the local public school when we come back to Australia (or NZ if we decide to go there).
Who else has a littlie (or two) starting school next year?
What are you doing to help them prepare?
DS1 starts prep next year. We are still choosing a school. We've narrowed it down to two, but one might be out because unless we aren't in the catchment area and there are a few ahead of us on the waiting list. DS1 has been to both schools already and knows what it's all about (in fact he wants to start in term 4 instead of doing another term at kindy first LOL!).
How does it work in Sydney Brontide - is kindy instead of prep? DS1 is at kindy this year but we don't count that as school. It's not at the same location.
MR, kindy is the same as prep but in NSW it's compulsary. When I was looking at QLD schools (in case we move there next year) I got the impression that prep is recommended but not compulsorary. Is that correct?
We don't have much choice about schools - there's only one distance education school in Sydney. Since we'll be in the public system I figure we may as well stick with it when we get back so that he has more continuity with the sylabus and teaching. Also the local public school is in walking distance and the private school is a drive away and I prefer the idea of walking to school.
If it doesn't work out we can always pull him out and go private.
Kindy is the NSW prep.
Some tips to prepare your child for school (from a kindy teacher!)
Teach them to recognise their name when it is written on clothes etc.
Try and get them to learn to tie their shoe laces!! You wouldn't believe how many kids at school even in yrs 1 & 2 that can't.
Let them practice being more independent eg packing their bag for preschool, unpacking it when they get home, remembering simple messages etc.
The academic stuff we can teach at school so don't stress about that, its the little things that make the difference like being able to put on their own jumper or being able to get their lunch out of their bag etc.
mrsmac, I'm a really lazy Mum. I always buy velcro shoes so that my boys don't have to fiddle with laces. I guess I should teach them to tie them soon :redface:
I've just started making Yasin find his shelf at cc (it has a tag with his name) but I'll start making him unpack his bag too :)
They are great, except when half the class sits there pulling the velcro on and off LOL
You're right brontide - prep is recommended here but not compulsory.
We are only looking at public schools too and hopefully we will be able to move to within walking distance of the school he will go to. It's just that the local school here won't really work - DS has some special requirements which they can't manage. The other schools we are looking at will be much better at catering for him.
Mrsmac - DS can do all those things from kindy (except we don't have shoe laces either!). He already has to do it all at the kindy end, so he might as well do it at home also ;) So in NSW what age do they start kindy then? Is there anything before that other than day care?
In NSW they have to start kindy by their 6th birthday but they can enrol to start the year they turn 5.
There are some government pre-schools but they are mainly attached to schools in lower socio-economic areas (there are about 100 and 24 of the are in communities that have mainly Aboriginal inhabitants). I think the idea is that they help disadvantaged children catch up before kindy.
Most of the child-care centers offer a pre-school program for the 4 year olds. Yasin's CC does school readiness during the last quarter of the year where they ask parents to drop children off at 9 and pick them up at 3 and they try to mimic the routines of school and learn school skills (like shoelaces and unpacking their own lunches I guess).
DD1 is starting Kindy next year. In Perth we have Kindy, then preprimary before year 1. Neither are compulsory. She'll be doing 5 half days. How many days do they do over east?
Bit nervous about the whole thing though.
In kindy they do 5 days.
I enrolled DD in her school about a week ago. We're moving back to Sydney next month so she'll be starting there (in NSW). She'll be 5 in April but her daycare centre where she attends pre-school has said she's ready, which we already knew LOL.
We were lucky enough to get DD into the school we did as there's a wait list for it but XH had asked the principle to hold a spot for DD earlier this year (incase we came back into the area) & because we have so much involvement in our parish there was no problems for DD to get in.
In November she starts one day a week for the "transition" into big school then will start 5 days a week next year.
I should probably get onto teaching her how to tie laces too but I think the shoes she has for school are velcro (if I can remember rightly!!)
My ds is starting kindy next year too. He's currently going to 3yr old kindy and loves it! Is perfectly fine with unpacking his bag, recognising his name etc... no tying of shoelaces here either! :p
He's not looking forward to separating from his 3yr old kindy friends though. I'm trying to remind him that he made friends at this kindy, he'll make friends at the new kindy and we can still see his 'old' friends after school..... doesn't seem to be working though, he gets a bit teary whenever we talk about it. :cry:
He's going to be going 2 full days, also in WA.
Prep in QLD is 5 days a week and almost school hours - I think most schools have the preps start 10 minutes later and finish 10 minutes earlier so they are not caught up with all the big kids coming and going. They can do prep if they are 5 before June 30 in the year in the start.
Are we talking about kindy/preschool or 'big school'? If it's big school then yep, my baby girl will be starting next year. I haven't formally enrolled her as yet but they know she's starting. She will do her orientation program for four Fridays in November - first two are half days and then the last two are full days. She is already going to preschool on the bus with the older two, so she's fine with that. She's more than ready and I haven't had to do much in the way of preparation because she's already doing all the stuff they recommend you do with them anyway.
Kindy- big school i think.
I'm talking 'big school'/starting formal education which is kindy in NSW.
I thought that's what you meant Brontide :) it will be sadder for me to send her off to school than it was the older two because she was my baby for longer than the other two were and I will really miss her *sniff*. I have got most of her uniform sorted - she will get DD1's skorts etc that are too small for her and I had to order all of them new school shirts as they are changing the uniform.
DS's Kindy does a preparation thing for prep (school) next year. They have been spending an hour with the 2 prep teachers (at the school) doing activities and met some of the yr5's that will be their buddies when they start.
I haven't got his uniforms yet, I'm waiting until the last minute. It will drive him crazy if he can't wear it and he can't wait to start school anyway so I'll get it the week before the the wait won't feel so long for him.
My DS1 is starting prep next year *sniff*. It's hard to believe!
His current kinder is on the same premises as the school (which is also on our street :)) so it has been wonderful to help with integration. The kids have a "buddy" from grade 5 (like Lulu described) and have gone into the school classrooms many times with their buddies doing craft activities. Closer to the end of the year there will be days when DS1 will go to the school for a few hours.
Lucky for us his current kinder teacher will also be his prep teacher next year and he knows heaps of kids already so I know it will go smoothly. He is so looking forward to it :D. I know I'll be one of those mums who cries when dropping their child off for the first day of school LOL! I'm not much of a crier normally, but he's my first child and it will be so sad to not have him around as often :(. I'll get over it though :p
My DD starts kindy (we're in NSW) next year and we have also just handed in her application. I'm feeling rather teary and sad that my little baby girl is getting big and going off to school.
I think I'm going to be a blubbering mess next year :rolleyes: DD however, is so excited. She goes to preschool 2 days a week this year and absolutely loves it.
*sighs* I'm feeling rather emotional.
At least he knows his teacher Trish, in our school even at orientation they won't tell the kids (Or the teachers!!) who the kindy teachers will be in 2010.
Mrs Mac, they don't do that at orientation here either - you can kinda tell if the current ones will stay on as Kindergarten teachers, but one of them is pg so she won't be back for term 4 and the other one has taught primary before so she could change back. We do get told who their teachers are in a letter telling you what day they start though but that's about a week before school goes back.
I should know in term 4 if I have kindy again next year, last year because our school did "Best Start" which is a new testing thing for kindy, the parents got a letter in T4 telling them what class their child was going to be in and what time to come for the assessment. because I hadn't taught Kindy there everyone was very confused about who would be teaching KM!!
It was funny though cause the letters went home adn the teachers hadn't seen a list of their class so I found out some of my children in the supermarket etc when their parent's were pointing me out to their kids LOL
schooling is very confusing when lookingacross the country...
SA
its Kindy(kindergarten) 4yr old to 5yrs 4 1/2 sessions MAX 4 terms
then reception starts after their 5th birthday could be up to 6 terms depending on when their birthday is( eg DS is 5 in sept 2010 so he will do 5 terms of reception)
then yr 1 and so on(high school also starts at yr 8 here)
so in NSW what do the kids do before your kindy?
maybe we should have a sticky of all the differences state by state so we can see what each is talking about...
In NSW we can use preschool which is usually run by council or community/church run. Its usually for a maximum of 3 days per week. Long daycare often offers a preschool program too.
Preschool is not compulsorary in NSW but the majority of children do seem to do some kind of preschool before they start school. As a teacher you really notice the difference between kids who have had no preschool/daycare experience and those who have.
I think it is so ridiculous that each state has their own system. I taught in NT and they have different starting to here, different curriculum and handwriting style too. Its one of my pet hates, I am all for a standard education system across the whole of Australia.