Year 1 in WA question

[mrsmac]

I am hoping one of the WA girls can help with this. I teach kindergarten in NSW whici is the mandatory 1st year of formal schooling. Children must start by the year they turn 6.

I have a little boy in my class moving to WA and we are confused as to whether he should go to prep or Yr 1 over there.
In kindy we do phonics and learning to read and they are starting to write for themselves too.

Any help would eb greatly appreciated, BTW he will be 6 in July.

[~MummaBear~]

Hey Mrs Mac
My DS will be 6 in July and he is in Pre primary ( the year before yr 1 in WA)
in Pre primary he is doing the kind of things you mention ( writing his name, word awareness etc)
Also not sure about moving from a different state but over here to be in Yr 1 this year you have to turn 6 before the end of June so the little boy would not be old enough to start Yr1 yet!
I hope that helps!!

[mrsmac]

Thanks for that, we were worried that pre primary would be too easy but it sounds OK. The other thing was that his mum has called schools where they are going and they said that they are full in pre primary and because its not compulsorary he may not get in anywhere so would go from full time school to nothing which is really worrying us.

[Rouge]

Pre primary in Perth didn't used to be the same as Kindergarten in NSW/Prep in Kinder (purely because it's usually half days... But not sure if it's changed. I only know this because I changed through their systems.

[mrsmac]

This is what's worrying us Rouge, we don't want him to go backwards as he will be coming back to the NSW system in a few years. I know from using the WA maths syllabus in NT when i taught there that their Yr2 was like our Yr 1 etc so I thought maybe he could go into YR 1 there but if the age cut off is end of June he misses out

[Rouge]

Just spoke to my Husband who also did Schooling in WA and agrees that Grade 1 would be similar to Kindergarten/Prep. WA really needs to lift it's game.

[mrsmac]

Just had a lovely chat with someone in head office of dept ed in WA and sadly cause he is 6 in July he is too young for grade 1 and is only allowed to go to part time pre primary IF he can get in which he won't cause they are full.

So peeeeed off atm, this poor kid had a bit of trouble settling in to school and is doing so well now only to be put back like this.
Again I say we need a national education system which doesn't disadvantage people who move around!!!

[*Ang*]

Hi...I dont know why you were told he has to go into part-time pre-primary? - all of the pre-primary's that I know, both state and private, are full time. Kindy is only part-time so maybe they got confused with that...what area are they moving to?

[~MummaBear~]

Our Pre primary is also full time, 5 days a week. It is true that it is not compulsorary but i have not heard of anyone who wants to do it not being able to get in somewhere. Do you know what area they are moving to?

[mrsmac]

Karratha, not sure if that's the right spelling!

[~MummaBear~]

oh... well i can kinda see that there may be a slight problem getting a spot. I really hope for the little boy that something can be worked out.

[*Ang*]

I used to live in Karratha! Because it has such a young population there are at least 4-5 state schools there and a catholic primary school which is virtually impossible to get into as it has a long waiting list. Dampier is around 20 mins drive away which has a primary school and I have heard of kids travelling from Karratha to Dampier to go to school so you could try there instead?

[mrsmac]

Thanks so much Ang!!! Will tell his mum.