Children
Australia is heaven for kids. Children have more freedom and a wide array of safe and fun outdoor activities. Especially if you’re from Joburg, the difference is like night and day. Your kids will be able to ride around, visit friends, go to the beach or park and just be outside.
Schooling
Australia has both public and private schools.
Public schools
Public schools are good. Australia competes with other top countries for international education rankings, never going too far away from the top 10.
If you’re going public, it’s crucial that you get into the catchment area of the school you want. We chose the school, then the area, then arranged a rental before we left Johannesburg and used that to prove that we were in the catchment area so we wouldn’t have delays in January.
There’s a lot of data on individual school ratings, just Google e.g. “Australian school rankings”. For example: https://www.myschool.edu.au/
One difference is how much more involved you’ll need to be. In South Africa, you can drop your children off at school and they’ll have many activities included, e.g. field sports, swimming or chess. Far less so in the public system in Australia. There are more schools, they’re often within walking distance, but they don’t seem to have sports fields or swimming pools. If you want extra activities, you’ll need to be involved in organisation and transport. More about that below in the Sports section.
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Private schools
Non-government schools largely fall into either Catholic or Independent.
Catholic schools are known to be good quality at a reasonable cost. Independent schools can vary in price to
There are many excellent private schools in Australia, affiliated across the full spectrum from religion to . Here’s a good guide on the range of affiliations:
https://isa.edu.au/our-sector/diversity/types-of-schools-and-systems/
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Sports
Soccer
Soccer is a big deal. It’s organised by the local team rather than schools, so your child might play with team members from various schools. This is a fantastic activity to get involved in. It’s a wonderful social ceremony every weekend to get together with all of the kids and parents on a field, and just enjoy being outside. Weekly practices, coaching and umpiring are run by the parents, and I volunteered as my daughter’s team manager. Games were against nearby teams, so we never travelled more than 5km to a game. All of the fields are just beautiful environments.
Football fields on a Saturday morning
There is Outside School Hours Care (OSCH) in NSW, which is typically paid for. Register for this asap, you can always drop days once you’re registered. See:
Playgrounds and parks
Kid’s entertainment doesn’t have to cost money. You’re never too far from a clean park or playground, usually very well kept and often supplied with free water fountains.