School Down Under

Hello everyone, today is the first day of the second school term of the year, I had to go and get Leo this morning as Jessica has no fuel and no money for fuel till this afternoon, since I was up anyway it wasn't a bother to go get him.

Natasha rang while I was having breakfast and wanted to know if her dad was home, he was and as he was sitting next to me I passed the phone over, she had a flat tyre and needed him to go and change it, which he did because that is what fathers do.

Anyway since it is day one of term two I thought I will talk a little about school down under. Our school year runs from January to December and is broken up into 4 school terms, each term is roughly 10 weeks long. The school day is generally from 9am to 3pm but some schools have earlier starts at different times usually that happens with high schools.

Of course education is compulsory for all children aged between 5 & 17, our schools are broken up into generally speaking primary school and high school, students attend primary from kindergarten to year six and high school from year seven to year twelve.

A number of years back it was introduced that all students she attend school till the end of year 12, when I was at school and when my girls were at school you could leave after year 10 or when you turned 15. I left after year 10 as there was no way I was smart enough to go on to years 11 & 12, Tim left school halfway through year 8 when he got a job and both Kathy and Jessica left school as soon as they were old enough to leave. Natasha stayed till she was asked to leave which was half way through year 11.

Then there is tertiary education at universities or colleges or you can go to tafe if you wish and there is also vocational and training programmes.

We have public (government) schools and private schools with regulation and funding of education being the primary responsibility of the States and Territories but the Federal Government also plays a funding role as well.

Around 60% of all students attend public schools with the other 40% attending private or independent schools. All but one of Australia's 43 universities are public and the student fees are subsidised through a student loan program where the payment becomes due when graduates reach a certain level of income.

There are also many online tertiary options including doing tafe online, this is popular with people who work and study at night or on weekends, although there are many Tafe courses held at night as well. My youngest daughter attends Tafe three nights a week, which is why we have Leo three nights a week.

Even though school fees are voluntary if you attend a public school there is still a lot of out lay for parents with equipment or book packs stationary items and of course excursions and now there is the added cost of a laptop once your child hits year 5 they are expected to have a laptop to use this can be bought through the school or you can bought elsewhere but can't be just any laptop has to be a certain type with certain programmes and is generally kept at school.

When I was at school the government supplied everything as in books and pencils and rulers but not any more, also the back to school bonus which was around for many years is gone so really no bloody help from the government with the cost of school now days.