Moving to Australia with children – what surprised us most?

We relocated from London to Sydney 17 years ago with children aged 4 and 16 months. Moving to Australia was a huge life change and it honestly took several years before life felt ‘normal’. During that time, our eldest started primary school, our youngest started day care, and we entered the world of weekend community sport and kids’ activities. We were adjusting to a new phase of our children’s lives in a new country, with a new vocabulary and culture.

Here are three things that surprised us most about that stage of our relocation to Australia:

1.      It’s not common for kids to start school aged four turning five

In most Australian states, children are eligible to start school if they turn five during the first half of their first school year. In New South Wales, that means children can start Kindergarten in January if they turn five on or before 31 July.

What I wasn’t prepared for is that this is not the only choice. Children don’t have to start school until they turn six, which creates a real dilemma for parents.

a)      Start your child in January aged four turning five?

b)     Start your child the following January aged five turning six?

When we moved to Sydney, it was not common to start children aged four. For most local families, waiting a year was much more likely. In my son’s kindergarten class, the children who did start aged four were mostly from overseas families like us who didn’t yet know the local norms.

For our family, our son had already completed preschool years in the UK and Australia, so it felt repetitive not to move on to primary school. We decided to start him ‘young’ and it has turned out fine. I’ll share his perspective in another post — there were some impacts along the way, one of which links to the second thing that surprised us.

2.      Local sports club year groups don’t align with school academic years

One of the next things that surprised us (obvious on reflection!) was that local sports club teams don’t align with school academic years. Our kids played soccer, Oztag and touch football, and we quickly learnt that teams are commonly organised around birth years rather than school years.

Arranging sport around birth years makes sense, especially for contact sports. But when you’re explaining to a 6-year-old that he can’t be in the same soccer team as his school mates because they weren’t born in the same year, it’s tricky. Some clubs and sports can be flexible; otherwise, it’s simply something kids get used to. In our case, it had a positive impact by giving our children friendship groups at school and in local teams.

3.      Students don’t experience ‘formal’ exams until Year 12

In the UK, senior school students sit GCSE exams during Years 9 and 10, which are nationally implemented and formally orchestrated. They then move on to A Levels in Years 11 and 12, again nationally orchestrated and assessed.

In Australia, Years 9 and 10 are still important years when students choose subjects and sit school-based exams. The timing varies by school, and the pressure during these years seems much lower than GCSEs.

In Australia, the focus and pressure on externally assessed outcomes ramps up in Years 11 and 12 for the High School Certificate — the name of this certificate varies by state. There’s a build-up during those years of hand-in assessments and formal exams, including trial and final exams, so the opportunity to prepare is built in.

I’m not trying to determine whether one approach is better than the other. It was simply a difference we noticed between the school systems.

Finally, a related observation is that the UK system encourages specialisation for A Levels, where 3 or 4 subjects are chosen. In Australia, it’s common to keep six or more subjects, with many schools making English, Maths and Religion mandatory alongside electives.

Looking back, the school starting age decision felt enormous at the time, and the sports team challenges mattered too. As so often happens, things worked themselves out, and what felt like a big deal then became manageable and simply part of building a life here.