elsie3

Great, thanks both of you! It's all much clearer now. I'll be joining the pool too soon then, probably over the holidays now. We may even end up on the same Entry and Orientation Program at this rate, Chloe! Hopefully there's plenty of relief work out there, as unless I manage to get a part time job, I'll be sticking with that for a while I think.

Thanks Sunflower79, that's really useful. I got my letter confirming my WACOT registration yesterday - that came just a couple of days after sending the extra info they wanted. I guess I'd better get on with registering with the Department now then! I'll see how long mine takes! Good to hear your experiences, and also that the orientation program is interesting. I'll email them too to see when the next one is.

Hi again, Here's a link about that orientation course: http://det.wa.edu.au/teachingwa/detcms/navigation/working-in-a-public-school/entry-and-orientation/ To get the extra proof I needed, I contacted student archives at my uni via email, as I couldn't work out from the website what I needed to ask for! They were brilliant, and replied straight away, telling me what I needed to tick on the form etc - they must come across this a lot, I guess. Might be worth looking into - although if it states somewhere on the stuff you've already sent that you did 45+ days TP you should be ok! My primary aged kids are in split classes, and that's in a relatively big school - about 6 classes per 2 year groups. From a parent's point of view, it's been OK when they're in the lower year, but not so great when they're in the higher year...but that's just my opinion! I've started swotting up on the Australian Curriculum that they've just started using too, to try and get my head round it a bit. The ACARA website is a useful one to look at for that, and has all the links on.

Hi Chloe, I've recently started the registration process with WACOT. Submitted all the docs in mid-August, then was asked to provide more proof that I'd done 45 days of Teaching Practice for my degree (graduated in 1995!), so I had to send a signed request form via post to my old Uni, and am currently having to wait for the evidence to arrive back from the UK via post - who knows how long that will take! I've got 3 children, 2 in primary and 1 at high school, so I've got a bit of an idea of how it's similar/different, but only from a outsider's perspective at the mo. I do know that we have to do a 2 day orientation course, but can't enrol on that before having WACOT registration, so it's really a waiting game at the moment! Not much help, I'm afraid, and I hope you don't mind, but I'll be keeping an eye out for any answers you get to this too, as those are same questions I have.

Hey PomPom, Does it remind you of anywhere, all this changing the schools, and the age when children start at high school??! My middle child was caught up in it on the Island, being in the first year to have to stay on at Primary, (she was not happy about it!), and now my 9 yr old will be in the first cohort of Y7s to go to High School! I'm experiencing a bit of deja vu! Just to add, the school year does run Feb-Dec, but the age cut-off date is June 30th! (So any July/August birthday children end up getting moved down a year) Still means your 9 yr old will be in Y4 though. My son's birthdate is Jan '03, which makes him Y4 too.

Hi all, Yep, I'm another ex-Islander! Been here since the end of 2010. We used Go Matilda too, and they were great. We're also in the Joondalup area, and I was teaching on the Isle of Wight, but have put off returning to it for as long as possible, under the excuse of 'letting the children settle first!' That one's wearing a bit thin now, plus I'm getting bored! Before we moved over we heard that there was a real ex-Isle of Wight community SOR, but it seems like we're catching up up here!

If I'd known in advance how pricey the energy saving bulbs are, I'd have stocked up on a load when Tesco were selling them for £1 each and shipped them out with us. We get through one every fortnight or so (every time we change one, another one seems to go - something a bit dodgy going on maybe?!)

Hi, We moved over from the Island just over a year ago. I can't speak for Bunbury, as we're NOR, but there are loads of sporting opportunities here for the children (mine are 13,11 and 8), so I'm sure it's the same down there. The biggest shock for us at first was the cost of all the sporting clubs, after so many sports activities being so cheap on the Island! You soon get used to it though. We've found Little Athletics to be fantastic. (With swimming though, we were told that they have been taught the swimming strokes all wrong though, after years of lessons between the three of them at Waterside - very bizarre, but have heard others from elsewhere having been told that too!) It's all good though. Good luck to you with your move. xx

Ooer, hadn't thought of that! Wonder if Mortein will have any effect on Aussie Ninjas....? Didn't mean to bring them, (honest!), but I do like to think that I could possibly be responsible for bringing the art of playing conkers to the Northern suburbs in years to come.

We found one dining chair seat (we'd decided to leave the table and chairs behind because I didn't like them! Big regret now.) A bag full of conkers, and one of sycamore seeds ('helicopters') - oops! I think we were lucky that our stuff came the week before Christmas - I think Customs must have slacked off a bit! 15 socks in random places - have a child who sheds socks as she walks through the door. Also found a bottle of mulled wine that must have been hiding somewhere.

We validated our visas August 09, but didn't emigrate until November last year. We got our WA drivers license with no problems a month or so after moving over, once we had secured a rental. Only had to fill in a form, read the eye sight sign on the wall behind the counter and hand over proof of ID and the money - very easy. No theory test involved. Hope this helps. (Not sure if it's changed in the last 12 months, mind)

Glad it helped! We're still pleased with it, which is always a bonus! One thing - if you find that things like YouTube do that buffering thing a lot, (we found it didn't work too well on the iPods at first), email support and ask them to upgrade the Firmware from v1.4.1 to v1.4.4 (I really don't know what that means, but found that advice somewhere or other when ours was a little dodgy at first!) Support were fantastic and really quick, sending really easy to follow instructions on what I needed to do my end - sorted within 24 hours.

Argh, you've set me off reading this! We were in a similar situation back in November. Our cat was 16 (we'd had him longer than we'd had the children!), and we decided that there was no way we could bring him over, for a range of reasons - he was an awful traveller in a car, so don't think he'd have coped with that epic journey + quarantine after. You're so lucky to have family to take him on, that will really help you once you're here, I'm sure, knowing that he's fine, and being able to get regular updates. (Sounds daft, but we regularly 'talk' to my Mum's cat and dogs when we're on Skype to her, as we all really miss her pets too - even her snake!) Unfortunately none of our family could take our cat (the dogs just terrorised him when we took him there on a trial), and it was only at the last minute that someone responded to a plea I'd made on a local website. The lady who took him in was lovely, and a real cat person, but I do think it was a bit of a shock to him when he arrived in an immaculate house, from the chaos of ours! He did the same as yours towards the time we left - became really affectionate and wouldn't leave us alone, and, like you, I'd burst into tears whenever I looked at him. (Sitting here with a damp keyboard now...) It did help knowing that he'd gone to a fantastic home, and the lady did send us regular updates (even if they did change his name - the cheek!!!), and I'm sure that will help you too. Like you, we've promised our children another cat, and hopefully a dog once we're more settled, and in our own home. I know nothing will make it any easier when it comes time to leave your cat, but just keep reminding yourself that you're doing what's best for him/her (sorry, can't remember which it was, and can't see your message whilst writing this!) (Sorry for the really long babble...!) Hope your journey goes well. xxx Right, off to get a tissue!

Hi all, We've been in Ocean Reef for 8 months, with children aged 13, 10 and 8, and would be up for any get-togethers that are planned. Would be good for the children (and us!) to get out and about a bit more. x

We'd been hoping to come, but ended up fighting with a new trampoline trying to get it up before the rain started! Hope to make the next one, if there is one!

We might be up for that too - keep us posted on dates!

After 6 months using just a 5G dongle, with 3 children nagging to go online constantly we have finally got 'proper broadband' with vividwireless. For us it's perfect - we went for the 24 month contract, so we got the Home Gateway for free. The advantage is that we didn't need to get a phone line connected as it's all wireless, so if/when we move rentals we just take it with us, so no break-contract fees. We get unlimited broadband, and free VOIP calls (using a normal phone plugged into the Home Gateway) to Australia and several other countries - including the UK (which was what swung it for us!) This cost us $89 per month. For us it's been perfect - we have up to 5 things running on it at times, all perfectly well/quick. Skype works well, and the phone calls are great!

Which Slimming World did you go to Gilly? I'm an Islander too (been here 6 months), and used to go to SW - a few years ago now mind - and would love it to be here! Which zumba did you go to, too! I quite fancied the look of that but the local one clashed with my netball. Have given it all up now though - think I need to be going out for those 5am runs, but love my bed too much!