Hoping to move to Adelaide next year.We are applying under the tempoary visa,had meeting last weekend with out migration agent who seems very positive.Just wondering if someone could give em an idea of house prices,have looked on the web but find it difficult to gauge.Do you get more house for yur money?Also is it easy to get yur kids into school.Have 3 our eldest is 14 and is a bit worried,in a teenage way, about the differences in schooling.Can anyone help?Any advice much appreciated!!! :bouncing smiles:

Hi Fizzbot, and welcome

House prices vary considerably from suburb to suburb, but $250,000 will get you something very nice and you could easily get away with less if finances dictate. So roughly £100,000 - how that compares will depend on where you are in the uk of course.

Schools are very easy to get into - the one whose catchment zone you end up in is obliged to take your kids! Does your 14 year old have any special talents? Some schools specialise in say Tennis or Music or Drama.

Why don't you pop over to our faq area, which has separate sections (see at top of the page) for schools and suburbs. There's a mass of info there which might help. Do feel free to ask away for anything else that comes to mind though!

Elaine

:D
Thanks for the info.We live in Dorset,1/2 hr from Shaftesbury of all places!!
My eldest is a keen swimmer so I reckon any sporty school would do.
This site is a mine of information, wish I had found it sooner as everyone sounds so friendly and have lots of good advice.Just hope I get the hang of posting messages
Fiona
:thumbs up:

oh fizzbot .you could have come to the south west meet,
welcome to the site, i also have a 14 year old son, is yours a boy or girl as i think aaron may like another teenager to talk to .

laura

Oh Fiona, a swimmer!!!!

They are just starting work on a brand new state of the art swimming pool in Marion. It's to be the State training ground for the next generation of world champions from SA. So don't settle too far from Marion!! Will be opening in a year or two. :thumbs up:

Elaine

Welcome to the site Fizzbot.

I iwsh they'd hurry up and get this swimming place built Elaine...i'm looking forward to it.

Thats what they said three years ago :rolleyes:






goodguy

Ahh, I see... one of those imminent projects that's always imminent eh? Oh well, we'll just have to see what happens I guess!

Still there's always the outdoor pool in Marion in the summer months, and we did enjoy the Vacswim course in January - Fiona, that's a state sponsored swimming course with classes for age 5 right up to lifesaving diplomas and the like, held every Jan. A 40 min lesson every day for 9 consecutive weekdays. It's amazing how the kids came on! If I remember right it cost about $35 each child.

Well that has settled it then! Marion here we come!!My daughter was made up when i told her,she swims for the county and last year just missed out on the youth national team,I am sure she would love to chat to any other teenagers though she is so excited about going she is boring all her friends to death!!we haven't told our other two(my other daughter Kirstie who is 11 and Alex my son 7) we don't know how to handle it to be honest.We are going to NZ next month as we had orogonally thought about settling there,but after meeting so many people recommending Adelaide and researching it on the net we decided it was right for us.Too late to change the tickets though,but that's life. :dance:
Shame about the meet would have been great to meet everyone.Had tickets to go Farnborough Air show,Very hot,noisy but keeps the males in the family happy.
Elaine how long have you been out there?

Hello! and a BIG Welcome to Fizzbot!

From Jan and Family

from what i've been reading on here you dont need an olympic size pool, you must have puddles as big as that, according to ww :happy45:

Hi Fizzbot...i was a county swimmer for Middlesex...but that was 26yrs ago!!!...you'd never believe it now :huh: :blink:

but she'll love it here as the swim facilities are fantastic and always strongly encouraged.

Fiona
This is what we have already in Marion
http://www.marion.sa.gov.au/Web/webmar.nsf...Swimming+Centre

So far I haven't found any details of the new pool that's coming but I'll keep looking!

Elaine

Hi Fizzbot and welcome to the site.

We have a 13 and half year old and we too were concerned as she is really into music and her school in UK is supposed to be a specialist music college (you know the type that Tony Blair thought it a good idea to give loads of schools fancy names)

We have done a lot of research and talking to people about education and the bst schools to go to etc. ALthough we have not yet made our mind up totally the main thing that has struck me is the encouragement to do well and excel in Australia as a whole.
The culture here in England is that if kids do well or stand out of the crwod showing potential or talent then they are called name and discouraged from doing as well as they could. I have heard loads of stories of kids doing well until they hit 13 and then grades slipping as they want to be cool (even failing exams on purpose).
You just have to look at Australia's success in Olympics to realise that people with talents are activley encouraged.
My cousin was a kayaker for UK and was in last Olympics but he has had trouble renewing lottery funding and his time is taken up trying to get approval for lottery funding. He has decided to go and compete for australia - getting in on Talent Visa because they respect him and treat athletes as they should be treat.

Good luck

Kath

Hi Kath
Brighton school has a music specialism and is THE place to go for music, also one to the north somewhere though I can't remember what it's called.

Seaview has a lesser music program, which suits my daughter - she came here age 12 with grade 3 piano and flute and is way above the rest of the Seaview music kids from the ensemble point of view, but she gets her individual flute lessons at the right level and also aural and theory lessons each week - music lessons 4 days a week, to her delight!

Elaine

Hi all
A bit late on this thread.

From my brief visit I was surprised to find houses a lot more expensive than I had expected.
Many of the ones we took a look at were around the half million mark.
Obviously we did not look everywhere but most that we liked were around that price.

One thing we found was that you need to go and look for yourself rather than rely on Estate Agent hype.

G

But werent you staying in and around Norwood Grayling? That is one of the most expensive pockets of Adelaide, and of course hte closer you are to the city centre the dearer it is always going to be. That applies in most cities. Also Glenelg is very expensive too.

You can get very nice homes in outer suburbs for between $250,000 - $350,000 sometimes less than that if you look hard enough, but i guess it depends on what sort of house you want too. I remember you saying on expats you prefer the older established houses. They really do tend to cost a packet if you want one that is renovated up to a decent standard.

You are right PP

Unfortunately we did not really have time to look around too much.
I liked the Adelaide hills but looking at the 'Ash wednesday' pictures on Mount Lofty kind of put me off a bit.
If we move to Adelaide I may well still look around the Norwood area or nearby as I did like the houses and it is handy for the city.

Best wishes

G

Hi

I think the music specialist school in the North is called Mariatville!

Jules :D


(Not sure about the spelling, it's near Tea Tree Gully)!

That's the one Jules!

Thanks everyone for the info on schools specialising in music.

I really would love Daughter to get into Brighton School - have been in e-mail contact with Principal. We just need to find house in "Zone".

She isn't really that good with instrument as she always chooses to sing rather than play - her instrument of choice is her voice and not sure if this will still allow her to have access to musical specialist schools.

We may choose to live in a smaller house for the money for a year until she gets into the school and then move further out for more space. Will have to wait to see what is available when we get there.

Kath

Kath, you have to get a house in the zone to guarantee a place - and Gloria (who did this) told me they had to show they had rented for 12 months.

However, there is a chance of getting in from outside, especially for the special scheme - you might give it a try when you first get here and if your daughter gets in anyway, you wouldn't be tied to finding a house in the zone. The school is near a train station so you could buy somewhere down the line and transport would be sorted.

Just a thought!

And I'm sure they will regard voice as a suitable 'instrument'. Certainly they do at Seaview.

Elaine

Thanks everyone for the 'welcomes' and also all the valuable info.Thats what I love about this site everyone is so helpful and friendly.
The kids have been reading this site too and has really helped any anxities they have had.

Ta Fizzbot :thumbs up: