[robinandglenda]

Hi Everyone,
Here's one for you...If I come out to NZ with a job offer and a work visa?! (still to be sorted), how will the schooling work? In other words, will I have to pay for my 16 year old daughters schooling or is it "free" .

I also have a 2 1/2 year old, at what age does the schooling start?

Cheers
We are on our way out on the 11th Nov for a week (I know - too short), to see the Bay area and decide if NZ is the place for us!! Exciting..

[gil]

Hi Rob and Glenda,
We are off on Nov 18th, and according to my research, schooling is "free", like here. The contribution you make depends on the socio-economic "decile rating" each school gets; the higher the rating, the more you pay. 10 is the top decile rating. You should be careful not to confuse decile rating with quality of education though. There are lots of people who know more about this than me, and I'm sure they'll post useful info for you.
Have you looked at http://www.tki.org.nz/e/schools/index.php
It gives loads of good info, school websites, links to "Ofsted" style reports etc.

Good luck,

Gil

[sizzlingbadger]

Not sure if you have to pay schooling on a work visa as we came out with PR.

Schooling starts from 5 years here, they start the day after they're 5th birthday. No set entry date like the UK.

There are also Catholic Schools where you pay a set fee to the Catholic Board each year. Ours is $280 for primary but I think they vary as to where the school is. I know the secondary Catholic is around $800 a year and lots of uniform changes :D

As Gil said the decile rating has nothing to do with the quality of education. A decile rating 10 school could be really bad while a 5 could be excellent.

I know Greytown here is suffering with the decile ratings at the moment. It's currently a 5/6 but because of the increase in property prices it's being moved to a 8/9. Which means less government funding and more parent input which most of the local parents can't afford, they moved into Greytown before the property boom which has been caused by a lot of people buying second properties from Wellington.

[robinandglenda]

Hi

Thanks for the feedback. I think I'll go knocking on a few school doors while I'm over there...

Just to make any of you home sick ex pats feel better. Its blowing a hooley and the rain is horizontal at the moment oh and that nice weather girl has just given a frost warning...

[Hannah]

Hi Rob and Glenda,
We did look into this when we came over on a visitor visa - we were told that once we got a work permit schooling would be free (apart from the contribution fees already mentioned). We did find out though that our children couldn't be seen by the school dentist unless our work permit was for a minimum of 2 years! (At which point my son got a massive toothache we were landed with a bill of over $100 to get it pulled!)
If your work permit is less than 2 years your schooling is still free however (basically it's free for the period of your work permit)
hannah

[robinandglenda]

Thanks for that Hannah. Thats a load off my mind...