We wanted to find a house and be moved in before Hop started primary school so that we wouldn’t have to have her get started where we were renting, and then change schools once we found a house to buy.
In New Zealand, the school year is broken up into four 10-week terms, and starts at the end of January / beginning of February, which is late summer down here. Since Hop’s birthday is in June, one would think that she would then be starting school the following summer (Feb). But one would be wrong. In most schools here, kids start when they turn five. As in the exact day they turn five. Not at the start of the next school year, or even the next term, but on the day (though there are some schools that are starting to have new starts come in at the beginning of the next term. It’s at the parent’s discretion, but the government subsidies that cover half of the cost of child care end on the day they turn five, so most kids come in on their birthday, even if it’s the middle of a term.
The process is that you’ll do a series of school visits (we did four) before the actual first day so that they can get comfortable with the new class. Hop entered a year 1 class (equiavlent to kindergarten year), so she had about half a year in there before moving up to year 2. For kids that come in close to the end of the year they consider it year 0, so they would then stay in year 1 class the next year. I think, anyway. I find it a bit confusing.
So the upside is that we needed to buy a house and be moved in by the time Hop started school in June. It seemed like it should be enough time, but we’d put offers in on a number of houses and were having trouble being competitive…
Kiwi Bound 