@eskimokisses @Permutation @EmilyW We already emailed a test (reaching out) resume to one potential school for my oldest daughter, noting their geographic area was a possibility for us to settle - they need plenty of time to get back to you - you need to fill in the Principle, the lead (head) secretary, the counsellor, the year head, etc etc - the list of cc's grows as teachers add more and more other teachers to the mail trail.
You have to Americanize things we have found - eg: we made a point that my daughter's 8 years of Japanese study was finishing and she was taking up (beginners) Spanish. We checked the demographics and found this school was (rounded) 50% white 50% latino so pretty much 0% black / 0% Asian / o% N/Indian / 0% Eskimo. We called her Commerce subject Economics and Legal studies, her Australian Geography subject simply Basic Geography (remove Aus terms for confusion), ... We did this by checking their subject and student course handbook online, and trying to match things up. The more you can make things sound normal the more likely they will put you in a favorable timetable.
Show you appreciate the values of the school system there, but do not threaten them in any way - we changed netball (goal defence) to basketball, and mentioned she wants to try out as a guard in any of the LOWER reserve teams. (You really would be committing suicide to says you want to try out in firsts in the U S A B A S K E T B A L L A L L STA R S - unless your initials are MJ).
My sister's daughter just came back from a 6 month study exchange and unfortunately she got to repeat the (1/2) year she had done in Aus - she was bored stiff, did no homework, and passed every test (but not very perfect on US content items of course). If you can get the picture sounding like your child needs to be same or go up, then the only other risk factor is the age of the child, and any tests required. The mistake my sister / niece made was that she didn't really prepare for the school - just let it happen - do not be passive in the process - take and active participatory role.
Voluntary and extracurrucular activities are important - but make it relevant - my daughter SCUBA dives - who cares coz she is gonna be miles from the ocean - skip this. Checked their "clubs" - found out they are really good at choir and band - great she plays something - we included that. All these things made for a positive initial response from the school - try and see how you can add value to the school in your emails, otherwise you will get the ok wek come in at emrolment time and we will see then. No - they have no idea about Aussies - you have to use a thorough attentive pre-enrolment timeline for the older kids.
Hope this helps - until they are sitting in US class happy, this is all taking a best shot at it. No harm. And if we do the same process to 10 other schools - we learn more and more. No harm.
PS - younger daughter - have not done anything yet - less critical in one sense, but also we are guaging her response to the older child's journey in all this. Psychology.
Cheers.
so exciting! I received the Express Post envelope about an hour ago and have already jumped on the Jetstar site and booked flights lol. I'm not making the permanent move until mid-2016. So my POE is going to be with a week in Honolulu in November - I figure what better way to celebrate being a US permanent resident than arriving in Thanksgiving week. Then a few months later it'll be off to Denver for good. Can't believe soon I'll be spending my summer weekends hiking in the Rocky Mountains and snowboarding the mountains in the winter (as you probably can guess, sport is kinda my thing).
