The australian public school vs private school dillema

I can't name a private school in Edmonton.  If we still lived there today Olivia would be in a public school and it's very likely that we would rave about it as we did the program she was in run by the Edmonton Catholic School board before we left.

Schooling in Australia is very different.  You have 4 (that I know of there might be more) types of schools.  Private, Catholic Private, Independant Public and Public schools.  Mention to the right person an intention of sending your kids to public school and you will get a gasp akin to the announcement that you have decided to have your children raised by wolves.

So my question became:  Is this reaction valid?  Are the public schools that bad?  Is it really necessary to spend 14 - 25K per child per year for private school?

Our first decision was made easier by the fact that the company that brought us to Perth would pay the cost of Private School.  Why take the risk?  We had a suspect discussion at a public school where we were living and were able to find a spot at the closest private school: Wesley College.  Wesley is an old boys school that have begun introducing girls.  A family one time initiation fee of around 6K plus 13K in annual dues would get Olivia into the kindy program (4-5 years of age). 

A mural displayed at Wesley College in South Perth

This year things are different.  We do not have the warm cotton blanket expat package to fall back on. Olivia would cost 14-15K and Owen would start pre-kindy at 7-9K.  Take into account the Australian taxes and I have to earn nearly 40K just for their private schooling and this number would rise quickly as they grow up.

And so after much debate (Angie is a teacher by profession), research, reading, discussion with other parents we decided to try public schools.  Two months ago Olivia started at a Independant public school in the area we're living in.

I plan to continue to update my observations on this little experiment but here are my initial observations:

Facilities:  The facilities at Wesley and many of the expensive private schools are over the top impressive.  They are in pristine condition, contantly being added to, well landscaped and remind me of small universities or Harry Potter's Hogwarts rather than children's schools.  The public school we have Olivia at has seen better days in terms of condition.  Maybe much better days.  That's not to say that it is a dump, it just has a need for maintenance in certain areas and is not nearly as grand.  

Private schools are marketing machines catering to parents emotions:  Every piece of literature, every communication at Wesley was "prettied up", had gone through a marketing agency, was printed on thick paper stock and drove the message that you were in an elite, storied place that created elite leaders of tomorrow.  You feel special there.  You get to say "My kids go to Wesley"  You rub elbows with other elite parents (doctors, lawyers, bank executives etc).  They send countless e-mails, massive newsletters printed like high end annual reports from forture 500 companies reinforcing the greatness that is the Wesley experience.

Private schools are never done asking for money:  You've paid nearly 20K for tuition, so you're done right?  Yeah, right!  Fund raising events at 50-100 bucks a head, emails asking for donations to keep the storied history alive, 400 / term for violin lessons, mandated uniforms double the price of public school uniforms the same quality.  It never stops.

Public schools are for students:  You will not get big fancy propoganda books.  I haven't been invited for a champagne charity event overlooking the city.  We have however already had an assessment of Olivia's reading skills and the areas the teacher will be focused on.  Want to send the teacher an e-mail.  You can but she only reads them once per week.  She'll be happy to talk to you when you come in though.  So far I see a focus on the accademics that I didn't see at Wesley.  (Keep in mind Olivia is very young.)

The base curriculum is the same:  I think this often gets lost.  Private schools like public schools are bound by Australian laws as to what they must teach.  They can add, but they can't subtract.  Private schools and independant schools appear to have some flexibility in how they present certain materials vs the pure public schools.  For example the pure public schools are still teaching the font, Victorian modern cursive which I'm not sure I had even seen before.  I'm sure as we get on there will be elements of the Aussie curriculum that will drive us crazy but nothing that we can't top up at home.

Teachers appear more strict at the public schools:  This is an observation shared by other friends of mine in discussion.  The private school would have us believe their more carefree approach is their method of driving leadership characteristics.  Time will tell....I think Olivia can use a little more authority as seen in her new school.

Either way, good teachers matter:  I liked Olivia's teacher at Wesley.  She was relatively new to teaching but had a gentle way about her and I think Olivia learned some life skills from her.  Her new public school teacher is clearly experienced and very strong.  Watching her assess students is quite impressive.  She is a no nosense, get the job done kind of person that I think we will reflect on fondly in years to come.    

We're two months in and only comparing one young student across two schools.  I'm going to continue to share my observations on this as we're talking about the two most prized things in Angie and my life: Olivia and Owen.    

My friend Alan said something that has stuck with me:  "No matter what school you put your child in, one thing remains true.  The bright ones always rise to the top."

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Taking back control - An Update

This is an update to the post Expat life can be a bleepedy bleep.  It can be read here: http://expatchapter.blogspot.com/2014/01/expat-life-can-be-bleepedy-bleep.html

Uncertainty with a family in tow is beyond stress.  In this case that uncertainty which began on the first of November had almost become paralysing.  In the span of 3+ months we were preparing for a move to Norway, pushed to move to the dirtiest city in the US (which was never going to happen), talking seriously about Oman, decided to move to Houston... and then not to move to Houston.

The one thing that was certain was on January 31, the lease on our company provided house would expire.  In early January I was told that jobs at my level were scarce due to current cost reviews and if I did not accept the dirty California city job and/or find something else, the family would be sent back to Canada and my employment terminated.  

Mid January, I was told the family would be moved into temporary accomodation and our things moved into storage.  At that point I felt the need to push back.  "Ummm no sorry, that's not going to happen.  Find me a job, tell me where we're going, then we will move.  Get a plan together."  Amazingly it bought some time.

In late January a decent offer for a 20 month role was made in Houston.  Ok...lets get our questions together and get them answered...looks like we're moving to Houston.  There are worse places in the world.  

Thoughts of what this new life would look like became impossible to suppress.  I'm going to move to Houston and sit in traffic.  The car will be nice but it will be parked on a freeway.  Days will go by where I come home after the kids are in bed.  Another 6 months of transition coming for the family, and then in 20 months we'll do this all over again.

Time to take control of the situation.

The questions about Houston would never really be answered.  I suppose a combination of expectation that I would just take what was offered and lovely HR people strangled by processes preventing them from doing what mattered.

"Show me the termination package.  Make it so we can stay in Perth.  We're not getting on an airplane."

After 3 weeks of back and forth I signed a termination package.  In the middle we were moved to temporary accommodation and had our stuff moved to storage.

Uncertainty OVER, time to act!

In 2 weeks we:

Found an awesome house North of the CBD at a reasonable rental.

Found a job with another US company in the middle of an aquisition integration in Perth

Had the visa transfered to new company

Bought a second car 

Got Olivia into a new school.

Moved into the new house.

Started to relax.

In all I would work for "The big red machine" for just under 9 years.  It's a company filled with talented wonderful people who I will miss dearly.  As much as this process made the company seem evil, it's hardly the case.  More-so a case of  bad timing and a few bad apples in the mix. 

Time to go back to enjoying life and putting the focus back to the family.

Owen at the new house

             

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The newest celebrity in Perth: The Sorrento Seal

This guy, a 2000kg elephant seal showed up way off course on Sorrento beach.   He's departed a few times now and then come back to hang out again on the beach.   Thankfully wildlife officers have stepped in and roped off an area to keep the thousands of people coming to get a look back.

Update:  The Sorrento Seal would leave Perth about a week after he landed and has not been back to the beaches since.

Check out hash tag #sorrentoseal on Twitter and you get a sense of what news he has become.

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A few thoughts on international hockey commentators

When I was growing up I thought the world only had Canadian Hockey commentators.  Everyone would have the pleasure of listening to the great Bob Cole, Don Whitman or Jim Hughson calling the game while equally great color commentators, studio analysts like the polarizing Don Cherry provided additional detail with a passion and enthusiasm that couldn't help but make you smile.

And here I sit, POSITIVE 31 degrees outside on a late Perth evening with Olympic Hockey on TV and the classic US vs Canada womens match on TV.   And yet, I just can't help but thinking something is missing.  Snow, well sure, but we can't live without that now can't we? Beer? Nope, Aussie's produce a pretty fine brew, perhaps a Molson Canadian, or Labatt Blue would be nice, but we're ok here.

The issue so very clearly is there is a brit and an aussie commentating the game.  I'm sure they're lovely blokes, and they even seem to have a decent handle on the game.  But COME ON, just buy the Canadian audio so I can get the true feel of the game!  Oh no the aussie lady host just announced we were coming back to the third period like she was talking about a unique fish dish she had while in Bali.    Ahhhh make it stop.  

Seriously Canada, sell the audio to all other nations for these internationally broadcast games, even non english speakers could gain something...

Ok, enough of that back to the game....hoping the Canadian ladies can pull this one out?

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Renting a house in Perth: Prices are dropping

The topic of real estate in Perth is a common one.   The rental market in particular is like no other that I've ever experienced.   We're getting ready for a move to a different property and I cannot get over the difference in the market.

Two years ago when we arrived, property rentals went something like this:

Find a property on realestate.com.au or reiwa.com.au  (both have the same properties,  realestate.com.au has a better site and great apps.)
Figure out when the next inspection will be.
Arrive on time or just before the inspection time.
Have your application pre-filled out.
Watch as 10-40 other families show up.  Apparently because of the way I look and dress, many will think I am the rental agent.
Offer full value or higher on the spot
Wait 2 days for an email that states that you have been unsuccessful.
All that on a property that was 1500 / week or more.  It was apparently extreme on properties under $700 per week.

Fast forward to today.   Newspapers are stating that rental vacancies are up 60+ percent from year ago levels and that unit rentals prices are down 2 percent.   My experience tells me that rentals rates are dropping much more quickly.   Many agencies have confided that rentals on properties in 1000 per week range are seeing drops of up to 200 dollars per week.

One of the agents the other night said to us "Houses $650 and under per week, no problem....$700 and over are getting really difficult to move"

Some examples of the funky and not so funky houses we've seen in our short experience lately:

A mansion in South Perth with a pretty much unusable kitchen that the owner wants someone to pay $900 a week for and will not commit to fixing anything....but wow what a cool building and amazing views.  I have to say, whoever the photographer on this was, good job mate, the inside did not look this good to us.

A property in Sorrento walking distance to the Beach / Ocean that was ultra modern but above what we wanted to pay at $1100 per week (the agent claims the last tenant was paying $1350)  This place had a very cool roof top balcony with ocean views and an oddly shaped pool.  

A good bones house in Gwelup that has been fit out as cheaply as absolutely possible and getting lots of noise from Karrinyup Road.  700 / week  I want to like it, I want to like it, I want to like it.....ummmmm NO.

And finally a nice house in South Perth.  I think this would have easily fetched 1300+ / week 2 years ago and they are struggling to get 980 / week.   ** Update - 8 days later this one came off the real estate boards and I thought, hmmm they did get that much.  A day later it's back on at 930/ week.

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Expat life can be a bleepedy bleep

I originally wrote this a little over a month ago and wasn't sure whether it was a good idea to post it.  I will post an update in the next little while....

Expat life on a foreign service package with an oil and gas company is perfect, right?  Nearly everything is paid for. Good housing, private schools for the kids, cost of living adjustments if the country you move to is more expensive than your home country, great heath insurance, hardship bonuses, a good car and the fuel for it, tax equalization, trips home to see family and more.

Yep, perfect....until....

You begin to realize early on.  Holy ****, they've got me locked.  In my case I signed a document that said I couldn't leave until 18 months into the position.  The penalty, repayment of the relocation cost from Edmonton to Perth.  A likely 100K-150K+ touch when you add in all of the flights, air and sea transport, real estate fees, temporary housing, rental cars etc etc etc.

And to be perfectly honest, 2 months in....a part of me wanted out.  I loved Perth but the role was filled with conflict and unnecessary politics and had I been sat in Edmonton I would have walked into a senior HR persons office and said, "find something else or I'm gone".  Ok, it probably would have been stated in a more gentle tone, but you get the idea.  You simply can't do that on these packages.  You suck it up and in some cases you and your families (assuming you bring it home) suffer.

Originally posted on twitter by @thinkingip

The work environment over time would improve and my family would grow increasingly attached to Perth and the Western Australia lifestyle and weather.  We would make wonderful friends and then often have to say good-bye to them as their expat terms would come to an end, or their companies realized just how outrageously expensive it is to keep expats in Perth on these packages.

The biggest question I had coming in to the process of becoming an expat was this:  What happens when it's over.  I once asked someone "When the two years is up, does something explode and then I'm magically transported to my new assignment?"  "How does it work, does the company have a process?"

I began to worry more about the next step about 4 months ago.  In my role, I see the costs, I see the profits and I always understood this was a 2 year (3 year max) get in, do your thing, train train train as many people as possible and then get out, situation (though not less than 2 years as promised).  I sought visibility but none came.  A mentor suggested I begin the networking process then but I struggled with how it would be productive while keeping it under the radar.

And then 2 months ago, I was told, "It's time"  My biggest project and the most critical reason for having me sat here was complete, the costs were too high, the global business was suffering.  "Start your networking, we'll help, we don't think it will be too hard"

Notice was given on our expat home which set the timer ticking, we had 3 months.

I walked around like a zombie that day thinking how I would break the news to my family.  No way to put a positive spin on this one.  Just need to network like crazy and find the right role and fast.

Uncertainty = Stress

Phone calls, emails, txt messages at all times of the day, to all parts of the world.  "How do you feel about _____?" would come.  In many cases even my fairly well travelled self would need to to pull up a map of the world and say "Where is that?" followed by "Oh my....ummmm no, that's not happening, I'm not taking my family there"

And then....like magic:

"How do you feel about ______?"

"Holy ****, what could be better?  The European experience. Yes, we're on board....let's do this."

Interview, Interview, "Congratulations we'll get the paperwork going, glad to have you on board".........and then

Sorry, just got some changes from corporate, we can't afford to do it.

And now here we sit....XX days left on the lease of the house, offices around the world closed for holidays.

Expat life can be a bleepedy bleep.

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My VOIP phone - How I get nearly unlimited worldwide calling for $5 a month

I'm a bit of a tech head.  I get right into computers, mobile phones, software etc.

I can't imagine what it would have been like being an expat years ago (ie Pre-Internet)  Now we've got skype, facetime, viber, bbm, whatsapp, facebook....the list of good applications is truly endless.

One site you need to get on if you're going to research technology in Perth is whirlpool.net.au  It is one of best technology forums in any country, and there are answers to pretty much any technology question you have in Australia.

whirlpool.net.au is the best source of tech info in Australia

I started doing research on phone plans shortly before coming over.  While mobile phone plans are very reasonable, fixed line / residential phones in my opinion are expensive.  They either charge high per minute rates (outrageous when calling mobile phones) or have high monthly rates.  As high as 90 dollars per month and still having to pay 36 cents per minute when calling mobile phones.

Have I mentioned my favourite money is the money in my pocket?

This brought me to start investigating VOIP?  Most people think of Skype, but for standard calling Skype is in my opinion not practical.  VOIP or voice over internet protocol involves a special phone connected to your internet service which works almost exactly like your standard phone.

I had used a VOIP service in Canada with fairly spotty results.  There are many many services in Australia but the fine folks on the whirlpool forums pointed me to mynetfone.  Website:  www.mynetfone.com.au

The way it works is this:

You buy a device.  Either an adapter which will work with a standard phone or a special IP phone.  You can bring your own or if you buy it through the VOIP service provider they often preconfigure them.

You plug the device into your internet router (it tends to be important that you don't have a really old crappy router)  You go ahead and start making calls.  I purchased the Gigaset IP610 wireless unit with 3 handsets and have been very happy with the call quality.  People I'm speaking with have not been able to tell I'm using a VOIP service.

On mynetfone they offer a package to whirlpool members (membership to whirlpool is free) called Neosaver which for 5 bucks givies you 100 untimed calls to 30 different countries (This includes my key US, Canada, Italy, Singapore and Malaysia)  I get a local Perth / Western Australia phone number which people can call us on and the phone works exactly as a standard land line.

It is not unusual for us to rack up over 20 hours of calls in a month a get the whopping $5 invoice at the end of the month.

Mynetfone has many competitors in this space including Maxotel , Siptalk, Faktortel, Didlogic, Clickandcallnow, Worlddialpoint, Freshtel, Telecube, etc.  Combined with a good internet service this has been a fantastic service for us which we use daily.

If I've missed something or you have questions...leave a comment...I do reply :)

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