Primary school around the world: Australia

Sarah Hadnam lives in Manly, Sydney, and is mum to Ryder, eight, and Indy, five.

Ryder goes to a primary school with 800 pupils in Manly, a suburb of Sydney. He’s currently in Year 3. Indy will soon be starting ‘Kindy’ – the equivalent of Reception – at the same school.

In Australia, children start primary school in the year they turn six, so most of them are five when they join. They stay there until they move to secondary school at 12. A big difference between the education system here and in the UK is the starting age: lots of parents over here hold their children back until they’re six, as they feel they’re too young for school before that.

Three months before they started school, Ryder and Indy had two orientation sessions. A class parent co-ordinates events for new starters, and we’re encouraged to organise playdates with our children’s classmates. When they start, they do short days (9.45am till 2.30pm) for two weeks to help them settle in.

Ryder’s school is a state school. Kindy classes have 20 children, and the other classes have between 25 and 28. There are no formal exams for primary school kids in Australia, but they get quite a lot of homework: 30 minutes’ reading every night, and another 30 minutes of maths or words once a week.

The boys at our school wear a uniform of a blue polo shirt with the school logo and grey shorts. Girls wear a dark blue pinafore with a light blue long-sleeved shirt in winter, and a yellow checked dress in summer.