What's happening in your world?

[Farseer]

I wonder what the reasoning is behind starting school in fall and ending in summer.

I do too! It seems strange to me, the thought of having to straddle two years with one year of school…is it confusing for those of you who have actually had to do it? I guess if that’s “the way it is” then that’s what you become used to but it is difficult for me to grasp that, if I went to the US, I may start my senior year of schooling in, say, 2010 and then finish it mid-2011. It just seems so much easier beginning a new school year at the beginning of a new calendar year.

I was just wondering whether the Australian system also goes by season than by what month it is.

In saying that, possibly we do this not to coincide with the beginning of a calendar year but because it means we are able to avoid or limit exposure during the hottest months of the year, especially with students playing a great deal of outdoor sport. Having the largest break over summer means many can stay indoors, go to the beach to cool off etc (as Rendezvous suggested…sounds like you’ve been here, Rendezvous?). It just so happens that these summer months/holidays also coincides with Christmas and New Year etc and so it seems to benefit everyone!

While it doesn’t affect the majority of Australia or Australians, the summer months do also make up half of the wet season here in the north. With heavy rainfalls often cutting off roads for quite some time, it is much less stressful with not also having to worry about getting students to school/boarding school in the middle of it all.

As it is, workers on properties (such as jackeroos) are often considered “seasonal” employees up here, working up until mid-December and then not recommencing on-property duties until around mid-January, if the roads are even passable by then. For the last three years we have had over twenty inches of rain during the summer school holidays and this wreaks havoc with trying to get men back here. Many return home to their families and even find short-term work to fill the gap and still others just work from season to season on different properties and so don’t return. This being the case, possibly the wet season is also a further reason for the school term scheduling, at least here in Queensland.

I just did a quick check on all other Australian states and they seem to be very similar with their dates/terms except for Tasmania, which appears to have the same length of school year but divided up into only three terms instead of four.

Congratulations on your son's graduation. Now he's free to study what he wants to study Any idea on what major?

Thanks redchild. As his ‘teacher’ for the first eight of his thirteen years of schooling (including his preschool year), his finally graduating probably seems more personal and significant to me than it may have if I had not had any direct input into his education. I could be wrong…

At this stage he is planning to study a Bachelor of Engineering, majoring in Aerospace Avionics, though he will defer for a working gap year and obtain his commercial helicopter and private plane licences toward the end of next year. His undergraduate course will last for four years and this will mean moving down to Brisbane for the duration. His brother will graduate high school at the end of next year and so will be ready to commence his studies at the same university, though not the same campus, in the same year….this way they can experience most of it together or, at least, that’s their plan! Plans change, so we’ll see .

There are so many different pathways to an equivalent destination on offer nowadays that there isn’t such a great pressure on school-leavers to ‘decide’ as there once was (at least, that's the case here in Australia).

As much as I love the wet season that summer brings, I think I may have to agree with you, redchild...it would be great to be able to sleep in on a winter's morning rather than have to bother about school!