ACT school help please!

[DaLittleEd]

One of my lovely friends is moving to the ACT at the end of year. She needs to choose a suburb to live in, with a view to schools for a 9yo.

Work will be in centre of the city. Suburbs currently on the list are Phillip, Garran, Mawson and Hughes. Open to other suggestions, but with good amenities and not to far from work to make school drop off and pickup for solo FT working mum easier. Budget for housing around $6-700/week, 3 bed unit/duplex/townhouse type with a small yard for reference.

In terms of school, the key things to consider are:

Academics (9yo is very bright and needs somewhere that can cater to that)

A welcoming community

Good OSHC availability

Maybe some extra curricula offerings (dance, music, mandarin are currently interest areas, but my friend can also organise these outside of school).

Any thoughts on schools (or accommodation) would be most welcomed.

ETA - public school!

Edited September 7 by DaLittleEd

[Moomintroll]

I can be a bit of help here but not on the topic of after school care availability. 

The suburbs mentioned all have schools which would be academically high performing and have a high proportion of educated parents.

Phillip is the busy town centre of the Woden district and doesn't have its own school so kids would be zoned to Garran or Mawson. It has lots of units and some townhouses but not much in the way of houses on blocks. 

Garran, Mawson and Hughes are neighbouring suburbs which all have their own schools. Garran is particularly sought after because it has a reputation for having the highest Naplan scores in ACT. This doesn't mean it is necessarily a better school but a fair few people think it does, so there is high demand for rentals in the Garran catchment which may drive up prices. Garran is physically quite a busy area (not quite as busy as Phillip) as it has the main Canberra hospital and a fair bit of commercial development. 

Mawson is a fairly high performing school too, with a slightly different model. It has a mandarin immersion scheme which 50% of the kids are in. So 50% are in regular classes taught in English, but do Mandarin as their LOTE. The other 50% are taught in Mandarin around half the time I believe. You can opt in to the immersion program, but that might be hard to do at 9 y.o. It naturally attracts quite a lot of Chinese families. Mawson is a more residential suburb. It also has a nice, biggish local shops with lots of great multicultural options - best spot in Canberra for middle eastern groceries. 

Hughes would be a lovely school. High income area, quiet and mostly residential Might be expensive to get a good rental but prices can be a bit random.

Torrens is another school I'd recommend, and you can live in Torrens, Chifley or Pearce and be zoned to Torrens. All very pleasant suburbs, fully residential (not commercial), nice small local shopping centres with cafes, great access to nature reserves. My other top pick in the area is Curtin. Again a high income area, gorgeous suburb, well regarded school, excellent local shops, huge amounts of green space and nature, and might find a decent rental. 

You can't really go wrong school wise in the Woden district. Your friend may want to look at high school zoning as people often seem to favour Alfred Deakin over Melrose (a lot of her picks would be Melrose, some would be Alfred Deakin). But I don't know if the favouring is just snobbery, people have always thought highly of Alfred Deakin but don't know how real the difference is. The main thing for her to consider is how busy/commercial and area she likes, how transport is, and also getting a rental. Overall supply and demand is reasonably balanced in Canberra at the moment. However there is a lot of pressure around January because SO many people move then. Any other time of the year it's easier and less pressure to find a rental. 

I tihnk possibly all the schools may have pressure on their after school care but you'd have to ask each one. 

Oh and many (not all) schools may not be willing to make an appointment with you until you have a rental. Especially Garran!. 

[Jackrabbit]

Garran Primary School is great. They are in the process of building new buildings, which I think should be finished by next year and then they will have more capacity. They also (at least when we went there a couple of years ago) have onsite OHSC.  Academically they have an ALP program also. We found this school to be very welcoming.

Mawson primary school is a lot smaller but has increased in popularity in recent years. It has a mandarin language program I think.

[DaLittleEd]

Thanks @Moomintroll!

if theres any other areas to add to the lost for consideration, please let me know. I will let me friend know to consider Torrens and Curtin too. It might be best if she can bring her moving date forward a bit it sounds (wrt housing availability)

[DaLittleEd]

@Jackrabbit what is an ALP program?

[Jackrabbit]

ALP = Advanced Learning Program

[Wattle]

Finding a rental in Canberra in Jan can be very hard as all the students arrive for uni.

 All the suburbs she likes are pretty far from the city centre. Personally I’d look at Campbell, Dickson, Downer, Watson and Hackett. The schools are Majura and North Ainslie. They are good, but a bit crowded, it’s a growth area. North Ainslie has mandarin and dance after school. They all have holiday program but not sure on availability.

Campbell and Ainslie are smaller schools in this area.

 Living on this side of the city means the school is on the way to work and a shorter commute.

[DaLittleEd]

@Watson @Jackrabbit @Moomintroll tell me more about commuting? Car or public transport recommended from the above suburbs? Times? Traffic etc?

[Moomintroll]

52 minutes ago, DaLittleEd said:

@Watson @Jackrabbit @Moomintroll tell me more about commuting? Car or public transport recommended from the above suburbs? Times? Traffic etc?

I think everyone with kids should own a car if possible. For getting to activities etc it's important. 

Commuting - well from the Woden suburbs you'd be able to get a rapid bus into the city centre. I'm not sure how long it would take but google maps can help there (actually I just went a looked, google says 25-30 minutes). If living in one of the nearby suburbs there are buses to the city centre but may take 40 minutes. There's also park&ride car parks in some places so you can drive part way and then get on the bus. In the suburbs we've talked about there's one in Curtin and two in Mawson. 

Unless you get a car space with your job, parking in the city is very expensive so not highly recommended. well that may not be entirely true as some people opt to pay for parking. Maybe $15 a day??? maybe more now sorry I don't know. Driving from those suburbs would be quick.

Canberra has a short but intense peak hour traffic. Once it's over, getting anywhere across the city is pretty fast in a car. 

there is going to be some very significant building work between Woden and the city over the coming years, as the next leg of light rail is built, and that could lengthen commute times for several years. Northern suburbs (inner north as someone mentioned, or even Belconnen) would reduce commuting time a lot. 

[Jackrabbit]

I live in Mawson and work in the city. I drive in, which takes about 20 minutes. I park in the upper level of the Canberra Centre for $15. 

[Jenflea]

My sister lives in mawson and says she's 20 minutes by car from anywhere in Canberra.

I mean, it's only what, 45 or 50 minutes from end to end by car. 

[Wattle]

I find traffic is a lot worse at peak hour and if you are dropping a kid on the way to work you are stuck with the worst traffic. 
 
There is a frequent tram to the city from the north but it is only useful if you live in the suburbs right near Northbourne Avenue Downer, and parts of Watson and Dickson.