Coming from Saalfelden, Austria, Richard, Andrea and 11-year-old Oscar couldn’t wait to return to Sunshine Beach after enjoying their first visit in 2019. Richard who is a building contractor and Andrea a primary school teacher on sabbatical leave for a year, are very fortunate to have family living in Noosa so manage to combine quality family time while enjoying the warm weather and many amazing spoils our local area, Queensland and Australia have to offer.
Richard and Oscar have dual Australian Austrian citizenship. The family firstly arrived in Australia in September 2019 and completed an adventurous trip travelling to numerous isolated places which they thoroughly enjoyed. Andrea said, “Our main reasons for coming to Sunshine Beach included our wish for Oscar to attend a high achieving Australian school to learn English, to experience the Australian climate and way of life and of course because the Sunshine Coast is definitely one of the best spots to be in Australia, if not the world.”
Sunshine Beach State School is an accredited International School and the Bleimschein family commented, “Oscar has been very well looked after at this school.” The family have found the school community to be “very welcoming radiating positive vibes. The staff members and the teachers have been very supportive and our son loves going to this school. The student behaviour is very good and we find the students very polite and friendly. We really enjoy attending the school assemblies and seeing how many students achieve the caring awards each week and learning about the school philosophy. The special events such as the International Food Festival and the student lead conferences have been other highlights for us.”
As a teacher Andrea commented that school is very different in Austria to Australia both physically and curriculum wise. “School grounds and activities look very different in Austria! Sunshine Beach school has beautiful, big school yards with amazing gardens and trees, easy access to the sport grounds, a large range of outdoor activities and sports available for all students. Because of climatic conditions in Austria there are no outside taps in school yards as they would freeze. PE lessons during winter are often outside but the activities include downhill skiing, cross country skiing and ice skating. There are no wardrobes for children in Queensland schools. Austrian kids have to wear really warm clothes including gloves suitable for temperatures of -10 Celsius so they get changed in the morning when they arrive to school and then have to put all their warm clothing back on before the outside break.”
Both Richard and Andrea have volunteered as parent helpers in various ways at Sunshine Beach State School, most recently assisting class teachers supervise students as they walk to and from the aquatic centre for swimming lessons. Andrea commented that swimming at Sunshine Beach school is so much easier for children as they have such easy access to pool facilities and swim in sunshine. Due to the extremely cold weather and temperature in Austria children have to get changed after swimming lessons directly at the pool. There would be no chance that they could walk back to school in wet bathers. In winter time they go to an indoor pool for swimming lessons. Due to the extreme temperatures, it is a rule that every child must have dry hair in time and to catch the bus which is often a big challenge.
Andrea noted that there are many other differences between Austrian schools and here in Australia. One major difference is between primary and secondary school. “In Austria primary school goes from prep to year 4, often the children have the same class teacher for 4 years. A considerable school change then occurs after year 4 when the children go to a “Mittelschule” or “Gymnasium” – this is deemed as a secondary school. Oscar attends a gymnasium in Austria. He finished there his year 5 in July. He missed his summer holidays in Austria to attend school in Australia.”
“Other differences include no school uniforms in Austria – we love the Australian way, so much easier for parents! The children sit many more tests in Austria. There is also more time spent at school with longer breaks in between lessons. School begins later in the morning in Australia. There`s a lot more homework given out nearly every day in Austria – for example what´s given out here in one week is given out every day.”
There are many things that Oscar really likes about Sunshine Beach State School including the long play times and particularly participating in lunch time soccer games on the big school oval which is surrounded by beautiful green trees. He also commented that he loves having less homework than in Austria and that the assessment tasks in class are more manageable because of the way the teacher presents the information and supports the students to do their best. Oscar also really likes getting to wear the school uniform and having a special green shirt for his sports uniform showing he is in the kookaburras house team.
Andrea commented that “Oscar also enjoys not having to go to school in the dark, leaving home at 7:00 am in winter with minus 10 degrees. He particularly likes Queensland’s warm weather and getting to wear his school shorts.”
Richard and Andrea said, “When we firstly arrived in 2019 we travelled in a caravan around the Australian country. We loved the remoteness of some areas, great fishing spots, snorkeling with the whale sharks, the Ningaloo reef, climbing Mt. Kosciusko, Mt. Augustus and Karri fire observation trees, enjoying great beaches and the outback night sky. Because of Covid we couldn’t see the Northern Territory in 2019 and 2020. After school finishes in December this year, we´ll be travelling again, visiting Northern Territory, going back to Western Australia and discovering more of this remarkably beautiful country! We will be back though, for Oscar to rejoin his Australian friends at Sunshine Beach State School.”
