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A Review of Living
In North Shore, Auckland

Biography: John Miller moved to Auckland's North Shore with his wife and 3 young children in September 2002. John is a high school teacher from Manchester.

What were your reasons for leaving the UK?

I had been teaching in a Manchester comprehensive school for ten years. I was fed up and needed a complete change of scene. It came down to leaving the teaching profession or leaving England. The amount of routine nastiness had grown so much in England that we decided to move to another country. It was probably a good move. Things only seem to have got worse since I left.

Why New Zealand?

We considered Canada, Australia and New Zealand. We ruled Canada out because a lot of people seem to have encountered difficulties getting work there. We ruled Australia out because I'd prefer not to teach in a private school. The private school sector is huge in Australia - much bigger than in England - and I think the state sector has to cope with a higher proportion of "problem kids" and this isn't my preference either. Also, a lot of the Australian States seem to work on the principle that they tell you which school you've got to teach in. You don't seem to be able to apply to individual schools that you think will suit you best.

In New Zealand, there were plenty of teaching jobs and they're more than happy to employ British immigrants. Many of my teaching colleagues are also from the UK. I applied to different schools on the North Shore and got a position that suited me perfectly.

You're Living In North Shore City, Auckland - What you think of life there?

The North Shore is fantastic. It's warm, it's sunny and it's clean and has it plenty of sandy bays with calm water. Winters can be wet but there's always plenty of sunshine and there are no more long dark winter nights here. I used to dread winter because of the lack of daylight - going to work and coming home in the dark - midwinter sunrise in Manchester is 8.30 am and sundown is 3:50pm. Midwinter sunrise here is at 7.30 am and sundown is after 5 pm. The extra two hours of daytime makes a big difference to the way you perceive winter.

House prices have shot up here since we arrived and the money people bring from selling houses in the UK doesn't go as far as it used to.

People here participate in more sport - lots of people still go camping and get out into the countryside. When it comes to watching sport, they enjoy it for its own sake - there are no football hooligans or any other type of sports hooligans here.

Far more kids here do sports at school and after school than in England and I go jogging on the beach here in the mornings.

Is there anything you don't like?

If there's a downpour, the storm-water overflows and sewage can spill onto the beaches. The council puts notices on beaches warning you to stay off. This doesn't happen very often but I'd like to see the drains upgraded.

Electrical goods such as computers, televisions, digital cameras, washing machines, etc are dearer here than the UK.

The sun is very strong in the summer - you need to be very careful about sunburn.

A lot of the older houses are built with little or no insulation and they suffer from quite bad condensation in winter. I'd advise people to be careful about what sort of house they buy.

Do you miss anything from the UK or Manchester?

Just close family. Nothing else. We're truly glad to be out of there.

How easily did you find work in New Zealand?

Teaching jobs are easily obtainable - especially in English, Sciences, Maths, Phys. Ed and Languages. Be careful that you pick a school with a good Principal. Just like the UK there are badly managed schools here. Poor schools have weak management, inadequate student disciplinary procedures (leading to poorer student behaviour - although not as bad as I've seen in the UK) and a high staff turnover. The school I'm teaching in now is well-led and the student behaviour is usually very good.

How does your working life in New Zealand compare with your previous work experiences:

Some schools here are opting for the A-level system, believing the NCEA system that's been introduced over the last few years lacks academic rigour.

Students here follow a much broader curriculum than A-levels, so teaching year 13 here covers less advanced material than it would in England. Personally I'm very happy with teaching the NCEA curriculum. Most of my colleagues are happier and more enthusiastic than they were in England - but I'm sure in poorer schools in New Zealand, there are plenty of unhappy teachers. On the whole, the students I teach show less cynicism and have more positive attitudes than students in England.

How is your standard of living compared with the UK?

I earn less money - I'm earning $60,000 pa. The pension provision here is less generous than in England. The government is bringing in a contributory pension scheme for the public-sector. For every dollar you put in, they also put a dollar in.

How is your quality of life compared with the UK?

It's much, much better. In summer and autumn I can take the kids to one of the bays. The evenings are warm enough to go swimming after work. We can paddle or have a swim or they can just play in the sand.

Part of the improvement in quality of life has come about because of a change that's taken place in me as a person. I'm much less concerned now with having the "right" car and the "right" house and keeping up with the neighbours than I was in England.

You can get on with living your life and stop bothering that someone else has got a BMW or Jaguar or some other fancy car and you don't. It just doesn't seem to matter any more.

We just live our lives and do things that make us happy without bothering about having the "right" possessions.

Is there anything else you'd like to mention?

New Zealand schools have a "decile rating" of 1 to 10. Decile 1 and 2 schools are in areas of high deprivation.

There are several very low decile schools in South Auckland. The North Shore tends to have high decile schools and has several decile 10 schools. Parents tend to assume that if they send their children to decile 10 schools, everything will be fine. This isn't always the case.

There are some badly run decile 10 schools that perform less well than they should and some medium decile schools that perform better than you would expect.

I would not send my children to a low decile school. Many of them have too many issues that interfere with student learning.

A Review of Living In North Shore, Auckland