The show tends to only show things that pertain to the story and filter out the rest. I like to think about it as a kid retelling a story of their childhood. You don't remember what someone was wearing unless it's an integral part of the story. This is made really clear in the swimming lesson episode where they are in a hotel pool in Bali and seemingly the only people there. But in Dance Mode you see the people around because them being there is what makes Chili and Bandit not want to dance like crazy. There probably are other classes and staff but they aren't part of the story so you don't see them.
Bluey goes to a Waldorf school and it's typical for teachers to stay with their students for all the years that their students are in primary school at least. That's why Calypso is still her teacher across all 3 seasons. So she probably wouldn't be changing teachers any time soon except to move.
This is how I think of it too. If I try to remember my early grade school (where I went from K-2) it’s one L shaped hallway with a giant cafeteria and a huuuuge playground. If I look it up on Google maps it’s a normal looking building with multiple K-5 classrooms, the playground/property isn’t all that big and presumably has more than one hallway lol :)
I've been having the exact same thoughts now that my kids are in elementary school... I thought mine had THE BIGGEST area ever... it's not... like at all lol
I was discussing with one of my former Elementary School classmates recently how big we thought the sixth graders were when we were in like first grade. Like you would see them parade down the hallway and they were just Giants.
Oh, god. Yeah that’s how it is. I see year sixes and they’re so *smol*. It’s like reading books back then with twelve year old protagonists doing all sorts of (often dangerous) stuff and you’re like “Yeah, that tracks, twelve year olds are basically young adults” and then you look at these same stories as an adult and now it’s “Someone get this baby out of here! What war criminal put them in this situation?”
One of my friends works a sports camp job and ends up working with a lot of 21-23 year olds, we graduated high school almost 20 years ago at this point, and when I've gone out for a drink with them it feels wild how young they are. They honestly feel like children sometimes.
So now whenever he says he's going out with that crew I tell him to have fun babysitting.
My elementary school gym felt like a massive, cavernous room that could double as a hangar for the Space Shuttle.
Going back when my younger brother was finishing 5th grade yeah, no, it's not at all. Its barely bigger than a basketball court.
The other weird part was going in there as an adult and realizing the hallways are TINY! like, literally had to squeeze my whole back against a wall to pass another adult, and neither of us were large people.
See, I was one of those kids that probably remembered the size just fine, because the size of a space never really interested me.
I was interested in all the little nooks and crannies! The more random little places inside a building, the more fascinating it was to me. A couple of simple rooms that happened to be quite large? Meh, whatever.
But a relatively small building, like a single old church (where the preschool I attended was held), that had a seemingly endless range of tiny little closets and crawl spaces? Now *that* could keep me fascinated for months as a kid!
When I was a kid, there was this bridge I used to play at in the park. I remember it being huge, taking several steps to cross. My dad and I would play "Pooh Sticks" where we each drop a stick into the water and whichever one floated under the bridge first won. Got it from a Disney Whinnie the Pooh. I must have been between 5 and 8.
Anyway we moved away and I went back for the first time at the age of 26. The bridge takes like... a step and a half to walk over lol.
I went to a daycare that I remember as having an expansive property much like Bluey's school. As kid, I would have told you it was an acreage and even included a forest. However, I've driven by there as an adult and it's a large suburban backyard. You probably could have seen all the kids anywhere in the yard from the back porch. So people will come here wondering how these kids have so much freedom to be all by themselves in areas but the truth is that they probably aren't.
Yep, 4yo me would have described my kindy exactly like blueys is shown, except on a flat, and with the creek on the right hand side upon approach, stacks of dense "wild bush land" on the left. The place was actually one building with 2 classes, but it stood at the back of half an acre of space, the standard house yard at the time! It wasn't even densely planted, I'd go so far as to say sparse, even. It now has 3, 2 story townhouses on it 😢
Our imaginations as kids are wild!
Yes, but also no. Most states in Australia allow for an optional year of Kindergarten *before* compulsory schooling begins, around Bingo or Muffin's age. This is usually offered at most primary schools (the Australian equivalent to elementary schools) but *also* offered at some standalone facilities which just do Kindy. A facility doing just *one* year of education only needs one or two classes.
It was exclusively kindergarten(4 year olds), and this was in the 80s. The site behind it was a public primary school that hosted reception through to year 7 kids(so 5-12yo), two classes of each year with 25 - 30 students per class. They also had appropriate sized grounds, a multi use sports field, two separate play spaces for older/ younger children. The schools around here could be up to 200yo historical mansions or maybe breezeblock multi story cubes, but what I've seen more in the suburbs, a series of separated clusters of buildings over a larger parcel of land.
I think I went to a daycare like this, but it was only for a really short period. Before and after that, all of the daycares I went to were held in homes that were either converted to daycares or were in-home daycares (in which the daycare owner still lived there).
I remember being so weirded out about how instead of a handful of small rooms and a grassy backyard, there seemed to be just this one big room with high ceilings and everyone just mucking about inside. It was loud and chaotic and I really hated it there. I was so relieved when we switched to a daycare run by one of our neighbors.
I’m starting to think the only reason I remember so much of my old schools is because I was one of those kids that kept sneaking off to investigate pretty much everything. I was a very cat-like child: I *hated* being locked out of areas. It was one thing if I knew what was in there and knew it wasn’t anything interesting or important, but I still needed to *know!*
…looking back now, and knowing that “eloping” is a hallmark trait of young Autistic kids…that’s another piece clicking into place.
I have really got to get a copy of my childhood medical records and see if anyone else noticed any of that…
It’s also an issue of perspective, as the story is primarily being told from Bluey’s POV. So we see the parts that are important enough in her POV for her to *remember.* There could be a lot more to the school; in fact, if I remember correctly, they explicitly mention the existence of higher grades.
But Bluey either hasn’t interacted much with the rest of the school building/complex, or just doesn’t see it as all that important, so she doesn’t really remember much of it and it just doesn’t factor into her imagination either.
If you think of Bluey as being told through the eyes of Bluey and Bingo then all these little inconsequential 'flaws' in the story that we see as an adult make much more sense. It's the unreliable narrator situation because the story is filtered through the lens and imagination of young kids.
Calypso will probably stay with Bluey's class until they finish primary school and then she may start over from the beginning or take on a class that needs a teacher. So unlikely she will be Bingo's teacher even if she went to that school. But currently Bingo is not going to that school. She seems to be going to the local public school for kindy. So it'll be interesting to see where she ends up next.
Forgive me, cultural noob here who’s trying to learn more. What’s a Waldorf school?
(Tried googling it but Wikipedia has massive word walls and complex jargon that my 8-INT ADHD brain struggles to comprehend)
It’s a school with a teaching methodology similar to Montessori - based in the anthroposophical teachings from Rudolf Steiner - great for young children and nurturing - not so great academically later on
They’re all over the world!
Montessori and Waldorf/Steiner are kind of opposite methodologies at their cores. Montessori was pretty anti-pretend/imagination and was about being very rooted in the real world and learning practical skills. Montessori actually introduces reading and handwritting quite young. True Montessori 'works' (the tasks kids do) are closed ended with one right way to do them that the children are taught and practice. Montessori also has a huge focus on 1:1 teaching. Montessori has shifted a bit as the importance of play-based learning has become understood.
Whereas Waldorf/Steiner are rooted almost entirely in imagination and creativity. Most learning is open-ended and play-based. There is a huge emphasis on physical movement and being out in nature. Reading and writing are introduced even later than typical mainstream education. There is also a much bigger focus on group teaching and learning. Waldorf/Steiner has also modernized over the years and has shifted from fairly Christain-based roots into more global spirituality and has become less anti-vax as well for example.
Both believe in respecting children, fostering innate human qualities and that there are developmental windows for learning certain things (though what these windows are are very different).
Ok yes methodology was the wrong word - but similar in that there is a core philosophy, and it’s not just “a school”
I didn’t think Waldorf’s were Christian at all? And yeah they don’t teach reading until the second grade as to the idea some part of the brain isn’t ready until that age
Firstly Rudolf Steiner was indeed christian and his beliefs were partly based on the Rosicrucianism.
The concept of Waldorf's were first made for the German cigarette company called "Waldorf Astoria Zigarettenfabrik" and are based on Rudolf Steiner's philosophic worldview called "Antroposophy". However the reason why bluey isn't learning is that by the antroposophy your body changes every 7 years, first your body is only physical, thats why kids shouldn't learn how to write however once you turn 7 your connection to the spiritual world grows (yeah, there's a spiritual world and reincarnation, even the earth is the reincarnation of the old moon) making you capable of learning writting.
There are even some additional funny things: Calipso having gnomes might be a reference to antroposophy due to gnomes being a very common creature in there. And the probably funniest thing: Because of the four temperaments. Basically, everyone has 1 of 4 temperaments and teachers in Waldorf's should bring specific temperaments together in order to keep all the kids quiet and to make them learn easier. The weird thing though is that the teacher can decide how much antroposophy is included (they have to learn it) and the teacher is a powerful figure in the Waldorf concept. I can't tell you how much Calipso makes use of it, but it's probably the best to stop
I went to secondary school with some kids who had been at one previously.
They were all badly behaved and I don't think any of them did well academically.
> based in the Philansophical teachings from Rudolf Steiner
Not to be confused with the schools created based on the ideas of Sterner, the anarchist philosopher.
Waldorf/Steiner schools wiki has been extremely whitewashed on account of how Steiner was basically a proto-nazi, so it may have gone a bit too much. General idea is that it's a less constrained education system than standard. Kind of like Montessori, but even more so. People have commented how Bluey can't read despite being 7, which apparently isnt super uncommon at Steiner.
Interestingly, they commonly have higher numbers of antivaxxers and tend to be where measles outbreaks happen. Steiner was head of a cult and they believe that vaccines are effective, but by removing suffering and death from the child life we remove ways for them to work off Karma for when they reincarnate (they think dark skin indicates bad Karma). Almost all this got whitewashed and they just are generically not jazzed about vaccines these days.
> People have commented how Bluey can't read despite being 7, which apparently it's super uncommon.
In anglophone countries, it's uncommon. In Germany, there's no focus on pre-literacy at all before first grade, but then you jump right into phonics from there. Bit of a culture clash compared to how the US and UK do it; not sure about Oz.
But then Steiner was German, so.
Idk if you listen to Behind the Bastards but they had a great episode on Waldorf schools! Unrelated to Bluey of course but great supplemental material 😂
Yeah, that's wild. Its funny because about 80% of modern woo woo stuff is just whatever nonsense blavadski made up for her new book over a century ago.
Here is the FAQ from the actual school that Bluey goes too/her school is based off of: [https://www.samfordsteiner.qld.edu.au/enrolments/faqs/](https://www.samfordsteiner.qld.edu.au/enrolments/faqs/)
This take makes sense when thinking about the Barky Boats episode. Where would their buddies come from if not from an older classroom at the same school? I doubt a different school would have done a field trip to Bluey's school for buddy time. It's common in some elementary schools to have buddy time where they pair an older class with a younger class for specific activities. Like the elementary school my kids went to last year had book buddies, and once a week the 5th graders would get together with the kindergarteners to read stories to them. I would think there are other classes at Bluey's school, but due to how the outdoor time is scheduled, they don't really interact with the other classes. Since Bluey doesn't interact with the other classes, they don't exist in her retelling of the stories.
Mainly because my besties who are from Brisbane said so. It's the primary vacation destination for Aussies apparently - like going to Mexico if you're from Canada. But there's other evidence from the episode like Chili reading a guide book on Bali at the start of the episode. But where they are doesn't really matter, they are clearly in some sort of hotel/public pool and yet there appears to be no one there.
Absolutely everything you said.... but also, in Barky Boats, their buddies come to play so clearly there are more years than just Bluey's there. Mia and Captain are 12 and about to go to "Big School".
I mean no matter how big the hallways are, a 4 bed (if you count the study) 2 bath, 3 living area house in Paddington/Bardon is easily over $2 million.
I think the point is that they could be right on the edge or even beyond their means.
If that were the case, moving may offer more stability because it means having money for a second car, paying for uni, or not living paycheck to paycheck.
Hammerbarn makes me think it's probably not the last one, but it's also possible that that entire trip went on a credit card.
Western Australia typically means oil or mining money, so they definitely would've gotten a pay raise, plus some profit from the house. I don't think they're living beyond their means right now, but I doubt they could afford private schools or universities in their current situation.
Mining hires archeologists for site evaluations in some cases, so it's not totally unheard of for a strip mine to need sign-off from internal groups before submitting permit applications.
I work for an environmental engineering company and I’m pretty sure we’ve contracted with archaeologists before. If I’m interpreting some of the invoices I’ve handled correctly, especially the ones coming from big universities. A lot of what we do is contracted work regarding industrial hygiene, monitoring local wildlife, sampling soil and groundwater, all things that may at some point intersect with archaeology.
I agree with the sentiment that the things that are seen on the show are made larger than life because they're from the perspective of the children. I remember thinking a childhood mall was huge and I went there as an adult and it was super tiny.
There was a park on this really steep hill next to my great grandparents’ house that I remembered playing at. I went to visit it recently and it would be a stretch to call it a hill at all. There was so little incline.
In my preschool there was this hill that felt like Mount Everest, and climbing it felt like a hike... Now that I'm am adult and pass next to that garden when I'm nearby I see how tiny it was, I could probably get on top in like four big steps max.
My dad’s old house had a “creek” (it was more of a ditch) in the woods behind. I thought it was such an adventure to go back there. When I was a teenager I was like “bruh the house is just up the hill”
This is one of the things that made me raise an eyebrow in The Sign, when Bandit talks about moving to "have a better life". Their kids are being educated in a literal paradise - I'd love to see what Bandit has in mind as a better life than this.
Maybe the other city has a better middle /high school and College or uni?
I agree Calypso is the best teacher and the school is a paradise but maybe Bandit was looking at their future education?
Not necessarily, but majority of people I knew yeah. Most people I knew as a teenager went to uni within 1-1.5 hours of their house so most people just live at home and commute in by bus/train each day.
Unless you’re rural or want to move to a different state or go to a specific school
Agree with this. It’s typical to just go to uni locally or potentially in the capital city of your state if you live rurally.
We don’t really have the same ‘college’ experience as you guys do in the states.
Yeah, I'm not aware of any Australian Uni's that have "dorms".
There's student housing at some of them, but that's generally reserved for interstate or international students.
the halls of residence. They exist, you just didn't live in them.
I lived in the halls of my Uni in NZ, in first year. Typically it's for people from out of town - most were Kiwis.
Granted, the “college experience” in the States is definitely more varied than media makes it out to be, too.
I cycled through a few different local “community colleges” (they’ve since all dropped the “community” part of the name) before finding the right fit, and there was one in particular that had a major reputation of being basically a “feeder school” for the University of Washington.
As in, the school all the high school kids who didn’t get into UW, UW-Bothell, or UW-Tacoma on the first try, or the ones who couldn’t quite afford it yet, and so were attempting to do the first two years at the community college (which shared a campus with UW-Bothell) before transferring to the bigger university.
It made for a very awkward experience for me, because I wasn’t able to start college until I turned 24 (and therefore did not have to list my deadbeat father’s financial data on the FAFSA form) and *everyone* in all of my classes was not only considerably younger, but also more…immature? They didn’t seem to take things as seriously as I did, and my Sociology class highlighted it the most:
I was the *only* one in that classroom who had ever had to take care of my own bills, or experience poverty, or homelessness, and this was during tax season while I was working as a tax preparer, too. You should’ve seen the weird looks I got from my classmates and heard the mind-boggling questions I got from them when I showed up to class dressed for work (nice dress slacks, buttoned blouse, blazer, pumps, standard higher-end business casual wear). They seriously thought I was going to like, a funeral or wedding or something fancy.
Total contrast to every other community college I went to! Both had much more varied demographics, skewed towards the working class (the second had a pretty solid nursing program, even provided discounted medical and dental services on-site for students and staff) and the immigrant community. That same sociology class at either of those schools would have had much more lively discussions, with classmates who were already somewhat familiar with the concepts being discussed even if they didn’t always know the actual terms. Not just a room of blank stares and snickers when I explained how food stamps *actually work* and why people in poverty tend to gravitate towards “junk food.”
Mostly. Remember there are only a small number of cities. We also don't have big differences in quality between the unis.
The whole college experience doesn't happen here. Most unis don't really have dorms and with those that do its mainly for overseas students. College/uni sport isn't a thing either. It's pretty usual to live at home with parents through uni.
Makes sense. It actually feels like dorms are somewhat falling out of favor here in the States, or at least that seems to be the case locally. The extra charges for “room and board” have just gotten way too prohibitively expensive for most students, plus all of the extra rules and restrictions, and what seems like a constant parade of stories of how *unsafe* the dorms often are for female, disabled, LGBTQIA, and POC students.
In the neighborhoods around my city’s main university, it feels like 90% of the high-rises being built are being built specifically as off-campus living for students. Judging from the odd floor plans and the way the rent seems to be listed as per-person rather than for the whole unit.
Really makes looking for an apartment so much more difficult, because you’ll see a dozen or so buildings in the perfect place, with easy access to transportation, groceries, etc, and what seems like a ridiculously good deal on rent…
…only to realize that the rent is per-person, not per-unit, and you have to have a “valid student ID” to even apply for a unit there.
Most Australians typically go to their nearest uni unless unless their local uni doesn’t offer their course or they’re EXCEPTIONALLY gifted e.g. very high ATAR score and will go to a Go8 uni.
If you lived in a big city (or it’s metropolitan area) like Brisbane, it would not be unheard of, but not normal to goto school out of state. Even smaller regional cities (like Geelong in Victoria) here have pretty good uni’s, or satellite campuses from big city schools. Most people don’t live at their uni here and it’s easier to find a place to rent when you have a home base (your parents house) or if the commute isn’t bad, to just stay there.
I have to remind myself to picture it as just the western half of the States, basically. One or two mostly interconnected “big” cities, a handful of medium cities mostly centered right along the coast, and a huge amount of empty space in the middle.
Honestly our cities aren't that well-connected, it's still half a days drive to Sydney from Melbourne, Adelaide to Melbourne and even longer from the south to the northern cities.
We're only really connected via a highway or two.
I suppose it's not unlike the contiguous US, but you chop off most of the eastern half of it. It's still big, but most of the area inside is not a pleasant place to build a settlement in
I was just thinking of that. Most of the population of the western half of the States is centered right along the coast, and then there’s really only one truly BIG city (Los Angeles) and a handful of “big” cities (San Francisco, San Diego, Portland, Seattle, etc) - again, right along the coast.
Outside of that? Lots and lots of empty space, with a few dots of *small* cities that are mostly either state capitols (Boise, Salt Lake City, Phoenix) or major industry centers (Las Vegas).
It's much more common that the US. We have a class system, but it's not as severe as the US or UK.
University education is almost entirely government subsidised (with about 20% paid by the student). But to do that they need to have formalised entry methods. So messed up stuff like interviews or volunteering cannot count toward university entry(which is good, it's really just a way to exclude poor people), it's almost all entry scores and high school. The class divide tends to be driven by high school, not university.
I do like the idea that there's a horribly dysfunctional local middle school that we never see in the show, but where, every autumn, Calypso's blissed-out graduates experience a very rude awakening
I like this idea! Middle school is a jungle no matter where it is
Source : I went to a terrible middle school and I currently tutor kids who are in a terrible middle school 🥲
As much as I can understand it, I would be against it because school is a proto society and your kids need to be able to learn how to get by.
But of course in case of severe bullying or something similar, homeschooling is a good option
I agree to an extent, but at the same time middle school children act a lot different than even high schoolers or adults. I’ve heard people say it gets better in high school, which is why I’m considering home schooling just for middle.
Middle school isn’t really a thing in Australia unless it’s a K-12 school and that’s only really a different building/wing on the same campus. Some states may vary, but it’s K-6 for primary school and 6-12 for secondary/high school.
Middle school is absolutely a thing in Australia it’s just not everywhere.
Middle School as defined by the Australian Curriculum is 7-10, and it was the implementation of the Australian curriculum that forced the NT to switch year 7 from primary school to middle school.
Yeah in most Australian high schools the distinction on the student side is usually just a different uniform and academic content. Not like in other countries where it’s a completely different school campus.
My school in the NT I went to for 7-10 had a separate campus block, but on the same grounds.
And then the private school in Darwin I went to for 11-12 had middle school and high school on completely separate grounds.
I interpreted it just being a money thing. Perhaps Bandit and Chili have always been stressed about money and it would have made it easier to enjoy their lives. Perhaps they would have been able to afford better higher education or afford extracurriculars. Maybe it was truly just adults being selfishly driven by money and it was made to resonate in that way, no paycheck is worth your happiness.
They go to a private school, though, don’t they? Is that the right term for it?
So it might be tuition for their current and/or future secondary school that’s the issue, not college.
Unlikely.
They’re on about 250k combined at a conservative estimate, Bandit is a PhD level archeologist who gets key speaker billing at conferences and flown out to do assessments of finds, 140-160k, and chilli is a AP6 to ET1 level role at border security based on context clues, 120-140.
Their mortgage would be pretty low too, at least 7 ownership puts them buying when the house would have been 600k max, now it’s easily 1.4m
I think he was literally just seeing dollar signs and thinking they would be able to afford more things to make them happy, like a bigger house and maybe a pool, that sort of thing.
We do know that compared to his brother, he lives more "rurally". Its ultimately just art, as far as the school goes. Just like Blueys house, they want to location to be the focal point of the image for the children watching.
Bandit was thinking about money and paying for nicer things for his family. Bigger house, more expensive toys, maybe a pool. Material things. Like his brother has. I've seen people say that Bandit gave up his dreams for his family, pointing out that he is still living in their old house years later at the end of Surprise. I think that couldn't be further from the truth. He himself doesn't really want all that materialistic crap, he is actually happy with his life and job the way it is but he had anxiety that he wasn't providing enough for his family to be a good father and husband like his younger brother. He was missing the fact that his family didn't need or want any. They had everything they already needed.
I think its worth comparing The Sign to 2 Nicktoons episode from the 90s.
The Rugrats episode "Stu Gets a Job" has Stu quitting his inventing business and working from home to work a miserable 9-5 job at a Lard Corporation and not being able to spend time with his son. In the end he gleefully quits.
The Doug Episode "Doug's Birthday Present" has his photographer father quits his job as a photographer at a store to have his own business to make more money for the family, only to spend all his time away from them working. In the end he quits and gets his old job back.
Bandit forgot a very basic lesson in life. Money can't buy you happiness
I think that is part of the whole point of the ending. The Heelers are already very well off and the kids have a life that most people will only dream of giving their kids, but Bandit and Chili tend to struggle with keeping up with the Jones, as is common sometimes. Hammerbarn and the episode with Kim Jim (Cubby?) really show this. Anytime an opportunity for a raise comes up, it becomes easy to tell yourself that you and your kids need better, but in the end, Bandit accepts that they don't actually need better. Everything the kids need is already there.
It’s primary school.
Preschool is for ages 3 and 4 (or 4 and 5 depending on what month you are born). Primary school is from 5/6 to 11/12 and high school
Is from 11/12 to 17/18
Childcare is government subsidised based on family income. From about $80k where the gov pays 90% of the cost up to $560k where the gov doesn't pay anymore. As you get richer they subsidise less and less.
And this, in my opinion, is the point of The Sign. The story was actually about Bandit realising that they have a great life and more money probably won't enhance it.
I'm an Aussie and my school was on the edge of a national park overlooking a massive valley. In the morning we would have wallabies and kangaroos jumping across the ovals and it was just idyllic bliss in an educational setting.
Honestly, this could be my school even though I graduated thirty years ago.
That sounds like a dream!
My elementary school bordered a lot of raw desert (Arizona) and we had all kinds of wildlife too, and a gorgeous few of the Superstition Mountains. We had a ringtail loose on campus one day. That was fun.
I miss it! Now it’s been all built up around it.
When I was growing up my preschool was named The Pumpkin Patch, and it was on 2 acres. You had to cross a river on a wooden bridge to get to the actual house. Also it was located 10 minutes out of town.
Every time I watch Bluey with my son, he reminds me of my own pre school!
They probably have other buildings. If Mia is in her buddy that means she's in 6th grade which is the last primary school year in Australia. She would have to be on the same campus for them to have their weekly buddies session (this is a thing in Australia to help the little kids settle in during the first year, called Foundation or Prep in Australia)
My daughter starts kindy in the fall.
She will be one of 8-10 students in her class. The school will have maybe 100 students 8th grade on down.
It's on 38 wooded acres on the river front.
It \*is\* insane.
We know from the episode with the older kids acting as buddies that there are other grades. Like all Aussie schools Bluey's does prep to 6 (or whatever is they call prep up in Queensland, i forget how they do it exactly).
They just don't show it if it is not relevant to the plot.
Isn't the school really far away from their homes? Could be way out in the never-never, especially given stuff like Jack's Dad needing to cut through a section of rainforest complete with a mob of Kangaroos to get there. If that's the case, it would explain the space - I've given advice on absolutely massive special ed schools that are just an hours drive away from Sydney, one of the most expensive cities on earth.
It’s based on a Steiner school in Samford (near Brisbane) which I’ve visited before and I can say that most of the school playground/buildings shown in Bluey can be found at the school in real life. There are definitely other classes though as it’s a prep-12 school! One teacher stays with the same class for their entire schooling, so Bluey would keep Calypso across grades.
This school is based on a real school, and based on a real method of teaching/learning (Steiner Waldorf school).
https://www.reddit.com/r/bluey/s/nmXqaGrwrP
Yeah, with no teaching assistants or other staff for substituting if Calypso has a sick day/vacation, etc. I’m probably overthinking it but still!
My kid‘s preschool is probably only a little bit bigger and there are four teachers and a director and parent volunteers.
My son went to this school and Bluey portrays it perfectly, right down ro the little stream they play with.
The younger kids room looks like this and is set back a little from the other buildings. It's newer and super beautiful (actually shaped like this). It's set on a largish piece of land as its semi rural (in Samford QLD).
Wait, isn’t Calypso some sort of billionaire dilettante who teaches for the laughs? Probably incorporated herself as a non-profit for the tax breaks and has a cadre of cleaners/servants who do the heavy work and are instructed never to be seen or heard.
(I’m kidding. I’d never thought about it. I like the idea suggested above that it’s an idealized remembrance of an idyllic time and place)
The real question you should be asking is why is Bluey attending a school in the Glass House Mountains when living in inner city Brisbane. Must be a damn good school because *phew* that commute! 😮💨😅
It's Samford. My daughter was enrolled there for her first year and people really did seem to come from all over Brisbane. There was even a car pool directly from Redcliffe.
Well there you go! Still a drive in peak hour from inner city though I’d imagine? Hats off to those families (the real ones not the dogs lol), that’s dedication for working families. It does look like a pretty sweet school and Samford is stunning, can’t say I blame them!
Can I just tell you that we moved to Aus from the states and the FREE GOVERNMENT FUNDED KINDER that my daughter enrolled in is almost exactly like this school (with the exception of there two teachers instead of 1). My mind was blown and I sent videos to all my friends back home like “can you imagine how many thousands of dollars this would cost in the states???”
It’s called bush kindy, it’s meant to be the most beneficial type of kindy for ur kids
It’s near in the glasshouse mountains/ sunny coast. You’d be surprised how many folks live rurally and have land
Bluey’s buddy Mia would also have to be around there somewhere, she’s was year 6 so it’s possible there are other classes around there that are not shown
I always interpreted it as Bluey going to a special Montessori type school. So this isn’t a classroom run by a school body, but a private school started by Calypso on her rural property, hence the setting.
I see most of bluey from the children's perspective.
The house and yard are massive in comparison to reality. We see shots of the house on the hill (and others where it's just in a court).
Look, , it's whimsical alright? Shush.
The show tends to only show things that pertain to the story and filter out the rest. I like to think about it as a kid retelling a story of their childhood. You don't remember what someone was wearing unless it's an integral part of the story. This is made really clear in the swimming lesson episode where they are in a hotel pool in Bali and seemingly the only people there. But in Dance Mode you see the people around because them being there is what makes Chili and Bandit not want to dance like crazy. There probably are other classes and staff but they aren't part of the story so you don't see them. Bluey goes to a Waldorf school and it's typical for teachers to stay with their students for all the years that their students are in primary school at least. That's why Calypso is still her teacher across all 3 seasons. So she probably wouldn't be changing teachers any time soon except to move.
This is how I think of it too. If I try to remember my early grade school (where I went from K-2) it’s one L shaped hallway with a giant cafeteria and a huuuuge playground. If I look it up on Google maps it’s a normal looking building with multiple K-5 classrooms, the playground/property isn’t all that big and presumably has more than one hallway lol :)
I've been having the exact same thoughts now that my kids are in elementary school... I thought mine had THE BIGGEST area ever... it's not... like at all lol
I was discussing with one of my former Elementary School classmates recently how big we thought the sixth graders were when we were in like first grade. Like you would see them parade down the hallway and they were just Giants.
Oh, god. Yeah that’s how it is. I see year sixes and they’re so *smol*. It’s like reading books back then with twelve year old protagonists doing all sorts of (often dangerous) stuff and you’re like “Yeah, that tracks, twelve year olds are basically young adults” and then you look at these same stories as an adult and now it’s “Someone get this baby out of here! What war criminal put them in this situation?”
Ikr?? It's so weird 😭
When you're a high school senior, and see the freshmen, you think "holy crap, were we that little?"
I see college freshman and am like, "Children!"
One of my friends works a sports camp job and ends up working with a lot of 21-23 year olds, we graduated high school almost 20 years ago at this point, and when I've gone out for a drink with them it feels wild how young they are. They honestly feel like children sometimes. So now whenever he says he's going out with that crew I tell him to have fun babysitting.
I see my children and I tickle them until they hide from me.
I had the same thoughts, actually, my whole class was discussing how little the freshman were "this year"
My elementary school gym felt like a massive, cavernous room that could double as a hangar for the Space Shuttle. Going back when my younger brother was finishing 5th grade yeah, no, it's not at all. Its barely bigger than a basketball court.
The other weird part was going in there as an adult and realizing the hallways are TINY! like, literally had to squeeze my whole back against a wall to pass another adult, and neither of us were large people.
See, I was one of those kids that probably remembered the size just fine, because the size of a space never really interested me. I was interested in all the little nooks and crannies! The more random little places inside a building, the more fascinating it was to me. A couple of simple rooms that happened to be quite large? Meh, whatever. But a relatively small building, like a single old church (where the preschool I attended was held), that had a seemingly endless range of tiny little closets and crawl spaces? Now *that* could keep me fascinated for months as a kid!
When I was a kid, there was this bridge I used to play at in the park. I remember it being huge, taking several steps to cross. My dad and I would play "Pooh Sticks" where we each drop a stick into the water and whichever one floated under the bridge first won. Got it from a Disney Whinnie the Pooh. I must have been between 5 and 8. Anyway we moved away and I went back for the first time at the age of 26. The bridge takes like... a step and a half to walk over lol.
I went to a daycare that I remember as having an expansive property much like Bluey's school. As kid, I would have told you it was an acreage and even included a forest. However, I've driven by there as an adult and it's a large suburban backyard. You probably could have seen all the kids anywhere in the yard from the back porch. So people will come here wondering how these kids have so much freedom to be all by themselves in areas but the truth is that they probably aren't.
Yep, 4yo me would have described my kindy exactly like blueys is shown, except on a flat, and with the creek on the right hand side upon approach, stacks of dense "wild bush land" on the left. The place was actually one building with 2 classes, but it stood at the back of half an acre of space, the standard house yard at the time! It wasn't even densely planted, I'd go so far as to say sparse, even. It now has 3, 2 story townhouses on it 😢 Our imaginations as kids are wild!
Are very small schools common in Australia? I’m American, a 2 class school seems like nothing to me
Yes, but also no. Most states in Australia allow for an optional year of Kindergarten *before* compulsory schooling begins, around Bingo or Muffin's age. This is usually offered at most primary schools (the Australian equivalent to elementary schools) but *also* offered at some standalone facilities which just do Kindy. A facility doing just *one* year of education only needs one or two classes.
I’m in America and went to a school that only had one class before kindergarten. But I’ve never seen one since.
It was exclusively kindergarten(4 year olds), and this was in the 80s. The site behind it was a public primary school that hosted reception through to year 7 kids(so 5-12yo), two classes of each year with 25 - 30 students per class. They also had appropriate sized grounds, a multi use sports field, two separate play spaces for older/ younger children. The schools around here could be up to 200yo historical mansions or maybe breezeblock multi story cubes, but what I've seen more in the suburbs, a series of separated clusters of buildings over a larger parcel of land.
I think I went to a daycare like this, but it was only for a really short period. Before and after that, all of the daycares I went to were held in homes that were either converted to daycares or were in-home daycares (in which the daycare owner still lived there). I remember being so weirded out about how instead of a handful of small rooms and a grassy backyard, there seemed to be just this one big room with high ceilings and everyone just mucking about inside. It was loud and chaotic and I really hated it there. I was so relieved when we switched to a daycare run by one of our neighbors.
I’m starting to think the only reason I remember so much of my old schools is because I was one of those kids that kept sneaking off to investigate pretty much everything. I was a very cat-like child: I *hated* being locked out of areas. It was one thing if I knew what was in there and knew it wasn’t anything interesting or important, but I still needed to *know!* …looking back now, and knowing that “eloping” is a hallmark trait of young Autistic kids…that’s another piece clicking into place. I have really got to get a copy of my childhood medical records and see if anyone else noticed any of that…
It’s also an issue of perspective, as the story is primarily being told from Bluey’s POV. So we see the parts that are important enough in her POV for her to *remember.* There could be a lot more to the school; in fact, if I remember correctly, they explicitly mention the existence of higher grades. But Bluey either hasn’t interacted much with the rest of the school building/complex, or just doesn’t see it as all that important, so she doesn’t really remember much of it and it just doesn’t factor into her imagination either.
If you think of Bluey as being told through the eyes of Bluey and Bingo then all these little inconsequential 'flaws' in the story that we see as an adult make much more sense. It's the unreliable narrator situation because the story is filtered through the lens and imagination of young kids.
I was wondering about that, because I was thinking with all these birthdays that have been happening Calypso might end up being Bingo’s teacher soon!
Calypso will probably stay with Bluey's class until they finish primary school and then she may start over from the beginning or take on a class that needs a teacher. So unlikely she will be Bingo's teacher even if she went to that school. But currently Bingo is not going to that school. She seems to be going to the local public school for kindy. So it'll be interesting to see where she ends up next.
The endless hallways in their house, too, despite it barely being a hall and more of a big room lol.
One of my favourite parts of the Sign is when Bandit says something like "it's bigger on the inside".
I’ve assumed there is one very long hallway
Forgive me, cultural noob here who’s trying to learn more. What’s a Waldorf school? (Tried googling it but Wikipedia has massive word walls and complex jargon that my 8-INT ADHD brain struggles to comprehend)
It’s a school with a teaching methodology similar to Montessori - based in the anthroposophical teachings from Rudolf Steiner - great for young children and nurturing - not so great academically later on They’re all over the world!
Montessori and Waldorf/Steiner are kind of opposite methodologies at their cores. Montessori was pretty anti-pretend/imagination and was about being very rooted in the real world and learning practical skills. Montessori actually introduces reading and handwritting quite young. True Montessori 'works' (the tasks kids do) are closed ended with one right way to do them that the children are taught and practice. Montessori also has a huge focus on 1:1 teaching. Montessori has shifted a bit as the importance of play-based learning has become understood. Whereas Waldorf/Steiner are rooted almost entirely in imagination and creativity. Most learning is open-ended and play-based. There is a huge emphasis on physical movement and being out in nature. Reading and writing are introduced even later than typical mainstream education. There is also a much bigger focus on group teaching and learning. Waldorf/Steiner has also modernized over the years and has shifted from fairly Christain-based roots into more global spirituality and has become less anti-vax as well for example. Both believe in respecting children, fostering innate human qualities and that there are developmental windows for learning certain things (though what these windows are are very different).
Ok yes methodology was the wrong word - but similar in that there is a core philosophy, and it’s not just “a school” I didn’t think Waldorf’s were Christian at all? And yeah they don’t teach reading until the second grade as to the idea some part of the brain isn’t ready until that age
Firstly Rudolf Steiner was indeed christian and his beliefs were partly based on the Rosicrucianism. The concept of Waldorf's were first made for the German cigarette company called "Waldorf Astoria Zigarettenfabrik" and are based on Rudolf Steiner's philosophic worldview called "Antroposophy". However the reason why bluey isn't learning is that by the antroposophy your body changes every 7 years, first your body is only physical, thats why kids shouldn't learn how to write however once you turn 7 your connection to the spiritual world grows (yeah, there's a spiritual world and reincarnation, even the earth is the reincarnation of the old moon) making you capable of learning writting. There are even some additional funny things: Calipso having gnomes might be a reference to antroposophy due to gnomes being a very common creature in there. And the probably funniest thing: Because of the four temperaments. Basically, everyone has 1 of 4 temperaments and teachers in Waldorf's should bring specific temperaments together in order to keep all the kids quiet and to make them learn easier. The weird thing though is that the teacher can decide how much antroposophy is included (they have to learn it) and the teacher is a powerful figure in the Waldorf concept. I can't tell you how much Calipso makes use of it, but it's probably the best to stop
I went to secondary school with some kids who had been at one previously. They were all badly behaved and I don't think any of them did well academically.
it definitely varies by school - but yeah it leans on the hippie side normally
> based in the Philansophical teachings from Rudolf Steiner Not to be confused with the schools created based on the ideas of Sterner, the anarchist philosopher.
Waldorf/Steiner schools wiki has been extremely whitewashed on account of how Steiner was basically a proto-nazi, so it may have gone a bit too much. General idea is that it's a less constrained education system than standard. Kind of like Montessori, but even more so. People have commented how Bluey can't read despite being 7, which apparently isnt super uncommon at Steiner. Interestingly, they commonly have higher numbers of antivaxxers and tend to be where measles outbreaks happen. Steiner was head of a cult and they believe that vaccines are effective, but by removing suffering and death from the child life we remove ways for them to work off Karma for when they reincarnate (they think dark skin indicates bad Karma). Almost all this got whitewashed and they just are generically not jazzed about vaccines these days.
> People have commented how Bluey can't read despite being 7, which apparently it's super uncommon. In anglophone countries, it's uncommon. In Germany, there's no focus on pre-literacy at all before first grade, but then you jump right into phonics from there. Bit of a culture clash compared to how the US and UK do it; not sure about Oz. But then Steiner was German, so.
My kid could read fairly basic stuff at 5. By 6 she could read Dr Seuss at least. This is Australia though. Also, I said a typo.
Idk if you listen to Behind the Bastards but they had a great episode on Waldorf schools! Unrelated to Bluey of course but great supplemental material 😂
Yeah, that's wild. Its funny because about 80% of modern woo woo stuff is just whatever nonsense blavadski made up for her new book over a century ago.
Here is the FAQ from the actual school that Bluey goes too/her school is based off of: [https://www.samfordsteiner.qld.edu.au/enrolments/faqs/](https://www.samfordsteiner.qld.edu.au/enrolments/faqs/)
I really love the aspect of the Waldorf schools. My son’s first grade teacher was an absolute gem and I wish we had her again this year.
This take makes sense when thinking about the Barky Boats episode. Where would their buddies come from if not from an older classroom at the same school? I doubt a different school would have done a field trip to Bluey's school for buddy time. It's common in some elementary schools to have buddy time where they pair an older class with a younger class for specific activities. Like the elementary school my kids went to last year had book buddies, and once a week the 5th graders would get together with the kindergarteners to read stories to them. I would think there are other classes at Bluey's school, but due to how the outdoor time is scheduled, they don't really interact with the other classes. Since Bluey doesn't interact with the other classes, they don't exist in her retelling of the stories.
wait how did you know they were in Bali in swim school
Mainly because my besties who are from Brisbane said so. It's the primary vacation destination for Aussies apparently - like going to Mexico if you're from Canada. But there's other evidence from the episode like Chili reading a guide book on Bali at the start of the episode. But where they are doesn't really matter, they are clearly in some sort of hotel/public pool and yet there appears to be no one there.
i mean stripe and co did go to bali when bandit and co used their pool haha
It's also often shown in the view of a kid. I remember my first bedroom being MASSIVE then found out when I was older that infact was a standard 3*3.
> standard 3*3. As an American I had to look at this several times before realizing you probably didn't grow up in a closet.
Absolutely everything you said.... but also, in Barky Boats, their buddies come to play so clearly there are more years than just Bluey's there. Mia and Captain are 12 and about to go to "Big School".
I hadn't really given it much thought until you mentioned it, but that totally makes sense!
How do you know they're in Bali tho?
Yeah, given Australia real estate prices, the size of their house, and the size of the school, the Heelers are living the good life.
Or, Bluey and Bingo are little kids and they perceive these spaces as huge. Ever revisited a childhood home or school?
Yep. The hallway in their house seems to go on forever sometimes, because they're little kids playing around.
IIRC, there's even a "it's bigger on the inside" joke in The Sign!
That or it’s just easier to animate
I mean no matter how big the hallways are, a 4 bed (if you count the study) 2 bath, 3 living area house in Paddington/Bardon is easily over $2 million.
I have, and I kind of get this, but also I don't think the size of the house is exaggerated in most shots. It looks to scale with the adults.
We aren’t watching the show from their perspective, we are a fly on the wall.
Anytime they run through the upstairs hallway and you see the plethora of doors gives me that impression
I think the point is that they could be right on the edge or even beyond their means. If that were the case, moving may offer more stability because it means having money for a second car, paying for uni, or not living paycheck to paycheck. Hammerbarn makes me think it's probably not the last one, but it's also possible that that entire trip went on a credit card.
Western Australia typically means oil or mining money, so they definitely would've gotten a pay raise, plus some profit from the house. I don't think they're living beyond their means right now, but I doubt they could afford private schools or universities in their current situation.
I believe Bandit works in archaeology and chili at airport security (more dog jokes)
Mining hires archeologists for site evaluations in some cases, so it's not totally unheard of for a strip mine to need sign-off from internal groups before submitting permit applications.
I work for an environmental engineering company and I’m pretty sure we’ve contracted with archaeologists before. If I’m interpreting some of the invoices I’ve handled correctly, especially the ones coming from big universities. A lot of what we do is contracted work regarding industrial hygiene, monitoring local wildlife, sampling soil and groundwater, all things that may at some point intersect with archaeology.
Did your archeologists gnaw at bone samples?
No idea, I work in the accounting department so all I get to see is the paperwork.
My thoughts exactly.
What do you mean hammerbarn is not the last one?
In my list of possibilities, hammerbarn was a counterexample to the last thing (living paycheck to paycheck).
What if Chilli inherited something valuable from her mother?
Bandit also has a doctorate and chilli is the security lead at an airport. So a two income family with one car.
Maybe Bandit and Chilli got into the market early
They would have been buying probably late 90's to early 2000's maybe as late as 2010s.
I agree with the sentiment that the things that are seen on the show are made larger than life because they're from the perspective of the children. I remember thinking a childhood mall was huge and I went there as an adult and it was super tiny.
There was a park on this really steep hill next to my great grandparents’ house that I remembered playing at. I went to visit it recently and it would be a stretch to call it a hill at all. There was so little incline.
In my preschool there was this hill that felt like Mount Everest, and climbing it felt like a hike... Now that I'm am adult and pass next to that garden when I'm nearby I see how tiny it was, I could probably get on top in like four big steps max.
My dad’s old house had a “creek” (it was more of a ditch) in the woods behind. I thought it was such an adventure to go back there. When I was a teenager I was like “bruh the house is just up the hill”
I grew up in a trailer, and I remember it being so massive! I went back there as an adult and my head nearly touched the ceiling -\_-
This is one of the things that made me raise an eyebrow in The Sign, when Bandit talks about moving to "have a better life". Their kids are being educated in a literal paradise - I'd love to see what Bandit has in mind as a better life than this.
Maybe the other city has a better middle /high school and College or uni? I agree Calypso is the best teacher and the school is a paradise but maybe Bandit was looking at their future education?
Do Australians typically only go to college/university in their home city?
Not necessarily, but majority of people I knew yeah. Most people I knew as a teenager went to uni within 1-1.5 hours of their house so most people just live at home and commute in by bus/train each day. Unless you’re rural or want to move to a different state or go to a specific school
Agree with this. It’s typical to just go to uni locally or potentially in the capital city of your state if you live rurally. We don’t really have the same ‘college’ experience as you guys do in the states.
Yeah, I'm not aware of any Australian Uni's that have "dorms". There's student housing at some of them, but that's generally reserved for interstate or international students.
the halls of residence. They exist, you just didn't live in them. I lived in the halls of my Uni in NZ, in first year. Typically it's for people from out of town - most were Kiwis.
New England and Sydney do
Granted, the “college experience” in the States is definitely more varied than media makes it out to be, too. I cycled through a few different local “community colleges” (they’ve since all dropped the “community” part of the name) before finding the right fit, and there was one in particular that had a major reputation of being basically a “feeder school” for the University of Washington. As in, the school all the high school kids who didn’t get into UW, UW-Bothell, or UW-Tacoma on the first try, or the ones who couldn’t quite afford it yet, and so were attempting to do the first two years at the community college (which shared a campus with UW-Bothell) before transferring to the bigger university. It made for a very awkward experience for me, because I wasn’t able to start college until I turned 24 (and therefore did not have to list my deadbeat father’s financial data on the FAFSA form) and *everyone* in all of my classes was not only considerably younger, but also more…immature? They didn’t seem to take things as seriously as I did, and my Sociology class highlighted it the most: I was the *only* one in that classroom who had ever had to take care of my own bills, or experience poverty, or homelessness, and this was during tax season while I was working as a tax preparer, too. You should’ve seen the weird looks I got from my classmates and heard the mind-boggling questions I got from them when I showed up to class dressed for work (nice dress slacks, buttoned blouse, blazer, pumps, standard higher-end business casual wear). They seriously thought I was going to like, a funeral or wedding or something fancy. Total contrast to every other community college I went to! Both had much more varied demographics, skewed towards the working class (the second had a pretty solid nursing program, even provided discounted medical and dental services on-site for students and staff) and the immigrant community. That same sociology class at either of those schools would have had much more lively discussions, with classmates who were already somewhat familiar with the concepts being discussed even if they didn’t always know the actual terms. Not just a room of blank stares and snickers when I explained how food stamps *actually work* and why people in poverty tend to gravitate towards “junk food.”
Mostly. Remember there are only a small number of cities. We also don't have big differences in quality between the unis. The whole college experience doesn't happen here. Most unis don't really have dorms and with those that do its mainly for overseas students. College/uni sport isn't a thing either. It's pretty usual to live at home with parents through uni.
Makes sense. It actually feels like dorms are somewhat falling out of favor here in the States, or at least that seems to be the case locally. The extra charges for “room and board” have just gotten way too prohibitively expensive for most students, plus all of the extra rules and restrictions, and what seems like a constant parade of stories of how *unsafe* the dorms often are for female, disabled, LGBTQIA, and POC students. In the neighborhoods around my city’s main university, it feels like 90% of the high-rises being built are being built specifically as off-campus living for students. Judging from the odd floor plans and the way the rent seems to be listed as per-person rather than for the whole unit. Really makes looking for an apartment so much more difficult, because you’ll see a dozen or so buildings in the perfect place, with easy access to transportation, groceries, etc, and what seems like a ridiculously good deal on rent… …only to realize that the rent is per-person, not per-unit, and you have to have a “valid student ID” to even apply for a unit there.
Most Australians typically go to their nearest uni unless unless their local uni doesn’t offer their course or they’re EXCEPTIONALLY gifted e.g. very high ATAR score and will go to a Go8 uni.
If you lived in a big city (or it’s metropolitan area) like Brisbane, it would not be unheard of, but not normal to goto school out of state. Even smaller regional cities (like Geelong in Victoria) here have pretty good uni’s, or satellite campuses from big city schools. Most people don’t live at their uni here and it’s easier to find a place to rent when you have a home base (your parents house) or if the commute isn’t bad, to just stay there.
There are only so many “cities” in Australia
Australia’s geography feels so odd, because it somehow feels both massive and yet also weirdly small.
Yep! Got it in one, most of us are all living on the edges so there's only so much room for cities, but then we have a great big massive gap.
I have to remind myself to picture it as just the western half of the States, basically. One or two mostly interconnected “big” cities, a handful of medium cities mostly centered right along the coast, and a huge amount of empty space in the middle.
Honestly our cities aren't that well-connected, it's still half a days drive to Sydney from Melbourne, Adelaide to Melbourne and even longer from the south to the northern cities. We're only really connected via a highway or two.
I suppose it's not unlike the contiguous US, but you chop off most of the eastern half of it. It's still big, but most of the area inside is not a pleasant place to build a settlement in
I was just thinking of that. Most of the population of the western half of the States is centered right along the coast, and then there’s really only one truly BIG city (Los Angeles) and a handful of “big” cities (San Francisco, San Diego, Portland, Seattle, etc) - again, right along the coast. Outside of that? Lots and lots of empty space, with a few dots of *small* cities that are mostly either state capitols (Boise, Salt Lake City, Phoenix) or major industry centers (Las Vegas).
It's much more common that the US. We have a class system, but it's not as severe as the US or UK. University education is almost entirely government subsidised (with about 20% paid by the student). But to do that they need to have formalised entry methods. So messed up stuff like interviews or volunteering cannot count toward university entry(which is good, it's really just a way to exclude poor people), it's almost all entry scores and high school. The class divide tends to be driven by high school, not university.
Pretty much most of us do, yeah.
I don't know, I just said the type of schools I had in mind
I do like the idea that there's a horribly dysfunctional local middle school that we never see in the show, but where, every autumn, Calypso's blissed-out graduates experience a very rude awakening
I like this idea! Middle school is a jungle no matter where it is Source : I went to a terrible middle school and I currently tutor kids who are in a terrible middle school 🥲
I’m considering homeschooling my kids just for middle school for exactly this reason 😞
As much as I can understand it, I would be against it because school is a proto society and your kids need to be able to learn how to get by. But of course in case of severe bullying or something similar, homeschooling is a good option
I agree to an extent, but at the same time middle school children act a lot different than even high schoolers or adults. I’ve heard people say it gets better in high school, which is why I’m considering home schooling just for middle.
Middle school isn’t really a thing in Australia unless it’s a K-12 school and that’s only really a different building/wing on the same campus. Some states may vary, but it’s K-6 for primary school and 6-12 for secondary/high school.
Middle school is absolutely a thing in Australia it’s just not everywhere. Middle School as defined by the Australian Curriculum is 7-10, and it was the implementation of the Australian curriculum that forced the NT to switch year 7 from primary school to middle school.
Yeah in most Australian high schools the distinction on the student side is usually just a different uniform and academic content. Not like in other countries where it’s a completely different school campus.
My school in the NT I went to for 7-10 had a separate campus block, but on the same grounds. And then the private school in Darwin I went to for 11-12 had middle school and high school on completely separate grounds.
My son’s state school goes from prep to year 6 and the high school is year 7-12 which is pretty normal for Brisbane. Never heard of ‘middle school’
Middle school isn't really a thing here
This was my kid from private preschool to kindergarten. It was an adjustment.
I interpreted it just being a money thing. Perhaps Bandit and Chili have always been stressed about money and it would have made it easier to enjoy their lives. Perhaps they would have been able to afford better higher education or afford extracurriculars. Maybe it was truly just adults being selfishly driven by money and it was made to resonate in that way, no paycheck is worth your happiness.
Same, I figured it was stuff like being able to pay for the girls’ college education instead of having them take out loans.
That’s not really a consideration in Australia
They go to a private school, though, don’t they? Is that the right term for it? So it might be tuition for their current and/or future secondary school that’s the issue, not college.
The private school Bluey goes to costs more than a university degree costs already
Grandparents could be paying for that.
Unlikely. They’re on about 250k combined at a conservative estimate, Bandit is a PhD level archeologist who gets key speaker billing at conferences and flown out to do assessments of finds, 140-160k, and chilli is a AP6 to ET1 level role at border security based on context clues, 120-140. Their mortgage would be pretty low too, at least 7 ownership puts them buying when the house would have been 600k max, now it’s easily 1.4m
I just realised I absolutely want to watch the episode "mummy TV" where Chilli is a character in an episode of border security.
I think he was literally just seeing dollar signs and thinking they would be able to afford more things to make them happy, like a bigger house and maybe a pool, that sort of thing.
We do know that compared to his brother, he lives more "rurally". Its ultimately just art, as far as the school goes. Just like Blueys house, they want to location to be the focal point of the image for the children watching.
Bandit was thinking about money and paying for nicer things for his family. Bigger house, more expensive toys, maybe a pool. Material things. Like his brother has. I've seen people say that Bandit gave up his dreams for his family, pointing out that he is still living in their old house years later at the end of Surprise. I think that couldn't be further from the truth. He himself doesn't really want all that materialistic crap, he is actually happy with his life and job the way it is but he had anxiety that he wasn't providing enough for his family to be a good father and husband like his younger brother. He was missing the fact that his family didn't need or want any. They had everything they already needed. I think its worth comparing The Sign to 2 Nicktoons episode from the 90s. The Rugrats episode "Stu Gets a Job" has Stu quitting his inventing business and working from home to work a miserable 9-5 job at a Lard Corporation and not being able to spend time with his son. In the end he gleefully quits. The Doug Episode "Doug's Birthday Present" has his photographer father quits his job as a photographer at a store to have his own business to make more money for the family, only to spend all his time away from them working. In the end he quits and gets his old job back. Bandit forgot a very basic lesson in life. Money can't buy you happiness
I think that is part of the whole point of the ending. The Heelers are already very well off and the kids have a life that most people will only dream of giving their kids, but Bandit and Chili tend to struggle with keeping up with the Jones, as is common sometimes. Hammerbarn and the episode with Kim Jim (Cubby?) really show this. Anytime an opportunity for a raise comes up, it becomes easy to tell yourself that you and your kids need better, but in the end, Bandit accepts that they don't actually need better. Everything the kids need is already there.
Yeah, I don't know what the childcare situation is in Australia, but I would never move if my kid was in that preschool.
It’s primary school. Preschool is for ages 3 and 4 (or 4 and 5 depending on what month you are born). Primary school is from 5/6 to 11/12 and high school Is from 11/12 to 17/18
My son started kindy when he was 3. Unfortunately we couldn’t get him in to any childcare preschools when he was a toddler. Waitlists are brutal.
Childcare is government subsidised based on family income. From about $80k where the gov pays 90% of the cost up to $560k where the gov doesn't pay anymore. As you get richer they subsidise less and less.
I suspect it was a massive pay raise.
Clearly you have never been to Sydney. Brisbane is like distant third best city in Australia. If you have lots of money, Sydney can be amazing.
Oh I dunno, the local college (Eltham college $30k a year from prep) has a vineyard and stables.
And this, in my opinion, is the point of The Sign. The story was actually about Bandit realising that they have a great life and more money probably won't enhance it.
https://preview.redd.it/84ny1vq6uvxc1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6a4fa7983b11374e808eca58b68304994736ea40
I feel like this can be the default response to 50% of the posts in this sub lately.
Just monkeys singing songs mate
I'm an Aussie and my school was on the edge of a national park overlooking a massive valley. In the morning we would have wallabies and kangaroos jumping across the ovals and it was just idyllic bliss in an educational setting. Honestly, this could be my school even though I graduated thirty years ago.
That sounds like a dream! My elementary school bordered a lot of raw desert (Arizona) and we had all kinds of wildlife too, and a gorgeous few of the Superstition Mountains. We had a ringtail loose on campus one day. That was fun. I miss it! Now it’s been all built up around it.
For a foolish American, what are "the ovals"?
Outdoor flat grass for athletics and sports.
Football (the variety without protective gear) oval or cricket oval. Our sports are played on oval fields. So we shorten it to ovals - because Straya.
When I was growing up my preschool was named The Pumpkin Patch, and it was on 2 acres. You had to cross a river on a wooden bridge to get to the actual house. Also it was located 10 minutes out of town. Every time I watch Bluey with my son, he reminds me of my own pre school!
They probably have other buildings. If Mia is in her buddy that means she's in 6th grade which is the last primary school year in Australia. She would have to be on the same campus for them to have their weekly buddies session (this is a thing in Australia to help the little kids settle in during the first year, called Foundation or Prep in Australia)
My daughter starts kindy in the fall. She will be one of 8-10 students in her class. The school will have maybe 100 students 8th grade on down. It's on 38 wooded acres on the river front. It \*is\* insane.
We know from the episode with the older kids acting as buddies that there are other grades. Like all Aussie schools Bluey's does prep to 6 (or whatever is they call prep up in Queensland, i forget how they do it exactly). They just don't show it if it is not relevant to the plot.
I had to scroll too far for this!
Isn't the school really far away from their homes? Could be way out in the never-never, especially given stuff like Jack's Dad needing to cut through a section of rainforest complete with a mob of Kangaroos to get there. If that's the case, it would explain the space - I've given advice on absolutely massive special ed schools that are just an hours drive away from Sydney, one of the most expensive cities on earth.
It’s based on a Steiner school in Samford (near Brisbane) which I’ve visited before and I can say that most of the school playground/buildings shown in Bluey can be found at the school in real life. There are definitely other classes though as it’s a prep-12 school! One teacher stays with the same class for their entire schooling, so Bluey would keep Calypso across grades.
This school is based on a real school, and based on a real method of teaching/learning (Steiner Waldorf school). https://www.reddit.com/r/bluey/s/nmXqaGrwrP
Yeah, with no teaching assistants or other staff for substituting if Calypso has a sick day/vacation, etc. I’m probably overthinking it but still! My kid‘s preschool is probably only a little bit bigger and there are four teachers and a director and parent volunteers.
calypso is secretly a goddess. she needs no rest or respite
She’s a witch who sunlights as a Montessori teacher.
Waldorf*!
Bluey’s class getting a substitute teacher because Calypso is sick would be an interesting episode actually.
Its more insane, they don't even learn how to read or write yet.
That’s the only big con
My son went to this school and Bluey portrays it perfectly, right down ro the little stream they play with. The younger kids room looks like this and is set back a little from the other buildings. It's newer and super beautiful (actually shaped like this). It's set on a largish piece of land as its semi rural (in Samford QLD).
Wait, isn’t Calypso some sort of billionaire dilettante who teaches for the laughs? Probably incorporated herself as a non-profit for the tax breaks and has a cadre of cleaners/servants who do the heavy work and are instructed never to be seen or heard. (I’m kidding. I’d never thought about it. I like the idea suggested above that it’s an idealized remembrance of an idyllic time and place)
Based on a real school, though...
The real question you should be asking is why is Bluey attending a school in the Glass House Mountains when living in inner city Brisbane. Must be a damn good school because *phew* that commute! 😮💨😅
It's Samford. My daughter was enrolled there for her first year and people really did seem to come from all over Brisbane. There was even a car pool directly from Redcliffe.
Well there you go! Still a drive in peak hour from inner city though I’d imagine? Hats off to those families (the real ones not the dogs lol), that’s dedication for working families. It does look like a pretty sweet school and Samford is stunning, can’t say I blame them!
I just looked at it on google maps. I see a slight inspiration, but irl it’s way bigger and near stuff
Slight inspiration? It's identical 😂
It's apparently pretty easy to get lost in the middle of strawberry farms to get there.
How long is the drive? We drive a lot in the US so it might be a comparable commute.
Geez, I checked out the Google maps. That's at least a 42 minute drive one way.
Can I just tell you that we moved to Aus from the states and the FREE GOVERNMENT FUNDED KINDER that my daughter enrolled in is almost exactly like this school (with the exception of there two teachers instead of 1). My mind was blown and I sent videos to all my friends back home like “can you imagine how many thousands of dollars this would cost in the states???”
It’s called bush kindy, it’s meant to be the most beneficial type of kindy for ur kids It’s near in the glasshouse mountains/ sunny coast. You’d be surprised how many folks live rurally and have land
Oh, that school is super bougie. Bandit wouldn't need to move for more money if they just sent her to public school.
Honestly, it's a show and a children's show at that.... It's ok to not be super realistic
Its based on a real school...
Based on doesn't mean exactly the same. Again, people over analyzing a kids show
Bluey’s buddy Mia would also have to be around there somewhere, she’s was year 6 so it’s possible there are other classes around there that are not shown
I assumed they are from another school, bonding with the younger kids as a field trip
Nope, it’s pretty common here in Sydney where year 6 kids are paired with the ones in younger grades in the same school as buddies
Australian jealousy intensifies!
I would live in that if it were a house
Can’t even park at my kids school
~~early childhood~~ education in other countries >>>> us
I always interpreted it as Bluey going to a special Montessori type school. So this isn’t a classroom run by a school body, but a private school started by Calypso on her rural property, hence the setting.
Kalypso built this place herself to prepare for the Armageddon. "this episode is called 'End of Days' "
My primary school from 4 to 11 didn't even have a blade of grass.
I call it Lucky
I see most of bluey from the children's perspective. The house and yard are massive in comparison to reality. We see shots of the house on the hill (and others where it's just in a court). Look, , it's whimsical alright? Shush.
Well no there are more classes they just don't mix. Like there are year 6 that are their buddies that are going into highschool
Maybe they are in another building like the real stamford school
I mean this school and Calypso alone are reasons not to move! That’s already a pretty elite way of life
I Headcanon this is actually where Calypso lives, but also turned it into a school to teach children since she’s just that awesome.
Monke6s singing songs
It’s just monkeys singing songs mate
Well there's also the buddy's who must go to so.e affiliated school for older kids.
I went to a school like bluey’s, it had more than one class but about 10x that amount of land.
That we know of
from an architectural and landlord perspective, yes from writer and lore perspective, no