It's decided ... moving to Sydney April/May 2008... which areas are good with kids?

[MrsBigD]

o.k. it's still a bit away but thought I better get started re what to consider.

Visa stuff I have info and paperwork to be done.

I've been to Sydney yonks ago and obviously didn't look at it with the eys of a parent trying to work out which area to move to for good schools etc. but more to find good night clubs etc

So who knows Sidney from the parental perspective and is willing to share all the gritty details ?

a word of warning, someone said keep an eye on the visa application. BE CAREFUL, we were told by our immigration agent that if you contacted the relevant office for your application they would delay the process. Ours took only 2 months to come thru, got a former resident visa for Oz, no restrictions. DH already started work.

(BTW, was melissasmummy)

sorry, seemed to have wires crossed, thought PeppaPigsMum was talking about the offical immigration office, but on re-reading she says "agencies". Opps!

thanks for the urls arfyshimeau Shall ask dh if he knows Cogee

What's the house prices like there? We'd be looking for 3 bed place at least.

No idea yet where we'll be working

Probably will get car at some stage.

What kind of schools will we be looking for? Hmmm one for a 7 year old and one for a 4 year old and of course a good one . If they do languages even better. Kids are being brought up bi-lingual. Well at least they're being spoken to in German as well as English. DD keeps telling me she's to little to speak German and ds can't really talk yet

Oh and as for meet ups and swaps as of mid 2008 count me in

Also by then I'll have heaps of experience with my photography and can offer some portrait services LOL see here . Sorry, so proud of my site

arfishymeau... asked DH about Coogee and he said 'drugs & alcohol' that's why his brother loved to 'hang out' there . DH and his brother lived in Sydney about 8 years ago, has the area changed?

Hey MrsBD, tried to look at your website but link wasn't working for me
Houses in Sydney are expensive (although of course seem less so if you do conversions from £!)and are very dependant on the suburb. I see someone has already given you the domain link - thats a good place to start looking.

Pubic schools in 'good' areas are generally very good, and most children go to them, even those who eventually go to private schools for secondary school.

Its probably a matter of choosing an area, then choosing a nice local primary school - on the North Shore there is sure to be a few around to choose from.

Hi Astrophe, the url is www.katjageorge.com. Whenever I try and do a link it seems to loop back to mumsnet for some weird reason...

'Pubic' school eh?! Sounds very instersting

why interesting?

public is just the state run schools.

thanks for the website...will check in out

you typed pubic not public

LOL

hi again.

MrsBigD thanks for bumping my post! you seem to be getting loads of useful info here - i'll be looking at some of the links relating to schools i think. also thought this link might be good to look at for houses as well - sometimes has places not on Domain.

Astrophe we used to live on Wycombe Road and loved it. i remember taking the bus into work over the Harbour Bridge in the morning, then coming home on the ferry in the evening and walking back through Cremorne Reserve - its a lovely area. also BBQ at The Oaks! i went back not so long ago and had forgotton how hilly it is - a nightmare pushing a pram about!!! i would be scared to think how much houses must cost in Mosman - some of them are huge .

Arfishymeau thanks for the welcome. would definitely be up for a meet at some point. Sydney does seem popular at the moment, although it seems there are more Mumsnetters in Melbourne at the moment from the threads on here! i always thought Coogee would be a great place to live - it was just the fact dp is working at DY that stopped us looking.

my favourites are getting close to an electronic heart attack with all the links I'm adding

Oh how I love mumsnet

Just been in touch with the visa agents we're planning on using. They told me family sponsored visa turnaround is 3 months... surely not! Can it be that they work that fast???

Peppapig I lived in Eaton Street, down near Forsyth park. I went to Neutral Bay Primary, on Yeo st...WE loved the fish and chip shop on Wycombe rd...
sigh...
I miss Sydney.

how are you enjoying Derby Astrophe? i was in Leicester for 5 years and have fond memories of the Midlands. a bit different from Sydney though

Hi MrsBig,
I am from Sydney - grew up on the North Shore (see all the suburbs listed by Astro) but if I were moving back to Sydney with children I would probably look around Bronte.
You husband's pretty spot on re Coggee though!
The Northern Beaches are fabulous - I spent most of my weekends there when I was a kid, but they are not a convenient place to live if you need to get to the city, or anywhere else for that matter! It's not called the insular peninsular for nothing!
North Shore schools are generally v good - both public and private.
Where ever you end up, make sure you enrol your kids in Nippers (junior surf lifesaving clubs)very Aussie and a great way to give them confidence in the water.

Hi Sydsnow thanks for that

House prices in Sydney are some of the most unaffordable in the world based on how many times your salary you would have to borrow.

Are you selling something in the UK?

nope unfortunately have nothing to sell beside small stuff But already putting money over to Australia so benefiting from exchange rate

contacted Australian High Comission because I decided to do the visa thing without the help of the rather expensive agents... just wrote to them to clarify I understood it all right and it's form xyz I need to fill in, this is the cost etc. Had a pleasant surprise... not only did they respond the same day they also told me that the visa I need will only cost me around £80! O.k. I'll have to get paperwork notarised, health check etc. but that would have been on top of the agency fees anyhow. So now feeling well chuffed that I will be putting the saved money into our account in Sydney

mrsbigd, we had a former resident visa and it only took 2 and a half months, so as long as all your paperwork is in order I don't see why it can't be that quick.

Watch the price tho, we paid 1k in aus $ for ours, 80pounds (no pound sign)nseems way to cheap to me. have you visited the DIMIA website? We did have an agent but his fees were seperate.

Allow upto 200pounds for medicals & 100pounds for xrays.

I'm an (ex) Sydney-sider too and grew up on the North Shore - would love to move to the suburbs that Astro lived in but probably out of my price range for now
If you are thinking of North Shore, then suburbs on the trainline are a good bet as it makes commuting to the city much easier. My brother and his wife and son have just bought a little place in the Waitara/Waroonga area so there are a few bargains still to be had. Also there is talk of a recession and house prices are coming down so you might be lucky.
We are also thinking of buying around Frenchs Forest/Forestville which is close to the Northern Beaches but more affordable.

In terms of primary schools, I can get some recommendations on the northern side if you would like - I have friends/relatives who are primary teachers in that area.
Killara High School, which is a state school, has an excellent reputation. Houses that are in the catchment area for Killara High usually advertise this fact, but it will generally be Lindfield/Killara/Gordon area.

Couple of other little things: some things are cheaper in UK, eg Little Tikes gear, Avent gear etc so its worth shipping them over rather than trying to source them in Australia.

Sandcastle I was a bit sceptical to because on the website all I could find was pricing for a spouse visa in the range of AUS$1,300 which I thought was still ok considering. But just to confirmed I asked the guys at dfat.gov.uk and response came as:

"The fee for the New Zealand Citizen Family Relationship (Temporary) Visa subclass 461 is $AU185 (GBP80). Please note that this is temporary visa only, and does not lead to permanent residency.

The Special Category (subclass 444) visa is a temporary visa automatically granted to New Zealand citizens who arrive in Australia who do not hold a permanent visa. No paper work is required."

So what do you reckon?

potoroo oh would you check with your relatives/friends re schools? No rush though . Especially interested in state that also do languages if they do that is

MrsBigD,
As far as I was aware, all schools offer languages (especially high-schools) however you will find there is a very different focus is Aus. French/German etc no longer considered particularly useful languages to learn and there is a much stronger focus on Asian languages. The only language we learned at my primary school was Indonesian, and in High School the most popular languages were Japanese and Mandarin.

Sydsnow any language is good. And going by the sci-fi series Firefly learning Mandarin is the way to go .

I wish I could speak it!