Might be moving to Sydney sooner than anticipated... gulp

[MrsBigD]

dh just got made redundant and now our 18 month timeframe has moved to potentially 6 months or even less!

Got dd (nearly 6yo) an ds (3yo) and naturally already panicing about schooling... not easy to get to grips with it not knowing where we'll live except for somewhere North of Sydney/Northshores etc.

Not to mention visa, part-time work and all the other lovely things I just went through moving from West London to Buckinghamshire only 7 months ago! ARGH

I think I better start building a new social network RIGHT NOW so who wants to be my friend with advice on how things work in Oz

[eidsvold]

no idea about Sydney but there are plenty of mumsnetters in Sydney. I am a little further north in Brisbane! Can help with general enquiries.

school info for 6yo

hope that is a start.

what sort of visa are you applying for? Some can take months to come through.

[MrsBigD]

thanks eidsvoid shall have a look at link tomorrw. Way past my bedtime!

have a friend in Brisbane but he and his wife have no kids so no idea re schooling etc LOL

I'll be going in an a NZ citizen family visa (dh is a kiwi but not an eligible one so can't sponsor me in on spouse visa) which is a temporary 5 year visa which allows meto work. As it's a temp visa it doesn't take ages to come through but I've already contacted the imi office for further details.

So many things to consider which I knew about but it's a bit of a shock when one counts on having 18 months and suddenly finds oneself with much less thatn that

[eidsvold]

ahhh - that will make it easy and being able to work if you want to!

[arfishy]

Hi MrsBigD & welcome to our gang. Don't worry about a thing. We'll sort you out.

I think Bloss is a teacher on the North Shore - she'll be able to help you out. What sort of school will you be looking for?

www.domain.com.au and www.realestate.com.au are good sites for houses.

It's a very gorgeous 28' in Sydney today. We're just about to head to the beach and I keep getting whiffs of barbeque.

[MrsBigD]

arfishy

being married to a kiwi I'm very partial to bbq's he's out there in the garden cooking on our 'outback' even when it's raining

Thanks for the accommodation links for what we pay here in rent we can get a near palace in Sydney!

As for schools, preferably non-church affiliated and small class sizes. The first is mainly because getting into church affiliated schools here in the UK is a nightmare unless one is a regular worshiper and the latter because dd fares better in smaller groups In London she used to be in a class of 30 and was a very reluctant school goer, now she's in a class of 10 (well 20 because they're teaching them with year 2) she's come along in leaps and bounds

[arfishy]

Barbeques are ace. I think the first thing DP bought when he stepped off the plane was a decent aussie barbeque.

I think non-denominational schools are a bit tricky, lots of schools here are affiliated with religion. Oddly enough DD is going to one but we're in the Eastern suburbs so that's probably no use to you.

Wenona is in the North and non-denominational, I don't know it though so can't say if it's any good - www.wenona.nsw.edu.au It's North Sydney. It's for girls though so not much help for DS. Hopefully Bloss will be along soon and can help.

Am I right in thinking you're German? Not that I'm a stalker or anything . There's a non-denominational German school in the North too.

It's worth thinking ahead about daycare for DS if you are planning on working. Childcare places in Sydney are very tight. You might need to get him on a waiting list now.

I would try to narrow down where you're going to live first, which at least will give you a base to work from.

[MrsBigD]

uhohuhoh... a nondenominational german school? where!?! LOL and yes you assumed correctly you stalker

Might have to look up that school and see whether it would be suitable for dd. Currently she understands German but refuses to speak it except for a few things because 'her friends wouldn't understand her' ... a child's logic eh?

As for ds's childcare, hadn't realised it was that tight in Sydney.

So step 1: work out where to live
step 2: panic

[arfishy]

I have no idea how I knew that btw.

Here's the German School - www.germanschoolsydney.com. German not a pre-requisite apparently.

Don't panic. Just enjoy looking at the HUGE houses with pools. Once you've got a rough idea of where you want to live it will all fall into place.

When I was trying to organise my visa I was living in Dusseldorf, but all my paperwork was in the UK. It was a nightmare. I had to do it all very quickly as well for a contract (weeks), but you have the luxury of time (even if 6 months does seem a little short after 18 months).

[MrsBigD]

thanks arfishy just looking up the German school. Is Ryde a good area? Shall contact them anyhow to get some info off them

Just spoke to bil (haven't actually met him yet!) and as he's somewhere near Brisbane and has no kids not much help LOL

[arfishy]

Ryde itself is a commercial district, so no, don't try to find a house there (it's not unpleasant actually, not a sink estate or anything, but there's plenty of areas that are much nicer).

We'll have to call on the natives now to help out with good residential areas . I've always been in the East and don't really know the north shore. Manly is nice, but full of celebs and has 2 shorelines so guaranteed to be pricey.

[legalalien]

FWIW, my SIL (who has lived on the north shore for a while) went for Wahroonga, which I think is a bit north of Ryde and has some good schools. Will pester her for more info if you want?

[MrsBigD]

hi legalalien , yes please if you dont mind

[legalalien]

no problem - although might be slight delay as need to dig out her email address on home pc...

[arfishy]

Bumping for the Aussies....

[AussieSim]

Hello MrsBigD! I am on the Upper Northern Beaches - I am an aussie but my DH is German and I lived in Germany for a couple of years.

I have a DS 4.5 who is starting kindergarten next year at www.glenaeon.nsw.edu.au which is a Steiner/Waldorf school as we wanted the German language from a young age. He has been going to a Steiner pre-school in Willoughby last year and this year which has been fantastic. The German International School is actually relocating to Terrey Hills in Jan 08 - which is 5 mins from us and I am planning to put DS2's name down there for preschool. If you get in touch over the email I can send you all the info they emailed me recently if you are interested - it is all going to be brand new and very small class sizes.

For your DD it would probably be just fine and fairly easy to enrol her at the local public school, which are quite good especially when in good suburbs, which is generally what the North Shore, Northern Beaches suburbs are regarded as, although I wouldn't think the classes would be that small. Check out this website - I think it will be useful for a whole bunch of things, but the magazine generally do an issue a couple of times a year of independant private schools www.sydneyschild.com.au/. There are Montessori schools as well in the area.

The childcare centres are generally starting to fill their books for the new year now. Having said that I have never found any trouble getting a spot. The council ones have long waiting lists but the private ones aren't so bad. In fact there is a brand new one opening at Frenchs Forest www.kindalin.com.au.

There is also a deutsche spielgruppe at North Balgowlah Friday mornings which you might find to be a good support.

I would think that a big factor in deciding where to live would be where your DH's work is. Traffic in Sydney can be a nightmare. For example you might want to stick to the north shore train line, or you might be happy to live in reasonable distance from a major arterial road such as Warringah Road or a suburb where he can jump a ferry across the harbour to the city - now that would be something! To test the commute times you could use www.whereis.com.au and for public transport www.131500.com.au

There is also a deutsche spielgruppe at North Balgowlah Friday mornings which you might find to be a good support.

What kind of work would you be looking for?

I hope that helps some, Sim

[MrsBigD]

Thanks Sim especially for the change of address for the German School! They didn't mention that in their email to me this morning ;) The sent me the general leaflet pdf for their school and very kindly answered all the questions I threw at them

now to look what Terrey Hills is like

feel free to email me on katja at kiwiconsulting dot net with any insight for Terrey Hills if that's 5 mins from you

better get some work done now!

[MrsBigD]

daft question... are the prices on domain.au.com for rental weekly or monthly???

[arfishy]

Weekly I'm afraid. Note too that most houses are rented unfurnished.

When I got here I had to hire a load of stuff from pabs - www.pabs.com.au, which I combined with a massive shop-fest of the cheapest, nastiest possible stuff in Ikea because I was only supposed to be staying for 6 months. Am now trying to get shot of the tat and buy more long-term stuff.

[eidsvold]

so arfishy - you in for the long haul now???

[MrsBigD]

unfurnished is just fine and I love Ikea. Hadn't realised there was an Ikea in Sydney... yippieh!

[arfishy]

Yep, there's a mahoosive one in Homebush. I am quite proud of the fact that I have now kitted out 5 'temporary' houses in 4 different countries from Ikea. Our house in the UK looks like one of their warehouses - every time I moved countries it all got shipped back there In OZ I went REALLY cheap tho, as I knew I was going to have to dump it when I left. I didn't even buy a kettle or toaster [tightwad emoticon].

Of course now I'm not leaving I get embarrassed at the $4 towels and 99c dinner service. Actually, the dinner service is quite good .

Yes Eids, I think we're staying. Assuming they'll have us of course. We have a couple of years of visa left. I do hope they don't throw me out and make me abandon my new sofa I don't think I could face going back to London Not least because it was a balmy 34' today.

[eidsvold]

here are some cute tea towels

love this place

I figure when the dds are older is time for a good dinner service - at the moment - we have two every day ones and an old acoroc smoked glass one - outside BBQ one. I feel no worries when it gets chipped or broken then.

[arfishy]

Eids! You temptress!

[arfishy]