Hi there
I have a 14 year old daughter and we are hoping to move to Sydney soon (so she will be 15 /16 years old when we get there). She obviously is dubious about the move, leaving a very good group of friends here in the UK. I am bringing her over for a holiday in January 2009 and would like to show her as much as possible about the Aussie way of life and what girls her age do (that basically it's not that different to here in the UK) e.g shopping, going to the beach, discos...
Can anyone recommend suitable family areas to move to that we could look at. We currently live in a terrace house in a seaside town and are about 15 minutes walk to a beach (very awful beach!), it is about a 15 minute walk to the town centre containing high street favourites such as New Look (your similar store is Jay Jays). She goes to the cinema, restaurants and discos at the weekends with friends and will sometimes take a 30 minute train to go shopping in the nearest city centre. Her school is quite a large college (mixed), about 2000 pupils - I would like to try and find something as similar as possible to what she is used to before winning her over with all that Sydney has to offer. Any school recommendations for a 15/ 16 year old would be most gratefully received, we can have a look when we come over in January at those too!
My partner and I will more than likely end up working in the city, so commute distance of no more than 1 hr is essential and we have freinds in North Sydney and East Ryde - if that's any help to the advice anyone can provide.
Unfortunately, our friends are child-free so unable to offer much advice in this area!!! We are fairly young parents (early thirties).
Sorry if this seems like a lot of info, but I thought the more specific I was, the easier it may be to narrow down the advice you may be able to give.
I fell in love with Australia and the people too, I would just like her to be able to do the same.

Hi Helen. The schools in Australia are nowhere near as big as the one your daughter goes to. Are you after a public school or a private school?

As for suburbs that are good for families, if you want to live on the north shore then Lane Cove and Chatswood are good for families. Chatswood has a huge shopping centre with a cinema. However, it's not near a beach. Lane Cove is on the harbour with plenty of parks. It's not near a beach either. Both are near North Sydney which have larger public schools. There is a very good private girls school called SCEGGS. It's in Cremorne which is on the lower north shore. It's an upper middle class area, whereas Chatswood and Lane Cove are middle class.

Manly is a very good area and has a great beach. There are a couple of large public schools in the area.

Otherwise if you want to go to the eastern suburbs, then try Randwick. It's about a 15 minute walk from Coogee beach which is a great beach. There are a few schools around the area.

Can I just say a huge thanks Victoria for taking the time to reply. Lots of great info to get the ball rolling and have been researching the areas you have mentioned.