simonethebeaver

We've got our letter. It's apparently slightly less than last year so if you set up the DD for the same as last year you can be assured you'll make enough of a payment while you're away.

School trips and tourists. We went midweek last month, and by 11am there were long lines for the dinosaurs. The Science Museum is generally less crowded.

Get there at opening to have the best chance of not queuing for the animatronic dinosaurs. And use the side entrance rather than the main.

I never found it that hard! And most really good places will adjust a dish for you if you have restrictions. Are you concerned about rare meat? I can see that might be an issue but I'm sure you can get meat cooked through if you need it. When I was pregnant we got married and had the tasting menu afterwards at Pied a Terre in Marylebone. It was amazing, and they substituted anything that pregnant women aren't meant to have without any issue at all. The last meal out I had when pregnant with my second was at Trinity in Clapham, which is very nice indeed actually if you're looking for ideas, and they were also very willing to make adjustments. Just two places off the top of my head which made it very easy.

Southwark Council has sent an extremely robust response to Harris about the opening of the new school, which I think captures the feelings of everyone I've spoken to about it. Councillor Victoria Mills has led on it, as the Cabinet Member for Children and Schools.

I think there's been feedback on here about the admissions criteria, Simon. We also had many concerned parents at the open evenings who were completely against a 'crow flies' policy. I'm sure we'll share whatever we can, but it does surprise me that you didn't hear similar things!

Yes, big congratulations, Charter. It is fantastic news that ED will get its new secondary school. Is there any chance at all that you will be revisiting your proposed admissions policy? We received a huge amount of feedback from parents that were concerned at the 'crow flies' proposal.

An hour in a car from here to Hemel is an outright lie.

It looks like the OP contacted councillors not MPs, but for the record, MPs can only take up cases for people living in their constituencies normally, unless there are extenuating circumstances. So I wouldn't expect one contacted about a case elsewhere to do much, but their office should at least let you know they can't help. Councillors are a different matter!

To be honest I wouldn't take another child to a scan because (a) I think they'd get quite bored pretty quickly and (b) if you get bad news - and the scan is essentially to check for problems - how would you deal with that AND your other child all at once? I think it's worth considering. I found the scan photo was proof enough of a sibling for mine.

I emailed Tara Quinn and Barrie Hargrove, as suggested above. I got an immediate response from Barrie and have since had another reply from one of Tara's colleagues. So I'm hoping to get a resolution on my query.

The bands can vary a lot from year to year though so there is no point in trying to get into a certain band as the next year it could be the one with the most kids in it. The Lewisham test is done in all the borough's primary schools and the kids are banded across the borough, and the LA schools then get applications from kids who already have their band (test done at the end of year 5). I have never worked out how Southwark applicants are banded. So theoretically every single applicant to an individual school could be in the same band. The academies do their own tests, among those who have actually applied, and then most of them (as far as I know - could be all of them) moderate those results, so the applicants are split equally across the bands. Obviously if you have a cluster of kids at one end of the spectrum the bands will be pretty narrow. So the two systems are quite different. Neither of them should allow anyone to play the system though.

Can't the kids from Peckham get off at Melbourne Grove, if the bus queue starts there, and walk down East Dulwich Grove? It's not very far at all. Can't see why they'd sit for ages in a traffic jam to go a short way down the road.

We used Louloumoving from this forum, who was great with our kids before they went to bed, and getting them to sleep, even without having met them before. We've also used a fab babysitter from here many times, but I'm ashamed to say I can't remember her username (obviously I know her real name!) but I think it's MsDulwich or something similar. Enjoy your night out!

It's a standard statutory process that proposed schools have to do. Judith Kerr did it and publicised it on here widely. Harris ED didn't put it on here but I think I remember people linking to it. Interestingly, the school themselves decides what the consultation has concluded. The only question they have no subjective assessment of is the number of people saying whether or not a funding arrangement should be entered into - presumably if the majority of the respondents say no, that does put something of a spoke in their wheel. Which is where the community's opportunity lies. That, and making clear the opposition to the new Regional Schools Commissioner, whose current role is to make recommendations on the new school to the DfE, as the Steering Group post above says. This is a new part of the process - before, there was nothing between the DfE decision and the school's own conclusions from its consultation.

The current consultation that Harris is doing is being carried out under, if I have this right, section 10 of the Academies Act 2010, which states 'additional schools' - ie to the existing complement - (1)Before entering into Academy arrangements with the Secretary of State in relation to an additional school, a person must consult such persons as the person thinks appropriate. . (2)The consultation must be on the question of whether the arrangements should be entered into. . (3)?Additional school? has the same meaning as in section 9. Academy arrangements in this sense means the funding arrangement to open. The DfE guidance suggests that the 'appropriate people' should be those under the section of the Admissions Code that Samstopit has posted, which will be used for wider reasons, including changes in admissions arrangements. As you say, Harris is beyond the original application, and it is extremely hard to see how they met those criteria for the intial bid. They are now in pre-opening, the DfE having approved the bid.

Interesting that the consultation is paper only. Judith Kerr's consultation was online, which obviously made it easier for lots of people to complete. Take a look at those nodal points. One appears to be very close to Hollydale school, and the other is the hospital site. How were they decided?

I'm afraid the experiences I had with the admin here went far beyond inept, and I couldn't recommend it to anyone. Mum2015, lodge a claim for your deposit with the small claims' court. This has been a successful way of getting the deposit back for Piplings parents. You can file quickly and easily online.

I did swimming lessons there. We arrived one week to find the instructor refusing to get in as she'd seen someone vomit in the pool and also there'd been a poo in there. We also didn't get in and requested a refund for the lesson but were refused. The pool was kept open. We raised it as an environmental health issue but were met with shrugs. I requested a call from the manager but two months later have still heard nothing. Also no refund for the lesson that was cancelled when the pool WAS shut for vomit - apparently we'd have to book a new course and get a rebate from that, not something we were prepared to do. So pretty unimpressed all round.

Tiger in Lewisham has ear muffs.

I'd second the point about beauty treatments. My husband bought me a voucher for a spa day and it became a bit of a joke that it ended up being more stressful to keep calling them and begging for extensions than any stress relieved by the treatment!

A nursery. I have to say though that I've just noticed the same post still intact elsewhere so perhaps it was a deletion for duplication? I have noticed deleted posts about them before though so I may have jumped to conclusions, in which case I apologise.

Breast feeding mothers can drink, so I wouldn't worry about torturing your sister-in-law! Unless she chooses not to of course. If they are within delivery distance of a Cook Shop, you could think about one of their packages. They do family size great quality ready meals that can be stuck in the freezer and cooked from frozen.

Hi. I notice yet another thread critical of a certain local business has been deleted. Clearly the owners have sway with you. I find this very frustrating as I have had a bad experience with them, as have others, but any attempt to discuss it on here disappears, leaving only glowing reviews. Could you not at least make it clear that you are deleting these posts at someone's request, to give forum users the chance to think about what's going on? Alternatively, remove all mentions of it so there is not such unbalanced coverage.

Sunshine House is Southwark's equivalent of Kaleidoscope, where you're hopefully already plugged in. If not, you need to get a referral from whomever made the diagnosis. (Lewisham's centre for community-based therapy, in the unlikely event that you ARE unaware of it.)