number 2

I have to say Zamboo, that I think keeping 2 places (one local authority, one not) is a little unfair, no matter what Judith Kerr school says. I can understand why people might do it (hedging their bets if they suddenly can't afford school fees, decide a free school is not for them, find that the school is not yet built!), but there are people out there who are stuck on waiting lists for their schools, in horrible states of limbo without a place at even one of their 6 choices. I'm speaking from personal experience here (see my thread of last week) - we are 4th on the list for our 1st choice which is our closest school by far. We are more or less entirely dependent on people being fair and acknowledging that they don't need a place because they have a better offer outside the Southwark admission process. To me, people sitting on 2 places just seems so, so unfair to me, and I'm pretty sure I'd feel the same if I was opting out of the community state school system. There, I've said it.

i loved mother goose when i went to look around. i thought the inside was a little cramped but the outside was amazing. it seemed like a really lovely happy place too. we ended up at puddleducks in nunhead but i would have been equally happy with both i think.

Liam came to talk to parents at my son's nursery and was a mine of information. I don't know how many nurseries know about the facility though and I guess for those children who've not been to nursery the information wouldn't filter through.

njc, i've always thought of the classrooms in the school i work at as small and i was really concerned about how much smaller the rooms felt at hollydale. it was chucking it down the day that i went to look around though so we didn't see a whole lot of the playground. maybe there were bits that i didn't notice. i guess the same goes for the classrooms. it was such a dark, horrible day that it can't have shed a positive light on the building!

where did your little person end up then? or would you rather not say?

Thanks Zephy, that's really good information. Seems like you really have to be in the know to find stuff out!! Also, meant to (but actually didn't) say thanks to Hollybush. I know I said your reply was lovely, but then didn't say thanks!!

I think I am a little bit over emotional about the whole thing (or premenstrual) because your lovely reply just made me well up a little bit Hollybush. I'm sure we would come to love Hollydale too. It's all just so emotive. I promised myself I wouldn't get het up about this whole thing!!!

Thanks Renata, I guess that is better than 14 places on distance which is what we first thought. I'm going on the assumption that new families are less likely to take their places than families who have one or more children already in the school. Clutching at straws perhaps................

Thanks Renata. I know we are lucky to have the place at Hollydale and some people have not been so lucky. This situation with the Aske school is the sort of thing I'm worried about. We will accept the Hollydale place, I just have huge reservations about the actual physical size of the playground/classrooms having a lively boy! Thanks for your advice.

Just crashing this thread (hope you don't mind) - also hoping for Ivydale. Renata, do you have access to information on how many children offered places at Ivydale were siblings? I heard it was 76! But this may have been chinese whispers.............................

Ok, we are in the reasonably happy situation of having been offered a place at our 2nd choice which was Hollydale. I thought it was quite a nice little place, but it is VERY little (playground and classrooms) and that worries me. As far as I could see there was no other option for a 2nd choice school as we're in a little bit of a black hole for schools once you take Ivydale (1st choice) out of the equation. We are 4th on the waiting list for Ivydale, which I really like. We're .34 mile away from Ivydale. What I want to gauge is people's opinion of whether, if they had got a place at an independent school, free school, were moving out of the area, whatever, would people notify Southwark by 2nd May to let them know they don't need the space. I appreciate that I am slightly guilty of this in that I would rather we had a place at Ivydale but I don't want to give up Hollydale if that place never arises. I'm just aware of the fact that not everyone great at thinking of others and the fact that they might be sitting on 2 school places when some people don't even have 1. What do people think? Thanks

"day to day dyslexia in the classroom" by joy pollock is great, and "dyslexia: a parent's guide to dyslexia" by valerie muter are both very good. also anything else by these two and also gavin reid is generally good. i love the first one as it's really readable. also the british dyslexia association are great and have a very informative website. good luck!

Another vote for puddleducks. Our boy is very happy there

i'd ask about what sort of groups they go to with the children. i think it's really good for them (and for your child) to get out and meet up with other childminders. that was one of my main questions.

i'd second the bee. i never regretted buying ours for a second. so light and easy to steer and brilliant for squeezing on buses which can very difficult with bigger buggies. i found that a lot of my friends who bought bigger ones ended up buying a maclaren or similar because they found their big ones too cumbersome.

just to make it even better, shona (i'm assuming that's the owner) dropped by with a birthday card and a lollipop for our boy (i'd mentioned amidst the puking that i hoped he was going to be ok for his birthday the next day) ! i was astounded and touched. that's customer service (and kindness to boot ) for you!!! good work shona!!!

i know there have been a number of threads about the dish and the spoon, but i just wanted to add my own. i was in there today with my soon to be 4 year old and it was really busy, but there was LOADS of delicious food on offer and ours came very quickly. the thing that i was so, so impressed with was the completely lovely attitude when said nearly 4 year old barfed all over the place. the owner just could not have been more lovely about it (i was mortified), helping me out, asking what she could do to help, putting my lunch in a takeaway container so i could finish up later. i've been there a lot and apart from the first week when there wasn't much choice (now there was so much choice i was hard pushed to make a decision) it's always been really, really great. i'm going to make more of an effort than i have (i sometimes forget that it's there despite it being on the doorstep) and hope there is no more barfing...............

sylvia and inay on muschamp road! they are utterly wonderful!!

they really shouldn't send you home without a referral. they will probably do some blood tests to check that there are no hormonal difficulties and that you're ovulating. they'll also want your husband to do a semen sample for analysis. if you can get this done while you're waiting for your appointment it will help. in the meantime have you thought of trying acupuncture? we'd been trying for nearly a year when i first went to my acupuncturist, within 3 weeks i'd fallen pregnant, we sadly lost that baby early on but the next pregnancy resulted in our boy! it didn't work a second baby, but that's really down to my age. if you'd like her details pm me. good luck!

thanks renata.

does anyone know when the applications come out? or do you just have to do it online? thanks also does anyone know how to find out what the catchment area was for certain schools last year? i'm sure i saw something about it last year..........

i would say that "getting up and playing by himself" is a pretty big ask for a 3 year old. we have had a lot of success with a groclock and he now stays in bed until 6.45 and knows not to come down before then. sometimes he's not particularly quiet though!

i did the split bottle thing with my son who was always bottle fed as i wasn't able to breast feed. my sister advised me to do it and i agree, it meant that we were able to have a pretty amenable bath time without the screaming because he was hungry and it meant that i didn't have to pre-empt when he was going to be hungry. worked a treat. also, try not to beat yourself up about stopping breast feeding. i know it's the ideal way, but i have a very healthy 3, nearly 4 year old who was exclusively bottle fed. it broke my heart at the time not to be able to feed him myself, but i really don't think it's done him much harm.

who are these gangstas of whom you speak in nunhead? we've lived here for 5 years now and never had a glimpse of trouble *touches wood*. i'd say the dog kennel hill estate and its environs is a great deal more dodgy than nunhead (lived there for a long time too!)

we're just about to do a bathroom refit. i really want a bathroom cabinet for storage underneath the sink. i've scoured the internet and the only one that i can find that i think will suit us/our house/what we're wanting for our new bathroom is this http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/S49903111/ only problem is that it's from ikea. we've bought a number of chests of drawers from there before (all cheaper lines, it has to be said) and they've all disintegrated after a couple of years. we went to have a look yesterday and my other half started raising concerns about previous stuff we've bought. we also have an ikea kitchen and the drawers in there are doing great so far. does anyone have anything similar from ikea and how are they holding up? thanks