civilservant

The herons who hang around the lake have been known to snack on the rats. They drown them first. The owls (see other thread) eat them too. If you don't like rats, though, maybe you should just stay away from the lake.

what aquarius moon said more generally, fwiw, we get a lot of the stuff we need from the NXRd market - cheese, bread, cake, pasta, meat (if Mr Sparks is there), dogfood and salad from the stall for Saturday lunch. It's all excellent quality stuff and at a decent price. We've got a load of stuff from the plant stall, in the right season, and from the furniture stall as well. The book stall run by Rye books is great. This Christmas, we preferred to spend our money locally and got a lot of our presents from the market - all of them were much appreciated by non-ED folk. And even if we were into over-priced cupcakes, we could get them from NXRd market. So, we don't think it's bad at all.

Thanks AtC, I didn't manage to phone anywhere myself today so good on you. I'll pass on the Crisis info to Neil, who was there again outside Londis this eve with Cocoa.

No, not a figment of my imagination! I don't know Kelvin, who must be the man outside the St Christopher's shop during the day. Neil tends to be outside Londis in the evenings. You certainly won't miss him or the dog if you go past around 7pm most days. And then there's the woman who sells the Big Issue outside the Co-op. Overall, I seem to have noticed an increase in the number of people needing basic support. There are more people sleeping rough around the Elephant and Castle now (I pass through there every day) than I have seen for years.

Ratty and all, thanks for the suggestions for investigation. Jonny v, I'm sure they would appreciate the chat. Very sobering to think of the maze that many people have to navigate just to fill a few basic needs.

Thanks, atc, that would be great. I note that Crisis may also take dogs and will phone them to find out.

ratty, I've PM-ed you

Do you know Neil who sells the Big Issue outside Londis on North Cross Road, helped by Cocoa, the lovely pup who wears a fetching blue coat? This year Neil doesn't know where he's going to spend Christmas. None of the places he knows about allow dogs, so he and Cocoa face the prospect of being separated. (It's his first Christmas with Cocoa, who is one year old). Does anyone know of anywhere that will accept dogs like Cocoa and allow them to spend Christmas together? Any advice or suggestions greatly appreciated!

:) me too

DulwichFox Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > civilservant Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > i do hope he'll be back - is this the shy > little > > chap who used to hang around on the corner of > > North X and Archdale/Nutfield Roads? > > > That's very funny you should say that. > Yes.. Once or twice when I was early he followed > me all the way to the far end of Ulverscroft. > Walking by my side. > > Foxy fingers crossed he's ok

i do hope he'll be back - is this the shy little chap who used to hang around on the corner of North X and Archdale/Nutfield Roads?

update please, Foxy... hope your fox is back

... or even "five foxes might have a big blowout and share 1 pet between them and then all die at the age of two knowing that they had fulfilled their pet-eating quota"

... or "ON AVERAGE a fox ate a pet once every five years"

foxes have a natural lifespan of around 14 years, just like dogs. in the wild they possibly manage to live this out, but urban foxes' life expectancy is only a couple of years because of urban hazards such as traffic see http://foxes.channel4.com/features/fox-file (and any number of other references.) It has this on pets and foxes: Q: I'm scared that a fox will eat my pet? A. You shouldn't be. It is actually very rare for a fox to kill a pet. A study in Bristol showed that the maximum annual loss was 0.2 pets per fox (a fox ate a pet once every five years), so putting your pet in secure housing should avoid this. As a pedant, I should point out that the helpful clarification for Mail-readers should actually say "EACH fox ate pets at the rate of one every five years" (but then if a given fox only survives for two years, the likelihood that it ever ate a pet decreases...)

Thanks for sharing this news, ianr. He will be much missed, especially on Saturdays and Bank Holidays... Not a lot of people you can say that about.

Hmmm... sensitive souls I still say. (here's someone who'd agree with me http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/180934)

After my OH was bitten by a Jack Russell on the Rye, the doctor just cleaned the wound and dressed it - and added that had it been a cat bite instead, she'd have had to take much more drastic action against the possibility of nasty infections

poppet27 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > A fellow with a similar description let his black > and white border collie enjoy his morning poo this > morning on the Rye, much to the disgust of the > passengers on the 363, who got a full view whilst > the bus was stationary. Shame on you. Dogs need to relieve themselves somewhere. So long as the owners pick it up, no problem, no need to name or shame. Who'd have thought that 363 passengers were such sensitive souls!

Some confusion in LondonMix's advice on publication of small numbers in cohorts i.e. "Scribble you are right that privacy within the coherts is part of it. However, there are also guidelines regarding not doing analysis for numbers below certain thresholds for statistical reasons. For schools entire number of students in a school I think its 10 or 11 as the threshold. Privacy is a different consideration within cohorts." The latest DoE guidance on publication of small number cohorts is here http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/performance/primary_12/Publication_of_small_numbers.pdf This is a common standard for good practice across all statistical reporting, and applies to any data publisher, whether MORI or BMRB or Dept for Education

LM, first a declaration of interest - I have a child at Heber. I have no connection with Bessemer Grange Now some observations based on the data that you linked to: There were 47 kids at Heber who took KS2 assessments and 37 at Bessemer Grange. Those are hardly the kind of numbers on which to base a robust assertion about a school. All we can see is that - 11% of the 47 kids at Heber and 11% of the 36 kids at BG achieved Level 3 or below - 85% of the 47 at Heber and 86% of the 36 at BG achieved Level 4 or above - 36% of the 47 at Heber and 24% of the 36 at BG achieved Level 5 or above - 89% of the 47 at Heber and 89% of the 36 at BG achieved 2+ levels of progress in English - 83% of the 47 at Heber and 94% of the 36 at BG achieved 2+ levels of progress in Maths - average point scores at KS2 - 28.7 at Heber, 27.8 at BG So apart from the Level 5 achievement and the Maths progress, barely a whisker between the two schools And while the figures as presented prevent us seeing the precise distribution of pupils by attainment, beyond the fact that BG has very few High Attainers, they allow us at least to surmise that the spread of ability at Heber is much wider than at BG. As you know it is much harder to teach a class with a wide spectrum of needs - and to meet individual needs effectively - than it is to teach a class with a more homogeneous ability profile. Worth pointing out that BG gets more money per pupil - ?5643 - than Heber does - ?4997 per pupil - very likely due to its more deprived student intake. Also worth noting that the average gross teacher salary at BG was ?42k compared to Heber's ?35k, indicating more experienced teachers (although my observation is that Heber's teaching body makes up in dynamism for its relative lack of experience) You linked to Dulwich Hamlet as well - I suggest that this is hardly the best comparator with either Heber or Bessemer Grange. Its academy status means that its published info is incomplete - nowhere as transparent as other 'ordinary' schools are obliged to be.

so glad that there are people like you in ED, FM

I'd have taken my turn but deterred by the need to keep checking the thread frequently for the latest contribution

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORZ00OyKp0I and then: http://metro.co.uk/2013/01/25/hail-to-the-chief-fly-swatter-barack-obama-and-insect-battle-again-in-flygate-3366599/

why don't you have a go, Foxy!