Dorothy

Have heard (rumour mill only) that there was an unusually high number of sibling places at Kingsdale this year - and of course that makes such a lot of sense in the whole scholarship/lottery set up (?)

I only text/respond to texts to make arrangements, or to let my husband know if someone has been a particular numpty on Pop Master. If anyone tries to get into a text conversation with me I just blank them.

Ah yes, have been waiting for this announcement since James Barber's strangely indecipherable post on the general thread about secondary schools. I'm sorry but you'll have to put me down as another strong opponent.

Ok, you can have gyms - but what other actual amenities do you think south London and East Dulwich in particular are lacking v_the_gelfling? And please don't say The Tube. If we had a tube station property prices here would be on a par with Clapham. As for prices ... I have been looking at a typical ED house (ie. a small terraced one) which is on the market for ?275,000 more than it sold for 24 months ago. That's called vendors being very greedy that is.

Yes, there is a poster on Mumsnet who is an expert on school admissions and posts exclusively on that subject. Re. Kingsdale he/she said (in November) "the whole scholarship thing seems very unclear to me and I've read it several times. I still can't figure out how it works. I think someone should refer this to the Schools Adjudicator on the grounds that the lack of clarity is in breach of the Admissions Code." I'd like to see it happen. (guess we frequent the same threads on MN itatm :))

"I simply don't understand this negativity about a school that seems to tick boxes on child satisfaction ?" Child satisfaction is great, but at the same time I think parents are quite right to think carefully about applying for a school where there are investigations into exam results and a completely unfathomable admissions policy.

"De facto what is being defended, it seems to me (at least without further information which I can't find on this thread), is that some parents had a legitimate expectation that the school would continue to apply a fair policy unfairly. i.e.: "It's not fair that the school can't continue to behave unfairly. We had an expectation that they would continue to be unfair; we had an expectation that there would continue to be a difference between what the school says and what they do and that they would fail to incorporate the results of successive successful appeals into their administration of their policy"..." No, my complaint about all this begins and ends with the lack of any sort of published or even spoken information before applications were submitted in October last year, that the "catchment" (for want of a better word) was likely to change in this way. As someone who lives right on the fringes of the area where children do/don't get a place, we took a punt on applying - but this is surely all you can do in the circumstances? Lets say I thought we might have a 1 in 10 chance of getting in. I am keen on the school as we have mixed sex children, apart from anything else. Anyway, had I known that we would have absolutely no chance of getting a place because all these other children who were previously denied access, then I would not even have bothered going to visit the school (twice), let alone making a formal application. It is deeply irritating, nothing more. And JB's "Great News Everyone!" op was stupidly insensitive. Of course it is going to be bad news for a considerable number of well-intentioned but ill-informed SE22 residents, how could it not be?

I remember being on a thread about secondary admissions with you last year Skyblue. Sad to see that choice (hollow laugh) in SE22 is still such a headache for so many parents. Quite obviously Charter can do nothing but allocate places according to their own stated criteria and that is just tough luck on the considerable number of SE22 parents on the wrong side of LL who had no idea this was even an issue. Doesn't make JB's insensitive op any easier to swallow.

And still only accommodating a fraction of the number of boys they will need to in the long run.

Fox1 - just wanted to make it clear that I have no argument with you or anyone else whose child should be at the Charter school because they are within closest walking distance. I think what I (and possibly others on this thread) am saying is that we were completely unaware of this issue re. the "true catchment" if you like, and, had we been, then we wouldn't even have included Charter on our application list, as we live on the other side of East Dulwich in the sort of grey area where you might or might not get a place. Now that there will be a whole group of children who will get places as the result of this hearing, then we are now firmly out of the loop and our applications are in effect wasted.

Lovely! So now I find out I have more or less wasted a place on my secondary application form then. And the ONLY co-ed school just-about-within-reach is ruled out. What a fiasco.

Must admit I was completely unaware of this particular issue wrt the Charter School until yesterday.

Yes please, we need an answer to heber jumble queen's question (good luck for today hjq).

But why for secondary? Especially when so many of the secondary schools are single sex, and, generally in London, pupils do not need to rely on their parents to get them to school?

Have sent a pm with my email address - I'd like a copy of the report please James. I'd like to see them put catchment above siblings in their admissions heirarchy - am quite sure that would make it a more authentically "community" school.

Yes, I am quite certain that a disproportionate number of children at Charter come from families who urgently had to rent very close to the school for a year or so and then wouldn't you know it find the perfect house to buy in Camberwell or Nunhead.

Oh really Sillywoman? That is interesting as in my experience, anyone living much further away than the very top of Friern Road (on the ED side of the school) is unlikely to get a place at The Charter School. How strange.

Just curious: how do you know it is norovirus?

It is December. Surely there are always cold/flu/stomach bugs doing the rounds? I was pretty poorly this time last year and have had a couple of viruses already this winter. Is it actually newsworthy?

I actually appreciate the fact that you can leave awful old tat outside and be assured that someone will come and take it off your hands (obv not children's scooters) so you don't have to worry about disposing of it. We have left all sorts of terrible old rubbish from our loft/cellar/playgroom on the pavement directly outside our front gate over the years - and it has all been taken within hours. And I have acquired a shoe rack, a small table and several books in the same manner along the way.

Personally I think its a pointless waste of time going to get a "feel" for a school your child hasn't a chance of getting in to, even though you have to find 6 to put on your list!

Gawd help us all if everyone seriously expects to be within 10 minutes walking distance of a large supermarket in London (ffs).

We had a capon from William Rose for Christmas about 3 or 4 years ago. It was certainly called a capon then. It was really very good (much nicer than turkey imo, because less dry, but it does just taste like an exceptionally nice chicken). They have enormous thighs (think of cartoon roosters) which is great for people like me who like their meat on the bone. I will probably try and get the same this year.

Oh well never mind eh likansuk? At least you have a deeply intelligent and meaningful user name. Thank goodness for the worthwhile posters like you on this here forum.

I have no idea if it is a "drugs house" or just where he went back to after the exchange (and it is not between Barry Road and Melbourne Grove either) - is your reply based on actual experience or something else MrB?