redjam

It's down near North Cross Road too. I've been told it's an area problem - again. This is the last straw for us and we will be researching other Wifi providers this weekend (quite hard to do without Wifi!). I too work from home so it causes major disruption each time it's down - this is the third failure in six months. And even when it works it's patchy and slow. V. fed up...

Gosh, poor you having to do it all from afar! I live quite near where you're moving and I'd say you're unlikely to get into Charter on Red Post Hill - not impossible, but unlikely (and I'm not sure how a late application would affect your chances). It's a very sought-after school with a correspondingly small catchment, though I would assume the new Charter ED would have eased the pressure on it a bit. It's generally thought of as an extremely good school with consistently excellent results, though not much outdoor space. Kingsdale is a massive school with a lottery-based admission system so you'd have a decent chance of getting in there. It's very strong on music and sport as well as being good academically, and there's lots of outdoor space and excellent facilities (full disclosure - my daughter goes there, so I'm biased!). Might not suit shy and retiring types so much, though, simply because of its size. Charter ED is brand-new this year but I think it will be an excellent school, particularly once it's moved to its shiny new permanent site in central ED in a year and a half's time. I've got friends whose kids go there and are happy and impressed with the head and the teaching, though of course it's still very small at the moment. Harris Boys I don't know so much about, although it has a reputation as being very big on discipline. It's maybe not perceived as being as academic as the others, though I'm sure someone with direct experience will come along to shout me down on this! Good luck with the move and the application.

He came round ours at 7.30 - I also thought this was an odd time to come round, on Boxing Day too! He wasn't aggressive, but can't imagine he managed to drum up much business.

Pugwash Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Most of the primary schools serving E Dulwich are > over subscribed and you will take pot luck as to > which one is offered. > Haberdashers Aske secondary - may require an > entry exam ( or they did when my daughter applied > for there - 1000 applicants for 100 places) > > I have heard that Harris in Crystal Palace is good > - but the friends who have daughters there both > live in the Crystal Palace area so not sure of > catchment area. Well, all decent schools are effectively oversubscribed as parents can put down up to six choices on their forms, but they still only take up one place! So the OP shouldn't be put off by the idea that the schools are oversubscribed round here: unless it's a new school or one that's failing, it will be. If you live reasonably near to a given primary school, you should get in. Plus I think Habs Aske secondary is banded entry (if I remember rightly), so it's not like it's a grammar where only the 'top' children get in. Harris Crystal Palace is indeed good but places are allocated via a lottery system within a specified catchment area (again if I remember rightly) so you'd need to live nearby to have a good chance. Basically all the secondary schools have their own admissions criteria and it's all a bit of a nightmare trying to unravel it, but most of the mixed state ones round here are good or outstanding. Primary admissions are generally more straightforward and just done on distance.

I know, seems a lot, but that's what it says in the article. Unless you believe the whole article is an elaborate hoax, of course!

Obviously I'm biased, but I do think East Dulwich itself ticks all your boxes - lots of well-loved primaries; the new Charter secondary opening in the heart of ED in 2018 (plus other good options like Kingsdale); lovely community vibe with loads of quirky independent shops, restaurants, market, cinema, swimming pool etc; and if our primary school is anything to go by, lots of French people living locally. The downside is the public transport, which is a bit crap. I think you'd have to get a bus over to Denmark Hill to get the Overground to Canary Wharf from here, but that's a very easy journey (buses are regular).

Er, are you asking to see some photos? Perhaps you could try contacting Detective Sergeant Andy Collins and his team of 16 investigating officers?

What unnecessarily aggressive posts, edhistory. Tarafitness was just sharing an article from a reputable source that might be of interest to those following this case. I can't see what the problem is. Are you implying the whole thing is made up?

I always just go the straightest route through Crystal Palace, Croydon, Purley and Merstham. We've tried various back roads but it never seems to make much difference. It takes exactly an hour on a Sunday but I'd leave an extra half-hour (at least) for a weekday rush hour as it gets very snarled up around Merstham and going into Redhill. But the schools will have broken up by then so it shouldn't be quite as bad as normal. Good luck!

I looked at the results via the Telegraph website: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2016/12/15/primary-school-league-tables-2016-compare-schools-performance/ All the local schools look like they did well, at or above the national average of 53% pass, apart from Ivydale (43%) and Goose Green (36%). Bessemer Grange and St Anthony's seem to have done particularly well. Surprisingly varied numbers of kids working at the 'higher level' - 20% for Goodrich but only 6% for the Ofsted-outstanding Dulwich Hamlet. That said, I do take it all with a pinch of salt - the changes were handled completely chaotically by the government last year and the curriculum itself was a nightmare. Poor kids and teachers...

Ah, so does the 'vacant possession' just apply to the flats then? Hope so. Sue, you're right - I am confused by that photo too. It doesn't look right.

I'll be gutted if Mrs R closes down - it's one of my favourite quirky shops in ED. Yes, the clothes offshoot over the road has recently been closed but I'd thought it was being amalgamated back into the main one. Really hope this doesn't come to pass.

They're at ?13,955 towards a target of ?14,645 - so nearly there! Eleven days to go - come on people...

Still no TV or internet here and engineer not coming till Friday. Spent hours being passed round various departments this afternoon - the first person offered ?7.68 compensation but told me I'd get more if I went through to another department. So she put me through, the second person said she could only offer me ?2.71, and when I complained and said well in that case I'll go back to the first person, she said she wasn't authorised to let me do that! It'd be funny if it weren't so annoying - ?2.71 barely covers the cost of a coffee for me to squat in a wifi-connected cafe for an hour to get some work done. I'm composing a very grumpy letter to them...

Haven't seen it open since its first days. As Pickle said, it seemed to be selling a slightly odd mix of a few veg and deli items and a handful of cakes - seemed brave to go for a vague deli/greengrocer/bakery offering when they are no more than 2 minutes' walk from M&S (or indeed SMBS and Co-op, not to mention all the specialist foodie shops on the Lane). I'd been hoping it was going to be a new sweet shop to replace the much-missed Hope & Greenwood and can't help but feel it'd be better if they specialised in one thing. But I wish them well - the owner seemed nice.

Yes, well done OP. The school has sent out a text to all parents but that's not much help for any other passers-by. You'd think the foreman could at least tape the area off or put out some cones to warn people? ETA: Cross post with you Siduhe!

rendelharris Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I assumed James' statement "every week after half > term" means it's a new arrangement beginning in > November? Possibly. It's not been announced by Heber if that's the case.

Great news.

Hmm, do Heber use the playing fields every Thursday am? News to me and my Heber kids. I thought they got them once a year for sports day (actually just a morning).

Tomskip, thank you - that's interesting. But it does sound from that that it's the local authority's job to vet the honesty of the applications, not the school's? Which makes more sense, seeing as they're the ones that have access to council tax records. So my point still stands that if Charter has a particular problem with this, it's not necessarily their fault - more a reflection of the fact that it's a popular school with a very narrow catchment so has a higher incidence of applicants attempting to do this. Though I suppose you could argue that it's their distance-only/non-lottery admission that causes the problem in the first place. But then parents hate lotteries so they're damned if they do and damned if they don't. I should be clear I don't have any affiliation with Charter - just interested in how there could be a way to make it all fairer. Actually reading this thread I'm mainly just happy that my older daughter is now happily settled in her (non-Charter) secondary school this year and all that stress is behind me! Zanna, to bring it back on topic: good luck. Honestly, all the Year 7 parents I know seem happy with their choice, wherever their kids have landed up. Lots of decent schools round here.

This really is a load of nonsense. My advice to my daughter if she happens to come across a 'killer clown' is just to roll her eyes and keep walking.

OK, I stand corrected if Charter manage their own admissions - I thought because you apply via the council they are the ones who adjudicate it. But I do have sympathy with the schools over this as I don't see how they can realistically police this practice themselves - they get literally thousands of applicants every year; how can they possibly check out who is secretly keeping a second property if people really want to game the system? Especially when so many kids have quite confusing home circumstances anyway with divorced parents etc. I'm not saying it's OK - of course it's not - and I have no knowledge whether Charter are better or worse at managing the problem than other schools, but I think it's a bit harsh to blame them for not keeping on top of it. What do other schools do that they don't? (Genuine question.)

tomskip Wrote: > > Unless you rent temporarily in the 'catchment', > whilst keeping hold of the house you own outside > of said catchment, get your first child into the > school and then move back to your owned house > after a year or two. And, yes, unbelievably the > school does still allow this to happen. This is a problem that affects many oversubscribed schools around the country, not just Charter. But I don't see how it is the school's fault? The admissions process is handled by the council; it's hardly the school's job to go round policing every application they get each year (which number in the thousands). It's really only the council who can spot if there are any discrepancies (e.g. in address of council tax bill or whatever) and even then it's tricky for them to prove. The only way for this sort of practice to be stamped out is by trying to improve ALL state schools so that you don't get these hype-bubbles developing around particular establishments that are deemed to be more desirable than all others nearby. In this area I think it's already happening - I don't think Charter is now seen as head and shoulders above the other schools round here. At least that certainly wasn't my impression when I looked round last year - I was pleasantly surprised by how many good schools there are within easy reach of ED. I can see that lotteries are the fairest system, but they're also horrible for parents - and kids, who get separated from their primary-school friends. And not great for the transport system/environment to have loads of secondary school kids commuting around the place instead of going to their nearest school (I gather this was ironically a problem in Green-run Brighton when they introduced a borough-wide lottery system).

peckham_ryu Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > An uncharitable and prejudiced cynic would wonder > if our temporary neighbours at the Dulwich > Hospital site happen to be storing any scaffolding > materials there at the moment. > > ( **reaches for tin hat** ) Wow. I think the most depressing thing about this post is not the unsupported accusation, based on nothing more than petty prejudice, it's the weaselly way in which it's written in the third person, like saying something mean and then running away. 'An uncharitable and prejudiced cynic...' That'll be you then, peckham_ryu? Muffins78, I hope you get your scaffolding back.

'Little man' when talking about male babies makes my skin crawl. And official people like health visitors who refer to you as 'Mummy' and 'Baby' as if they're your actual names. 'So how old is Baby now?' 'Will you sign this form, Mummy?' Vom.