redjam

Ah, interesting. Good luck with the application.

What's the planning permission for, out of interest?

Just to be clear (and to repeat myself): I completely agree it's really lovely that people care and want to help, and I applaud the efforts to publicise the various channels of assistance available. I just feel uncomfortable about this particular lady's details being posted on here (last known whereabouts, description). I suppose I'm just putting myself in her shoes: would I want my situation discussed so publicly? But I am only adding to the problem so I'll bow out! ETA: crossposted with Otta - I was replying to Binkylilyput.

Completely agree that it's lovely that so many people care. It would be even nicer if someone had actually spoken to her and found out her situation before posting about her. For all we know she's trying to get away from someone and wouldn't appreciate having her description and last known whereabouts publicised. Or maybe not. The point is, we don't know.

While I applaud everyone's wish to be helpful, am I alone in finding it a bit uncomfortable that people are posting details about this woman on a public forum when no one seems to have actually spoken to her properly to find out what her story is? How do we know whether she even wishes to have a case opened on her with the authorities? And if I were a single woman sleeping rough, I'm not sure I'd want the whole of East Dulwich to know my whereabouts.

landsberger Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > > Judith Kerr has free spaces but is a free school, > and will probably only admit you so long as your > child is middle class. > > ?Er??

I think you should be able to get a place relatively easily in a state school in Year 3. There is a lot of movement in that year locally with some kids moving to the private sector or going off to Dulwich Hamlet. However, be aware the schools themselves might not know whether there will be spaces opening up till the last moment, as parents don't always announce their intentions till quite late in the day if they are moving their child.

Wow, you must be fun to have at parties, Blah Blah.

Yay, really good news. Well done Heber - it's a great report. A much better reflection of the reality of the school. It's not yet up on the Ofsted site but I imagine it will be in the next day or so.

No, you're right, it wasn't a charity, though it gave its profit to charity (or some of its profit; I never quite got to grips with its business model either) so still presumably better to donate stuff there rather than just selling your clothes on eBay and keeping all the money yourself. Anyway, the point is I think it's a bit harsh to attack someone for spending a lot of money on a wedding dress as if that automatically makes you a selfish person.

Nope, I don't see the irony in that. She spent a lot of money on a wedding dress then donated it to a charity she cared about. Seems perfectly reasonable/generous to me. Or are you suggesting that you can only be charitable if you wear hand-me-downs and give all your money away at source?

Cora, there's a version of your question answered in the Guardian today: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/askjack/2015/nov/05/which-laptop-should-we-buy-for-our-child

Samstopit - Kingsdale does both music and sports scholarships (nothing to stop your kid trying for both). Prendergast Hilly Fields (girls) do music scholarships. As do Haberdasher Aske's Hatcham (mixed). Not aware of any others locally. The admissions process for Kingsdale regarding scholarships is virtually incomprehensible - it's all up on their website but it's really not very clear how it all works (well, not to me anyway). We had a letter saying my daughter has been awarded a half-scholarship there but it doesn't seem to increase her chances of getting a place at all. Or not much. God knows. But they seem to have a good music tuition scheme if you do get in by whatever means, so that was why we went for it. With Prendergast and Habs it's much clearer - if you're in the top 20 (Habs) or top 12 (Prendergast) you will definitely be offered a place, and if you're not you're told where you are on the waiting list and how far it extended the previous year (i.e. not everyone takes up their scholarship place because they decide to go somewhere else, so they keep offering them down the list in order after the initial offers have gone out/been rejected). This then gives you a good idea if your child will get in via this route or not so you can make a decision whether to include it in your choices. Be warned - as the scholarship process all has to be completed before the final application deadline, you need to get your act together to apply quite early, for all the schools. Good luck!

dbboy Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > And just to mention AGAIN, we are spoilt for green > space around Se22 and SE23, if you want woods look > no further than the Great North Wood rising from > The Grove right up and into Sydenham and backing > onto the golf course. No wish to get into the ins and outs of all this and I agree the emotive language of the OP is very OTT - but this argument sucks.

Somerset House is lovely and classy and picturesque but - obvious point alert - it's outside, which means that if there's the slightest rain the ice is ridiculously slippy (and it's a bit miserable to skate in the rain). Plus it's quite small. Streatham is low on glamour and the public sessions are full of terrifying teens who whizz past you at 90 miles an hour and make you fear for your life (they're sickeningly cool; I'm just jealous). But the instructors are good for the lessons and because it's a big rink you get a lot of space to try out your moves. Not been to Canary Wharf but I think it's meant to be bigger than Somerset House?

Ah, that could be the case - my youngest was seven at the time.

Antantant, that's not correct (or at least it wasn't a few months ago): there are adult-and-child lessons at Streatham at the weekends - I did it for several months earlier this year with my daughters. It was great fun and a real leveller when the beginner adults are mixed in with the kids. Needless to say, the kids picked it up loads quicker. You have to pay via direct debit with a month upfront, which is a bit of a pain, and the beginner classes are horrifically early on a Sunday morning, but we really enjoyed it and I can now skate backwards! (Lifetime ambition achieved.) There are also child-only lessons and separate adult ones for those who don't wish to be humiliated by a bunch of whizzkid seven-year-olds.

I took a dozen ten-year-olds to Gourmet Burger Kitchen for my daughter's party at about 5pm one Saturday. It was, ahem, slightly noisy and I did feel desperately sorry for the other people in the place, but the GBK staff were great and the kids loved it. They put all the tables together in the middle so we had one long table running down the centre of the restaurant.

Fab letter, well done you. It drives me nuts that kids' toys and TV programmes are still so woefully, unimaginatively, depressingly gender-biased. STILL!!! Come back and let us know if you get a response?

Funnily enough a friend was saying this very morning that she visited it recently and it was most definitely On The Up. Not that all my conversations are revolving round secondary schools at the moment or anything.

I agree that there are lots of fantastic schools in London and in that sense we're very lucky. But I just don't know how realistic they are to get into if you live round here, which is why I started this thread in the first place. Even Charter and Kingsdale, which are effectively right on our doorstep, are by no means a given for most of us in ED. Obviously the new school will alleviate the pressure but I still wonder what are the realistic 'back-up' options if you don't get the golden ticket of one of those two? Even the head of Sydenham School apparently said at the open day today they're expecting their catchment area to be 1.5 miles, which puts much of ED out of the running (don't mean to scaremonger, incidentally - I don't see how she can possibly predict accurately how far the catchment area will extend and it certainly went further than that last year, so I'm taking it with a perhaps optimistic pinch of salt). But anyway, there's been lots of good ideas on this thread, thank you. Much to ponder. God, I'll be happy when this is all over and I never have to sit on a plastic chair in an echoing sports hall listening to a head bang on about how they 'believe in excellence' ever again...

Otta, you're right, thank you - I get this wrong EVERY time. Will amend original post.

Yes, they had the inspection last week - result due in a couple of weeks. Fingers crossed for them, yes - they had great Sats results last year (actually they've had great results for several years) so I hope it goes in their favour this time. In my experience it's a good school, but what do I know, I'm just a parent!

That's a v helpful post, James, thank you. And thank you for continuing to pressure the NHS.

Yes, just getting my head round this letter. Sounds like they won't be able to even start building the permanent school till 2019, is that right? At the Charter ED open day recently they stated they expected to be in the permanent buildings by 2018-9, but it sounds like it'll be at least another two years on from that, if not more. How on earth are they going to fit up to four years'-worth of pupils into a handful of portacabins squished into one corner of the site? Don't want to rain on your parade, James, and yes, well done for getting the ball rolling in the first place, but for those of us with Year 6 children this is actually pretty bad news.