Carbonara

Lucky dip - fill a box with paper from your shredder, have a selection of pound shop stuff wrapped up - they do lucky dip on way out. Do decorating a plain paper party bag as an activity, then a 'treasure hunt' as another activity just before they leave, hide wrapped sweets all over the front room or garden.

I agree, Museum of London.

Double check this before parting with cash, but I have seen a Ford Focus and Fiat Multipla with 3 car seats in the back.

What about Kelling Heath? http://www.kellingheath.co.uk/ I don't know how the price compares to CP, it has outdoor and indoor pools, lots of cycle trails and outdoor children's activities, but not such a huge programme as CP. Look under 'acorn events' and 'relax and uwind'.

I don't think they could put unallocated children to schools with a bulge class ahead of families who applied . Not unless the published admissions code states that that is what will happen. All other waiting lists have to follow the published admissions codes, and a bulge class is basically a class allocated from waiting lists, isn't it? Go on to MumsNet into the Primary Education Board where there is a poster called prh47bridge who is a schools admissions legal expert and ask whether this would be a legal admissions decision. Good luck on the waiting lists dharamarsala, did you put other more local schools on your list too? Go on the waiting lists for all of them.

magpie monkey, that sounds very odd. If a mistake has been made that will give you cast iron grounds to appeal.

Kaska and Chantelle - look at the information in this thread: http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?29,872103 If you are Southwak residents but wish to go onto the waiting lists for other Lewisham or Lambeth schools it won't happen automatically through Southwark's system, you will need to get yourself onto those waiting lists. If you are a Lambeth resident I'm not sure if you automatically go onto to Southwark school waiting lists. There is no adavantage in waiting list or application terms on living in the same borough as the school.

dulwichJon - school waiting lists are managed on the same admissions criteria as the original application.

Have a look at the website for Battersea Zoo. Not sure when it opens and starts it's activities for the summer (summer? ha!) but it makes a great day out for young children.

chantelle Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I get a bit confused - do you have to reject your > choice to get on waiting lists and if not, how do > the places free up? In other words, why would > anyone reject the place they've been assigned > before knowing they have another place? (barring > moving house of private school admission) Chantelle, accept the place (for several reasons). You will automatically be placed on the waiting lists for all schools higher up your preference list, and notified if a place becomes available. You can also now put your name on waiting lists for schools you did not put on the list in the first place. The whole list moves for many reasons: people move house, have applied for state school while waiting to hear if they have a place at a private school, get a place on appeal at a preferred school, or decide to Home Ed. On the first day of term some children don't show up - the family has failed to tell the school they have emigrated or moved. Places become available all through the summer and maybe beyond.

But you can apply to and go on the waiting lists for nearby schools over the borough border, which will be closer than many Southwark schools.

The inside of Hever Castle is not great, but the grounds are lovely, the water maze thing very good, the kids climbing adventure playground is good and they often have days where you can watch jousting, if you check their website. I think it also has a maze. The cafe is expensive and serves the most horrible food I have ever paid for on a day out. But it has beautiful picnic spots. Leeds Castle food is also expensive but not horrible.

Arundel Castle is fab, it has a proper Motte and Bailey and a Keep and you can walk on the battlements. Walmer and Dover are good. Battle Abbey is not a castle, and there's not much left, but it has an excellent description of the Battle of Hastings, nice grounds, woods with a battle-themed playground. Windsor - stuffy and boring and no good grounds to explore. (and not Kent)

Is that East and West the right way round? I thought planes had to fly into the wind to land and take off? The City airport planes are much less disturbing. And don't come in at 4.30am, presumably because they aren't big enough to come long haul from the Far / Middle East?

This is what web cams were invented for.

There was a two-mum couple in our NCT ante-natal class and another in the tea group. The tea group all remained long term friends. I can't speak for the women involved of course, but have never heard or seen any issue around it.

You can adjust them, but you have to do it from the back. Follow the straps through.

Queuing at stations around Vauxhall and Kennington, no diesel at some stations.... But presumably all for no purpose as more deliveries will be on the way :-S

It has been quieter for the last week or so. I don't know if it is winds, or BST (though I haven't noticed the fly past an hour later, either) or maybe they just vary the flightpath on a rota to prevent any one group of citizens getting too upset and uppity, and reporting the constant breaches of the dawn curfew to an ombudsman.

Birds Eye fillet fish fingers are perfectly OK - no 'unnatural' ingredients. The orange colour is carotene. Good quality thick cut oven chips - just potato and a small amount of sunflower oil, what's the matter with that? Pasta and pesto You can make your own oven chips - cut potatoes onto chips sized wedges (leave the skin on) coat very lightly in olive or sunflower oil, sprinkle lightly in salt, bake in the oven on a mdium-high heat. The fresh chilled (but keep for ages) stuffed pasta with spinach and ricotta. Good quality pizza - it's just bread dough, cheese and tomato! Pizza Express Margarita, pre cut into the right sized slices and then frozen so you can just cook one or two slices. Add some tuna and frozen / defrosted leaf spinach, or ham, or mushroom slices before cooking. The Health Visitor advice is that over a year old, babies can eat what we eat, within reason - there is no need for all this guilt and hand wringing. Also, if a chicken nugget says it is all fillet, that is what they must put in. Just check the good quality packets.

I am now confused. Is ED an inner-city area, as per CoachBeth's posts, or a leafy suburb?

You need to make your housing choice based on primary school location if you are planning to send her to state primary (which it sounds as if you are). Catchments are very tight for many of the primary schools. What sort of atmosphere and facilities do you think will suit your daughter? Will you qualify for a place at a faith school? Is there a particular location you are looking for housing in?

I love the Isle of Wight as long as we can avoid the resorts around Ryde. Bits of Sandown and Old Shankliln are lovely, and then from there to Ventnor and round to Yarmouth is lovely. Ryde is definitely Cappucino sachet territory. However the S and W are much less developed, away from lots of the attractions kids like, and don't have holiday parks with pools. Great beaches, though. What about this company? http://www.islandviewholidays.co.uk/?vlsrc=gaw&gclid=CPzm_b2C-64CFS4NtAodSzY7xw (looks expensivey). It's a small island, there's a great bus service all the way round the coast, maybe find a holiday park with a pool and then explore wider afield from there? Or check out places here: http://www.islandbreaks.co.uk/accommodation/caravans-and-chalets

They have CenterParcs in Holland. Personally I don't see any point in coming over here and then going to an on-site place that could just as easily be in their home country. Center Parcs are all of a muchness. Wouldn't they rather go somewhere genuinely English and different? What about a chalet at Sandy balls? Or at Kelling Heath in Norfolk?

Do you not have a contact for your child's tutor group or head of year? If you are concerned they should be your first port of call, it doesn't really matter what other parents think. Did you have a parents evening this term?