bawdy-nan

the zoo is pretty good - you can get a boat from Camden too ... (advance booking is cheaper as us the travel by rail 2for1 deal)

That will be Josie Jump's house.

Hello I would really appreciate the opportunity to ask some questions of parents with children, who have statements, at local (ish) secondary schools. I'm finding it quite hard to navigate the maze and am hearing all kinds of things about which schools are "not really behind" children with SEN statements (yes, I know this is illegal but, frankly, we know that attitudes and SENCO status in schools vary and have a big impact on our children). If anyone has had experience of having a child make the secondary transfer in localish schools and would be willing to have a DM conversation I'd be very grateful. Many thanks

Thanks MsMaz!

So maybe it could run along the lines of: a single thread in the family classifieds section where the format would be that you post Books Wanted: Books offered: If there's not a direct swap available maybe we could allocate a nominal price (?1? 50p? something like that?) might be easier than trying to establish a edf bookswap token... might that be a goer?

Actually, I think the riposte to be "less judgemental" was directed at me rather than by me (I think I am a little bit judgemental!) And thanks, Polemache, those were the reports upon which I'd based by assertions

another thought - maybe we could set up a thread for book swaps / sales?

those big reductions are loss leaders (ie they are sold at much cheaper than they cost to actually produce)- generally, as you'll be aware, I;m sure, its cheaper to wait for the paperback if you want to own the book. We tend to use a mixture of the library (they'll order and reserve books you want), second hand (swaps and amazon) and waiting for book tokens to arrive for birthdays and christmas.

This is helpful re statements and transition to EHC as well as the changes to the process and systems etc http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/guest_posts/a2198536-Guest-post-and-Q-A-Changes-to-SEN-legislation-what-you-need-to-know

There's Beacons too ...http://www.beaconsnetballclub.com/

For an amazing insight into the world of Victorian schooling in the Dulwich area Just for the PE: ?t=1m8s

I'm wondering whether some schools are still updating in response to the new code of practice ... there's lots of mention in other policy documents that they should be read in conjunction with the SEN policy but then there's no SEN policy available ...probably, as you intimate, being updated...hence not available online (or, it has to be said, when requested) (wish they'd get on with it though)

I thought they had always had to make it available.

apologies penguin68 - poor cutting and pasting on my part

I thought the new SEN code of practice said that schools must display their SEN policies and make them available ... browsing through the "local" secondary schools websites this certainly isn't the case ...bodes ill about attitudes to SEN, but, perhaps that's the point ...

Yes, thanks Otta, I'd forgotten about IPSEA. The thing is, the Southwark site doesn't really say anything ... I think I'm feeling gloomy about the whole thing as we're just about to start properly thinking about yr7 transfer and the "offer" feels grim. And thin. We're in a wonderful situation at the moment but I can't think how secondary's going to work at all.

mako Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Am I right in thinking that bursaries are just a > discount in the cost. So if you put the prices up > by a couple of thousand and then give everyone a > discount you are fulfilling the 'we give > bursaries'. Surely its who gets these discounts > that makes it a charity not that you give > discounts at rates that most are still priced out? I'm not sure but certainly there are very few 100% bursaries. That question is dealt with in the document. I think that they need to be substantial to meet the criteria but I think they needn't be 100%.

> Penguin68 Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- There seems to be a > weird presumption that certain charities should > curtail their own activities for the benefit of > separate groups. Would this be expected of other > charities or is it just that private schools are > considered to be a fair target? > It's quite a complicated question of interpretation of the 2006 Charities Act, I think, which requires a "public benefit" test to be met in relation to the charitable status of all charities. "Education" as a charitable aim ceased to be a sole justification for charitable status and it was required that charities also provide a public benefit. As private schools provide a service to a small number of people for a large amount of money their status as charities is questionable. They must provide benefit to the wider public which they argue they do via bursaries and "sharing" facilities with other local schools. (other sports clubs don't count if the charity's original purpose to provide "education"). Quite how much has to be shared, whether through bursaries or sharing of facilities hasn't been established. Some schools make the argument that they meet a public benefit test merely by relieving the burden on the state (this was tested in court and found not to be a satisfactory argument); likewise, the argument has been made by those opposing private schools' charitable status that there mere existence is a public detriment rather than benefit (ie no private school should have charitable status) but this argument too has been tested in court and found wanting. There's a very helpful outline here: http://www.sjol.co.uk/issue-3/private-schools So, it's not clear and there's an ongoing wrestling match. Complicated, I would have thought, by the free schools and academies who have state funding and charitable status.

yes - it's awful and I can't fathom what ehc now means in practice. Looks very much from this that the legal rights are diminished...

Wasn't the place next to moxons once a pasta place years and years ago ed redux ... (Spaghetti Weston ... Am I mis-remembering?)

We had brilliant, swift and sensitive treatment at Kings. The referral process was a little odd ( we had to hand deliver the referral letter as the dentist no longer used stamps or something bizarre) but once there - wonderful.

As I understand it bright children, statistically, do better at state schools. I can only assume that the motivation in sending children to private school is either social or an assumption by parents that their kids are perhaps not bright enough. I went to Oxbridge from a state comp (one of, I think, 45 in my intake year eligible for free school meals) and my impression is (and remains) that a private school education gives children a sense of expectation and feeling of desert. which means, I think, that it is easier to succeed. In my day my sense is that there were other, intellectual opportunities and challenges afforded to people at independent schools but I really don't see that now. my daughter, at a local state school has, in her first few weeks at secondary school been challenged to think and experiment intellectually, has spent a full day at Imperial College doing maths with academics andhas been offered, in my opinion a world of expectation I never had. She's also mixing with an extraordinarily wide range of people - some clever, some not so much, some evidently wealthy some not so and they're on an equal footing and engaging in the world and I'm thrilled for her and, honestly, I don't think she could get that at an independent. (Edited for terrible typos)

I'm not in principle rather by gut but I'm open to arguments ... Practically I think that these schools, and the estate, should be more respectful of their original purpose and should also be working harder to have an impact locally. There are absolutely loads of ways they could do this from sharing facilities to sharing ideas to integrating pupils via sports / clubs / theatrical productions; to obeying traffic laws (and, for example, not using Townley Road like their own private car park to the detriment and danger of other road users, cars and cyclists); to promoting cycle paths so that ALL children can get to school safely by bike rather than just their pupils (I;m thinking specifically here of the unpaved paths on Hunts Slip Road which could be made into a cycle path for Kingsdale pupils use whereas at the moment the massive urban tractor dropping off / double parking etc and stony paths mean cycling is very dangerous). If their purpose is genuinely education and charitable rather than service provision to a wealthy elite then they really ought to be doing more to promote that aim. But if, as other posters have mentioned, they are in the business of running a business and servicing the requirements of people who wish to buy those services then that is fine but they shouldn't be afforded the advantages of charitable status.

In what way is Alleyns more inclusive I wonder? I would be very interested to hear how many of its intake come from the state sector and are not tutored to pass the exams and interviews which appear to be careful constructed to keep the riff raff out. I don't buy the bursaries argument when the examples given here are for bursaries offered to the formerly wealthy suddenly down on their luck. I've a gut reaction against these schools but can hear the arguments about their and the Dulwich Estate's impact on the local area for good. I suppose I'd like to see more of it. I can't see at all how the charitable status is justified.

me too! Do you want contact details by pm yet?