bawdy-nan

Willard, I can see you were impressed by your recent visits but I'm not convinced by your research skills and judgement. You seem to take things totally at face value. For example you state that one of these schools is going to set up "the first state boarding school". With some bells ringing I checked in with my old friend professor google who reminded me that the notion of the "state boarding school" is such s ling standing one as to have it's own association: http://www.sbsa.org.uk/ I don't doubt your enthusiasm just your ability to make any kind of critical judgement based on facts.

RE the call centre not working - I'd persevere. I had to make 3 calls and send 2 emails before we got a blue bin and before our street got any brown bins and caddies. Really, I'm not surprised they're busy and a bit overwhelemed. It's a big change.

well, it's early days I suppose... Not really surprising the call centre's not quite working but a bit annoying - have called and emailed 3 times over last 3 weeks. Now we finally have a brown bin but no blue bin and we're running out of space. I'm expecting it'll work out eventually bug in the meantime grrrrrrrrr

:( so far we've had a small blue box delivered and no brown bin or brown food caddy. I've asked for a blue bin and a smaller green bin as we already generate recycling that fills two (of our own) large containers on a weekly basis and barely a black sack of ordinary rubbish a week. We've been composting and now we can keep cooked food scraps and food tainted paper out of our green bin we'll have hardly any rubbish. But - no food caddy, no bags no brown bin ... boo hoo

Both my children were born late (at 41+5 and 42 +3) for both I tried EVERYTHING to get them to come: cervical sweeps, reflexology, acupuncture, bouncing up and down on an exercise ball, some dodgy herbs, buckets of raspberry leaf tea, curry, sex, walking fast, pineapple, cumin tea etc etc. I cannot say whether any of these worked (though both labours were very straightforward, at home and quick) but I CAN say that the reflexology and the acupuncture sessions were extremely relaxing and far and away the most pleasant of the things I tried ... good luck!

p4 from dulwich village to Brixton (start if victoria line so seats plus a lift) then tube - very quick. 12 takes ages. Another option would be train to London bridge then to charing cross then walk (20 mins) or bus from there - very pleasant route.

I think it's delicious.

yes, hh, that sounds MUCH more like it :)

helena handbasket Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Totally true cuppa tea. > > Personally I'm a big fan of the "good enough > parenting" school of thought. It just makes > sense and moves away from the guilt inducing > extreme theorizing I read so much of. If you > google it there's lots of refreshing, reasonable > advice. isn't the "good enough" theory that of Bruno Bettelheim who also suggested that mothers "create" autistic children through insufficient love? Funny how it's always all about the mothers. Disproven now, of course, but I mention because the tide of "thought" on child psychology shifts seismically over time. Now, don't get me started on Bowlby ... > > I especially like the mother "as a model of a > good, imperfect person".

lucky Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I wasn't for a moment suggesting that students > with SENs should not be catered for but what some > people are not thinking of is that some SENs work > at lower attainment levels because they find it > difficult even with the best of help due to > sometimes genetic causes. This is why sometimes > the results of a particular school in the league > tables of schools are a little lower than they > should be and comparing schools just on the > grounds of ACADEMIC RESULTS is very unfair to some > schools. > SENs children have a right to be educated in state > mantained schools alongside their peers and a > right to be challenged to the top of their > abilities. That is what the NC states and I > wholeheartedly agree. > The parents I talk about are not thinking on these > grounds. The fact is that league table results > based solely on ACADEMIC RESULTS which at the end > of the day only measure how well a student does in > an exam situation are most unfair for the schools > who cater for large numbers of SENS and for the > students and staff in these schools!!! Hmmm - SEN doesn't necessarily mean low attainment. I have a child with SEN (statemented) who is currently meeting national expectations in literacy and exceeding them in maths. Perhaps if he didn't have SEN he might be doing even better but I'm more than happy with that for now. Incidentally I would be deeply concerned about the impact on SEN of moving to academy status.

yikes what did she say?

dvis dhjs (had called for parent volunteers / strike breakers)

is it really the case that they can take things from people who have no relationship to the debt???

I know that this is well intentioned and comes from a genuine desire to help. But. There is something distasteful about it all. Sending crocs to the poor isn't going to help really. I understand the need / desire to fix the problem but clothes parcels don't acheive social justice. As a previous poster noted. The govts about to make this all so much worse.

we go to the hamlet from the eastern side of LL. We had to wait for a place (we were about 5th) and got a place about 3 weeks after the initial announcements (ie in about may) - friern road sounds a bit far and risky if you def want to transfer to the hamlet.

I can honestly say I don't know what this "tipping back" thing is. The chairs have 2 flat legs on the floor and, as far as I can see can't tip back - they're very very stable...

gordie, might I suggest a session with professor google?

yes you do unless they are self-employed (genuinely) working ad-hoc for example and for lots of dfferent clients. you are their emnployer so you'd deduct tax and ni and pay employer's ni on top. Its actually very straightforward and you can do it all online under some special shceme with hmrc.

!!! This "vintage" thing is getting out hand. Now, when grown women started getting gooey over "cup-cakes" and reinvented domestic servitude as a badge of honour and getting your tits out for the lads "empowering" as long as it is done in a vintage corset and with a knowing wink, I rolled my eyes and snarked. But this is utterly ridiculous. There's all kinds of "vintage" bullshit we're better off without from the early part of the twentieth century. Things like, oh, y'know, inaccessible health-care, education and welfare; free-range sex and race discrimination; deference; lack of equal pay; blah blah blah blah blah. Union-jack bunting with pinked edges, fake Cath Kidston cake tins, and a teary eyed big-society wistfulness doesn't even exist in chidlren's stories anymore. Even the arch-duchess of "vintage", Enid Blyton, was making it up and conducting a symphony of mis-remembered nostalgia.

I met a Daily Mail jourmnalist at a party in ED once, not so long ago - lives locally, has primary aged school kids. Seemed quite alright really, as a human. The Daily Mail's ghastly but not a bad way of taking the temperature (febrile on some issues) of a fat swathe of this country. It's also written by people who live locally and, I know, read the forum and talk to their local friends and neighbours. It's a prime DM story and its hardly a surprise it made the paper.

southwark council run a hook up service for this. Self employed childminders who work in your home and on an ad hoc basis. I;ve tried to use it but found someone before they did.

very worth it - especially up to about 6 (or more if they're a bit wee) as it means they can properly and comfortably sit at the table and they have good resale value because they're almost impossible to break.

box hill not too bad nor devil's puncbowl

Heck. It's a bit shouty in here.

There's lots about it in this thread here But mainly it means that the school comes out of Southwark control and becomes a company limited by guarantee and a charity receiving funding directly from the Dept of Ed. The school doesn't have to contribute to the local authority wide fiund to pay for shared services and canchoose what services it opts into. The main financial reason given at the meetings I attended was that there was a short window of opportunity to derive maximum benefit from this non-payment to the council. It is not clear how long the advantage will remain. In terms of regulation it is no longer inspected by OFSTED and is not subject to normal oversight by the charities commission as it will be an "exempt charity". There's lots more and, as I said, I think its set out in some detail in the other thread