oimissus

if you're happy with the nursery she's in you just keep her there till she starts school, if they offer the free 15 hours then they'll knock that off the fees - so Miss Oi is 3 days a week, 8-6 and the 15 free hours are deducted from the total. She'll stay there still she starts school (reception) September 2014. School nurseries are a bit hopeless if you both work as their hours are very limited.

I must say I'm surprised teachers don't help with this - neither of my parents were in this field, nor did we know anyone who was, so if it hadn't been for lovely Mrs North I'm not sure what I would have done! Went on to do a degree in Ancient Near Eastern History which I have completely failed to use (it was actually quite boring).

20+ years ago my Latin teacher arranged for me to do work exp in the Museum of London. I washed many an animal bone down the plughole . . .

yes, we looked around Eliot Bank and liked it, but it's right at the top of Sydenham and has the catchment of about a yard so not much use if you're further down towards the centre I guess. I always think of it as a Forest Hill school, even though it's got an SE26 postcode.

We are thinking about Sydenham but what are the primary schools like? We've looked around Haseltine, which was certainly very impressive but I found the situation of it relentlessly urban - all you could hear from the playground was the roar of traffic. And there's Alexandra Junior - but to get into the infant school you need to be living right down at Kent House. We like the Thorpe estate but couldn't work out what schools were on offer - Adamsrill, I guess - what's it like? We would need to be close to Sydenham station for transport.

religion isn't particularly important here, unlike in, say, the US, but unlike the US we do have a state religion (Church of England). That does mean that all primaries, even if they are not CofE, are meant to have, for instance, 'broadly Christian' assemblies, which doesn't really mean anything much, but I think some parents are surprised at this, forgetting that, as a country, we do 'have' a religion. They might do a Nativity play at Christmas. And you can request that your child not participate in these things, but they seem harmless enough. Whether you believe in Christianity or not, there's no getting away from the fact that it has massively influenced our history and culture, so it's worth your children knowing the basics (as well as the basics of the other major religions as well). I'm a Catholic who attended a (private) Cof E school for 10 years, along with Jewish, Hindu and Muslims girls, and I don't know anyone who converted or who felt any undue pressure to change their beliefs because of it.

weeelll, I'm going to go against the grain a bit here, and disagree with some comments, firstly about how long they'll be in a cotbed/toddler bed - I certainly know of one nearly 5 year old and one 5.5 year old who are both still in toddler beds, neither are tiny either, so you don't know they'll grow out of it quickly. Secondly, I had a friend who was in a similar position to you and moved her son into a bed and it was a bit of a mare, he was in and out all the time and she was up and down the stairs a lot, and in retrospect, when pregnant, she wishes she'd kept him trapped in his cot longer! also - do you know how much space you'll have - how big is/are the bedroom(s), are they sharing, are you thinking of bunk beds or high sleepers, that kind of thing, some of which may mean that getting a single won't be as cost-effective as you think. We only have the one but she's in a toddler bed (went in when she just turned 3) because I really would like her to have a mid or high sleeper when she's a bit bigger (when I first saw these in Ikea 15 years ago I so wished I'd had one!), plus her room isn't huge so it would make better use of the space. Hopefully we can sell the toddler bed when we're finished with it, so it won't be a huge waste.

jeez, I thought we'd done a christening on a budget spending about ?200 (sarnies and booze back at our house, mainly), since when was ?2000 'on a budget'?!!

I saw a woman at the Vale, I'm not sure of her name though. Miss Oi wasn't too bad but one session and she was sorted.

soft play at Peckham, think there are sessions all day. or that trusty favourite - the park!

they don't know. Fairlawn didn't choose to bulge, they were told to by Lewisham council in July. They don't want to this year (don't have the capacity as they only have one hall in which to do all lunches, games, assemblies) but if Lewisham say they have to then they will. But Lyndhurst, for example, seem pretty definite that they won't as they have building works going on.

second the dress-up sticker books, friend who works at Usborne gave Miss Oi one, she absolutely loved it.

you could get the completely ghastly but actually very good for this Vtech walker, the one with flashing lights and an annoying voice. MiL bought it for Miss Oi, she loved it and it certainly helped her pootle about the house without having to hang on to one of us, which is back-breaking as you say. Most tastefully, you could go for a wooden trolley with bricks, though I don't think that would be as sturdy. http://www.amazon.co.uk/VTech-First-Steps-Baby-Walker/dp/B0002MG6ZE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381821447&sr=8-1&keywords=vtech+walker actually, I didn't know it was as much as this, MiL bought ours in a charity shop for a fiver. Still, it was very good once your eyes and ears got used to it.

thanks LondonMix, I've found the schools I was after.

LondonMix - where did you get those figures from, the ones comparing Heber, Bessemer and Hamlet (your post of 2.47pm)- very interesting, I would like to look at the figures for the schools in my area. I clicked on the link but couldn't see that info, though I may well have been misreading or misunderstood the data. thanks.

at a parenting class I went to, they suggested not using material treats (like toys) as rewards for a star chart or similar, but just something that you knew they loved to do - for Miss Oi that would be a trip to the Horniman or the farm, or the paddling pool in summer. Right now we are keeping her on track with The Lion King - if she's a good girl (which is of course totally relative!) she can watch it on Sunday. Or even just a stupid dance - 'hey, you've got 10 stars! Let's dance to We Will Rock you 20,000 times!'.

this development is going to be discussed on the World at One on Radio 4 today (I think, I wasn't properly listening, but I heard the words Crystal palace and China so I assume it's this).

?5 an hour is below London minimum wage, is it not? We've only had a paid babysitter once and it was ?9 an hour, which seemed fine to me. Even with friends we have always driven them home, so that's very poor.

If you are already a pupil at the school you wouldn't sit the 11+ so wouldn't be eligible for the first, but would for the second? I know I sat for a scholarship at around that age in the school I was already attending.

As part of my endless information gathering about schools, I would be very interested in hearing feedback from parents who have children at Oliver Goldsmith or the Peckham Free School. Please PM me if you'd rather. thanks

I've now managed to read the article and have signed. Absolutely dreadful - complete strangers taking photos of women recovering from childbirth??? Under the aegis of getting child benefit forms out there? And the government pay them for this? The whole thing beggars belief.

does this happen at Kings (where I guess a lot of forumite babies were born)? Because until I read about it on Mumsnet I didn't know anything about this, I got the Bounty pack from the midwife pre-birth (and chucked most of it in the bin), but never saw anyone on the ward and I was in there for 5 days (though admittedly not out in the main ward for most of that time). Link isn't working for me but from what I've read on MN it sounds awful.

no, the distance in the booklet doesn't include waiting lists, Renata (local councillor) confirmed this on my thread about primary school tours.

could you leave landing/hall light on and door open? That's what we started to do when DD asked for it to be lighter. There's also a stereo in her room and we leave it on all night and the glow of the numbers is enough for it not to be pitch dark, once we've gone to bed and switched off the hall light.

I don't know about storage but I think I'm going to keep stuff that's in good condition - thinking ridiculously far ahead but my sister kept lots of her toys and thus has all the lego, dolls, dolls house, to hand on to her daughter. We have a big loft helpfully! I've not found any good storage yet, I want drawers that are big enough to hold A3 paper, no joy yet. Baskets for books and those pop-up basketty things for toys at the mo (but she's younger than your DD).