nunheadmum

The results for last year's year 6's were far stronger than those the Ofsted was based on. The school had a real hard look at why the results had been so bad and put in place a plan to improve them - which had the desired effect. I think that shows a positive leadership in the school. I wouldn't say the school is perfect but no school is - even those with Outstanding Ofsteds will have their weaknesses. The expansion of the school will pose challenges. (Any big change does.) But the leadership know that there will be issues and are ready to engage with them. They need the parents to engage too. If that continues to happen then it will continue to be a true community school, committed to keeping as broad a curriculum as the powers that be allow schools to.

Thanks for the responses. Sorry to hear you lost some Jules-and-Boo.....we learned the lesson of them getting colds in the first few weeks, which was a bit of a quicker lesson in pets than we'd expected! Sounds like we'll need to bring them in. I think we'll all enjoy them more if we do and they'll get on better too. Time for a clear out then!!!

Anyone got guinea pigs that you keep outside? What do you do in winter? It'll be our first winter with guineas - ours live in a hutch inside a playhouse with access to an outside run. Do we need to heat the hutch or bring them in? My husband is getting all worried and designing extravagant schemes.

Thanks for the responses. Personally, I found ours sat on a shelf and we looked online for most of the info. But glad to hear others make more use of them.

It's the time of year when many of us go around schools, either primary or secondary, and collect the polished prospectuses that are distributed. Can I ask how much parents feel these are of use in the decisions they and their children are making? As a school business manager trying to make money go further, I'm just interested if they are valued by parents. Any input welcome.

My kids love Minecraft and play the Pocket edition on tablets. But the latest update has made them lose all the content they had bought. Does anyone have bigger kids out there who can advise what we can do? Edited to add: Phew....seemed to resolve itself after a bit. Kids happy again!

Just given my daughter her first mobile for starting secondary school. It's an old handset of mine so is a smart phone but about 3-4 years old. She's only allowed to use data at home on WiFi. But already I can see that we'll need to make sure she doesn't get addicted to social media. It's hard as she really wants to keep in touch with her old classmates who are all at different schools and her best friend has just emigrated. But I'd rather have those arguments now when she still takes heed of what we say than wait and give her a smart phone when she's a few years older and try to influence her then!

I know there are some knitters on here. Does anyone have a good knitting pattern for a broad stripe kids jumper in DK wool? Think Dennis the Menace stripes. I know I could get a plain jumper and just adapt it but I'm not sure if I'd get the stripes lining up etc. I know all the websites to search and will try them again but I only found one last time and it had a couple of bits in it that I struggled with. Just wondered if someone was sitting on the perfect one?

Check the schools - a lot of them may welcome the extra income and you'll probably get good facilities.

Also ask at South London Music in Grove Vale (www.slmusic.co.uk). They deal with lots of kids from the Saturday music school at Goose Green and I'm sure they do instrument rental. Failing that, for specialists, I'd second Howarth's. I've bought a couple of saxes there and always had good service despite being fairly amateur.

Margaret Omoniyi runs some different groups - drama, singing etc. My experience of Margaret and those working with her are that they're really good at supporting the quieter kids and encouraging them to come out themselves, even if the groups themselves aren't small. It's a small operation so there's no standard processing of the kids. Have a look at: http://www.margaretsmusicltd.com/

The issue with Harris Girls is that they only offer I think it was 1/3 of places in each band to girls within 1km from the nodal point (which is actually 2 streets away from the school, towards East Dulwich) and the rest are allocated on lottery. I know of someone living not even as far as the church on Merrtins Road who didn't get a place. So don't be tempted to think of Harris girls as a sure bet unless you're well within the 1km distance (and check where it's measured from!).

A lot of Ivydale kids got Deptford Green - I've heard 80%. (By choice, not random allocation.) Only those with scholarships seemed to get Kingsdale. Some kids didn't even get into Harris Girls. Not sure what would have happened without Deptford Green to mop up so many.

Lots of Ivydale kids got Deptford Green. Harris boys too. Some wanted Harris Girls and didn't get it. A smattering at other schools via scholarships or other selective criteria. Lots of folk waiting to see what happens in the next few weeks and over the summer.

Thanks Mrs TP. I think if my daughter was going to a school without other friends, I'd prefer her to do any pre-start stuff she could as she is on the quiet side and I think she'd appreciate a chance to meet others in a smaller group situation. And as I suspect we may end up waiting on a place over the summer hols, we may miss any end of term prep. But then again, we may be lucky on Wednesday. The butterflies start!

Firstly I'm not trying to be provocative here. I work in schools finance so I can see first hand the issues. I'm also a parent with kids at school and want the best for them. But it seems to me that while we can say that we want more funding for schools, where is the money coming from - are we also saying that we are willing to pay more taxes to fund it? I am but I don't know how many others are. We can argue that money should come from the fat cats who don't pay what they should or from not funding nuclear weapons or a host of other arguments. But they will take a long time to resolve and a lot of political will that is subject to change. We want action now. If we give the message that we are willing to pay e.g. 1% more in tax to fund schools properly, that's a much more powerful message that is harder to ignore if it comes across the country and from the different sections involved. Otherwise we're fighting against all the other sectors such as the NHS, prisons etc, etc who are also crying out for proper funding. And we're fighting other schools for a shrinking pot of money.

Summer camps?? Just as well that I didn't book any summer hols yet then. Thanks. Will need to phone around after 1st March I guess as I suspect what we get then and where we go may well change.

Can anyone advise if state secondary schools do any kind of induction for the new year 7's and does this ever encroach on the summer holiday period - e.g. for kids who may get a place from waitlists? My daughter is due to start year 7 after the holidays and we expect there's a good chance we'll be waiting on a waitlist place at preferred schools. But due to work issues, I may need to book our summer hols at the end of the school holiday period. I'm wondering if we could find that the school we get runs some induction sessions in that last week or so and hence would be best to keep it clear. Anyone with any past experience?

Having just started working in a secondary school, I'm amazed at how much of what the school does is really more in the sphere of social work and how little of it is funded. It's not just the fact that salaries costs are going up and funding down. There are a core of students who need a massive input to keep them getting close to the targets schools are meant to achieve - and schools daren't let them not achieve those targets or their external reports / assessments suffer and this hits student numbers and this hits funding. And don't get me started on the madness that means that lack of planning means that extra schools are planned at the peak of capacity needs, which have fallen away by the time the schools come online.....meaning too many schools chasing the same kids and no one has the numbers they need to operate as well as they could if they were full. More money needs to go hand in hand with a proper assessment of needs and proper long term planning. Sadly politicians are never around long enough to worry about anything more than short term headlines.

I understand that late applications will be allocated a place at the schools on your list if one is available - the highest choice where one is available. If none are available you'll be offered a place at your closest school with available space and then you can go on the waitlist for any other school you are interested in. At that point, you'll be in the same place as all the rest of us who have applied on time and are unhappy with our allocation / holding a preference for another school and are sitting on waitlists in the hope of a preferred choice. You'll be placed on the waitlists in rank of how you meet the oversubscription criteria - so if we're both on the waitlist for a school that is decided on by distance only and you were closer, you'd go higher up the waitlist than us. I'm told that there's lots of movement on the waitlists over the summer so don't despair totally at going on the lists a little late. If you've got the chance to chose where you decide to live, you may want to consider moving closer to your school of choice (if it is decided on distance) to improve your chances. And even once your kids start in September, you can always stay on waitlists and see if spaces come up. There are lots of stories of kids buying uniform one day and getting a place at their preferred school the next. Good luck with the move and getting a school!

Weren't Bratz more Barbie sized? The ones my daughter is into are the bigger 18 inch/46cm ones. There are quite a few ranges that have come out recently and common sense would say that the clothes should be interchangeable but the dolls vary in construction so I'm not sure.

Can anyone tell me if Toys r Us's Journey Girl dolls clothes fit the Gotz Hannah / Argos - Design a Friend dolls? I don't want to get yet another doll in the house but the clothes look good. Not sure though if the dolls look a little skinnier in the limbs than the other makes. Anyone know a good source for more fashionable clothes for 18inch/46cm dolls? There's a lot of frilly dresses on ebay etc but not so many normal clothes.

Afraid I can't say as my husband ordered and installed it but I think he just followed the instructions.

Would a chimney balloon work? http://www.chimneyballoon.co.uk/ It probably depends on how much soot you get down but we've got one and it works quite well to block the hole and stop the heat escaping.

I bought this one for my daughter and it seemed like sensible recipes - not all just arranging food into funny shapes. She was 8 and I thought it was probably better for slightly older kids to use themselves or younger ones to work on with parents. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1943451206/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Reminds me that I should get her to get it out and we can do some!