Soulking

Hi All, we have small project we'd like to get someone to help us with as well - a bit of building work (a small kitchen extension) and some general refurbishment on the ground floor. Anyone recommendations? Thanks in advance!

why stop with removing the sibling rule? Why not make every child reapply for their place every year? Any set of "rules" you come up with can be taken advantage of. If there is any distance based criteria then it will advantage those who have the means or have the inclination to move house to improve their chances. When you try and put your finger on it - its difficult to explain why its unfair (at least it is for me). Why does that make them scumbags? If you think its wrong - change the rules.

Yes, great news. I am very happy that we will get a new school in East Dulwich. Regardless of the exact details of the admissions criteria, it will relieve the pressure for many and give choices to more people. My view is that as the crow flies from the school site is the best option - the others I have seen seem to complicate matters or introduce a greater element of uncertainty for applicants. As a parent my priority is to know where I stand so that I can plan accordingly. I live in the eastern part of East Dulwich (and with primary school age children) so therefore I am significantly out of range of Charter 1 and possibly charter 2 as well if it ends up having a similar catchment area so "as the crow flies" will not benefit me. I just think that its better for the school to represent the community its physically in - regardless of the post code. I don't see why someone who lives on the far side of SE22 should get preference to someone who lives closer in southern Camberwell? Imagine a family in ten years time moving to Champion Hill, when the dust has settled on this debate all the people who were behind the the bid have moved on, what would they think if they couldn't get access to a school a few hundred yards away?

Family A and family B move into adjacent houses, close to a school they both thought would be great for their children. Family A does this cynically, because they are a little but middle class, with the intention of moving out when the school place is secure. Family B have made no plans for the future. Family A moves out the first week of reception. Family B decide the house isn't right for them, or maybe they are (unexpectedly) expecting another child and need a bigger place - pick your story that isn't cynically gaming the system - and move away as well. Would you "knock" family B as well? I'm not saying family A are doing the right thing. But what admissions criteria could you come up with that separates these people when the only difference between them was their intentions? There are admission rules - people make decisions based on those rules. And yes, people with "money" have options that those who have less do not. You can say this is unfair, but what can you do about it? Whichever system you come up with will advantage some over others - and often having money gives you flexbility that confers an advantage. If you think this unfair - what would you change? I'm not sure a pure lottery system would work - for example - what if your child was allocated a school on the other side of London? I think some kind of distance based criteria makes sense for schools (both primary and secondary) because the school should be part of the community - and that is easier to achieve if the families live close by.

I don't really understand what people mean by 'gaming the system'. Obvioulsy you shouldn't be untruthful about where you live to get a place at a school, but why is it wrong to move close to a school if that is their stated admissions policy? Some of the comments here seem to be imply its OK to get a place for your older child, move somewhere else because 'life' happened, but to not to do it in a pre-meditated way? And in any case how could the school differentiate between these different groups of people. I have a friend who did this - and at first I thought how unfair this seems - but when I thought about it, they are just doing what they thought was best for their children.

We have 3 kids under 5 so had a similar problem. We did (endless) research on this and came down to ford s-max or Renault 5008. We got the Renault in the end. Both can comfortably fit 3 (substantial) car seats in the back, or 2 and an adult. The 2nd row of seats move independently, with the middle seat being full size. Plus they have a flexible 3rd row of fold down seats which have used for lugging around friends and grand parents from time to time. Good luck!

If you really don't want to get into a debate then perhaps posting your opinion on a public forum is not such a great idea?

eleg1 - you haven't said why you think the Charter bid is exclusive (and Haberdashers not presumably since you are supporting it). Especially since both are still consulting with the community about what admissions policy to use? Also, not sure I understand your point about the statistics. Perhaps you could explain that further? Sorry but I find it over the top to say that Charter support is "shocking" - and you imply that anyone supporting Charter "wants" an exclusive school. I support it, and certainly do not want an exclusive school.

In what way is the Charters proposal for the new school going to be 'exclusive'? What do you think about the Haberdashers bid. Is that 'exclusive' too?

Right, got it. So if you make the assumption that because the area around dulwich hospital site is relatively expensive, then children will more likely end up in the higher bands, then this will make the furthest distance for those bands less than if you use a distance based criteria alone. So if you are in se15, or on the wrong side of east dulwich (me!), and you believe your child might end up in the higher band, you will then actually have less chance of getting in (if compared to distance alone). However, I do recognise some of the arguments for using bands, I just don't think it will help some of those posting on this forum saying they would have more chance with a banding + distance based system.

Another question, something mentioned earlier, why would banding with distance compared with distance alone result in a wider catchment area? Would it not average out to the same thing across bands, with some bands less and some more? Or maybe there is something I'm missing?

bornagain - I agree completely. I don't understand why you would rather the (small) random chance of getting into your preferred choice via a lottery versus a more predicatable chance that as the crow flies admissions offers. At least you know where you stand, and so either accept the fact or (in theory) do something about it (for example, move). Some people have mentioned they prefer a distance based admissions with banding - because they felt it would potentially increase the maximum distance for them? I don't really understand this - unless you know that there are fewer children in your childs particular band closer to the school than there are on average in the other bands? How could you possibly know this? Or is it just that with a smaller admissions group (if say 5 bands then 20% of intake) then there will be more variation from a statistical point of view. In which case this sounds like taking a big chance to me and going back to my first point is not something I could rely on (call me a control freak!).

Hi mariababe, just curious, if you don't think that the meeting was the best way to get peoples views, what else do you have in mind? I live on the far side of east dulwich, probably about 1.5km away from the center of the hospital site so probably don't have much chance to get my kids there either; but at least as the crow flies is straightforward so everyone knows where they stand - I now know to make other plans. Of the people I spoke to that evening (about 10 sets of parents) only one already had children at Charter.

Thanks Littlek1cker/Simon - just sent an email giving my support. btw - I think people are just trying to do (what they think is) the right thing. Being accussed of stuff, and called ridiculous, seems out of order to me.

agree with everyone else. ?2 for 5 minutes seems expensive. we were at cp park for the first time last week - our older one loved the bouncy slide thing - the bloke running it was really friendly and encouraging, when our younger one couldn't manage it he offered to switch her to the smaller bouncy castle. And it was half the price from what i can remember. On the other hand they both really enjoyed the donkey ride at the fair, and the people helping out were really friendly.

Roksana is based in Tulse Hill, very close to the station. Just a follow up on my previous post - I took Grade II in November and Grade III in March (one year after starting lessons, and both passed with good marks - hope this doesn't come across as boastful!). I am certain I would not have achieved this without her!

to return to the OP - yes I think its unrealistic for prospective parents to expect to meet with the head teacher one to one. There are many hundreds of people who put goodrich down on their list - the head can't possibly be expected to meet all prospective parents. While the accusation of "self-absorbtion" might be a bit harsh - we all want to the best for our kids - it is true that the head teacher needs to prioritise his time for the good of the school as a whole. Also, we did get to meet him on our tour of the school before we applied last year - and had the opportunity to meet our son's teachers several times before the year started.

Actually, just there today with my five year old. Generally the lessons are good I think (we have been going since September), and haven't noticed any change in quality. However, I would say that I think the classes are too big, and that the children do not spend enough time in the water. My son only went into the water three times today - for a total of about 2 minutes.

just took a look at that piano lobby site. Some nice piano's, but bizarrely I can't find an address for their showroom on their website. Anyone know where they are?

I've been learning with Roksana now for about 5 months - starting from almost nothing - and I'm now contemplating doing the grade II exam shortly. She is an absolute pleasure to learn with. She is very encouraging and supportive, but also not afraid to point out where things need improvement! I really like her focus on the fundamentals - for example rhythm and sight reading. And as a few other people have already said; its never too late to learn - even if you are, as Roksana described me in our last lesson, "of a certain age"!

does anyone know when we are likely to hear from Herne Hill school about possible offers?

Hi 123ed, We just came across this thread and were wondering what decision you came to? We are in a very similar situation. An opportunity to move to Hong Kong for 2 years has come up - and we are giving it serious thought. My wife and I have a lot of the same concerns, but are also worried about schools for our 3 year old, as if we're out there for 2 years we'll be missing the start of reception/primary school and aren't sure where this will leave us given how oversubscribed schools are here. I'd be interested to hear what peoples experiences of moving into this area with school age kids have been. If you have/are going we'd be really interested in hearing about your experiences. On the accomodation/finances side of things I'd also be interested in hearing where people have moved to in Hong Kong.