Townleygreen

CurlyKaren, Again, Cyprus is no good in january... too likely to be rainy/cloudy then. As I say, Canaries or Eqypt are both good possibilities then. Or Gambia? That's certain to be hot, and is same time zone as us. Los Gigantes beach... yes that WAS interesting. We didn't touch it, stayed around the hotel pools...lovely. It is a lovely peaceful sort of place.

Abbey Wood, Plumstead, Dagenham, Barking, Romford, Hornchurch, Ilford, Leyton, Southall, Feltham, Uxbridge, Merton, Brent, Harlesden, Wembley, Walthamstow, Leytonstone, Thornton heath, Penge, god, there are so many ghastly places!

Lanzarote at 17-22 could well be warm enough for sunbathing! Wife and I spent a week in Los Gigantes in Jan when temp was 20 - it was fine for sunbathing so long as you were fairly sheltered and the sun was shining on you, which it was most of the time when we were there.

Two bad suggestions here IMHO. My advice: The Algarve may be OK in March (maybe you were lucky, it can be wet then), but I wouldn't go there in January. Turkey is also no good then. I think you might be best to try Sharm el Sheik in Egypt - you'll have sun, plus the Red Sea is very pleasant then. Or the Canaries. I am not sure about temps in Essaouira in Morocco then either. Lovely place, I agree, but will it be warm? Just not sure.

Pugwash, you make a very good point. I have now had a response from someone at Southwark who appears to believe that more lighting in Greendale would be to the advantage of the muggers! Never heard anything like it!

Well Southwark have not been very responsive to my query about Greendale. I emailed 1) Southwark and 2) Tessa Jowell on Monday. Tessa responded today. Nothing from Southwark. Foolishly though I live in hope.

Personally I cannot stand Oh come all ye faithless... it is sooo overplayed - it is on at EVERY blooming carol service. My faves are: Oh little town of Bethlehem Hark the herald angels It came upon the midnight clear O come O come Emmanuel Silent night

Acid, you make a very good point about the Nursery - there's also Bessemer Grange primary on that route, too. Plus its used by Charter and JAGs pupils. I have put a request to James Barber, in the "ask the councillor" thread. Maybe there's someone at Southwark who we could email?

James, There has been (very unusually) some unanimity on the forum about the fact that Greendale is badly lit and quite unsafe at night. here is the link (I hope): Can anything be done for this winter?

I think it is a really useful route from ED to Camberwell when you don't want to drive. How do we get it properly sorted, lights and everything?

Just as the title says really. I have heard bad things in the past about this potentially useful walking/cycling route up to King's from ED, but now the nights are drawing in, what do forum-ites who currently use it, think? Was planning on cycling to Kings for a series of treatments early evening.

Don't worry PR, I had two flu jabs (one was swine flu) on Saturday morning. I am still alive! But if you don't see any more posts from me, start worrying...lol

No, steveo, it isnt/wasnt a nuclear bunker - just a Royal Observer Corps post - intended for watching where H bombs exploded over the capital, as there is a great view from there as many know. I believe!

I believe Inuit is that people's name for themselves. Eskimo means something like "blubber-eater" (as in whale blubber and not surprisingly they prefer Inuit to that.

German shepherd was the original name - changed to alsatian during the tide of anti-german feeling in WW1, when the Royal family became Windsors instead of their German surname. I guess we have now gone back to german shepherd. Or is that an American thing??

Yes iaineasy, I am with you on this one. We need those new RM buses as soon as. Jump off and on at lights (but I bet they have doors, so you won't be able to do that!), suited to our city's streets too.

I think A levels are still pretty good, and taking away the coursework, which as Dulwichmum correctly says is pretty rubbish, will only make them better. What worried me was a headline I saw over someone's shoulder in Wednesday's Mail - to the effect that a beautician diploma (recently encouraged by our beloved government) was going to be worth 3 and a half A levels!!!! What on earth is that all about? Take me back to planet Zog, or what?

Coursework is on its last legs in schools. It is being replaced by "Controlled Assessment" where the kids cannot do any of the work except in front of the teacher. No chance for parents to get involved at all. No way that teachers can help them either - at least in the last stages where they are writing it up (and that's where the marks are). That is apparently starting this year at GCSE. You cannot used purchased essays in an exam, obviously.

I don't believe the papers are any easier than when I took mine in 1968. The difference is, as I have said, that they are far better prepared by their teachers for these reasons: "nowadays the exam boards give massive amounts of help and advice to teachers who are preparing kids for their exams. They lay on courses which give teachers tips as to how to teach a certain topic, there are detailed mark schemes given out (not the case back in the old days!) and they get copies of A grade answers so they can see what the examiners are looking for. " PLUS the modular system of today inevitably means higher grades than in the past. For these reasons: "since 2000 all A levels have been modular, and so if you get a poor mark on a certain module, you can resit it a number of times. Before then, people sat all their papers together at the end, and if you messed up a paper you got a bad grade. The only way of trying to improve was to take them all again next time. So - ipso facto - modules make it easier to get higher marks." I don't think it is fair on the students to call that "dumbing down", but that is one interpretation, and that is why the new A* grade is being brought in from this year.

James said One of the prejudices Dunstan's and Colfe's face is the fact that they are located in urban, grittier areas - which no doubt puts snobs like you off. Colfes is in the suburbs for goodness sake! It is further out than EDul! I'll grant you St D's is in gritty Catford(!) lol. But it does have a lovely main building. The reason that Alleyn's is arguably the best Co-Ed school in the country (read the reviews in the Good Schools Guide and son on, James, though obviously you prefer to just base your arguments on your irrational prejudice against Alleyns) is partly at least because it was the first to get established back in the mid 70s, whereas St D and Colfes (which I have already said are GOOD schools) only went CoEd relatively recently to try to widen their intake. In my opinion!! That perhaps is the reason that they havent managed to achieve the 50/50 CoEd that Alleyns has. I am not sure. Maybe they don't want to be 50/50, but I feel that if you truly believe in co-education, then why wouldn't you want to have equal numbers of each?

Gee, over ?13k a year before you buy uniforms, sporting equipment, pay for school trips. Even with scrimping and saving a vast majority (very vast) would not be able to afford that so how can there possibly be a balance within the student body?Well, that's the question I guess! These schools all offer bursaries, increasingly only on the basis of need rather than on pure academic ability (that had been the tradition) which enables there to be more of a balance in the schools. Some are better than others at doing this but I believe they are all doing their best to allow students from average income families to gain a place if they were able to satisfy the academic criteria as well. They try to hold events, run appeals to raise money for more and more bursaries. On the Alleyn's web site it says these bursaries can be up to 100% of fees if your income level is particularly low. It is means tested. Remember, Alleyn's used to be a direct grant school until 1976 (when the govt abolished that status) which meant anyone could get a place so long as they passed the exam - the state paid the fees depending on your income. There was also the Assisted Places scheme, abolished by Tony Blair, which allowed anyone - however poor - to attend these schools. It is not that these schools want to only have rich kids!!

James "Getting in to Alleyn's has a lot to do with having the right connections" Evidence? It certainly doesn't as the Head is very conscious that he has to be totally fair in how he offers the places. It is based on the same criteria as other, similar schools (including Colfe's and St D's). Entrance exam, previous school report and interview. Believe me, there has to be no room for favouritism of any sort. Many Alleyns parents scrimp and save to pay the fees too, for goodness sake! I certainly had to!! Your comments James are getting more and more clueless. All you give us is a load of unsupported codswallop - as anyone who actually reads your posts can self evidently see. Please stop displaying your crazy prejudices and try giving us some EVIDENCE, dear chap. :)-D

James, PLEASE take the trouble to READ what I had written: As I said, it offers so much outside the classroom, be it sport, drama (wait till you see the brand new theatre), art, music (they have a fantastically high standard of musical performance), CCF, DofE, Field Centre in the Peak District that all y7 spend time at in their first year, etc etc. James: I think schools should be more than "premier league" exam factories. DOH! What exactly is your evidence for saying "Alleyn's moneyed little darlings" ? At least I presented some evidence from 6 children's recent experience there. What is yours based on? One visit that you referred to? As for moneyed - the difference in the fees is not very great - taken for the coming year: Alleyns: ?4479, St D 4220, Colfe's 4044 (figs per term) So St D's are only slightly less monyed darlings than Alleyns! My evidence for the premier league comment (which was meant facetiously) was the league table positions in recent years. Anyway, if Colfe's and St D's are so wonderful, how come St D's has to advertise again and again just to find punters to fill its places each year? Alleyns has 600 plus applicants for 85 places. And neither Colfes nor St D's convinces enough parents of girls to want to go to either school, so they don't have anything like an even balance between the genders. I have nothing against Colfes or St D's - they are both really nice schools, but please don't imagine they rank anywhere close to Alleyns.

Another reason why A level marks have risen is that since 2000 all A levels have been modular, and so if you get a poor mark on a certain module, you can resit it a number of times. Before then, people sat all their papers together at the end, and if you messed up a paper you got a bad grade. The only way of trying to improve was to take them all again next time. So - ipso facto - modules make it easier to get higher marks. Also (A level teacher friends tell me) nowadays the exam boards give massive amounts of help and advice to teachers who are preparing kids for their exams. They lay on courses which give teachers tips as to how to teach a certain topic, there are detailed mark schemes given out (not the case back in the old days!) and they get copies of A grade answers so they can see what the examiners are looking for. My personal opinion is that the questions they ask are harder now than when I took my A levels. That is only for history, I can't speak about any other subject! My kids showed me their papers and I certainly found them more demanding than the papers I sat back in 1968!

I see James found Alleyns "snooty and elitist" compared to Dunstans and Colfes. My experience of having had my 3 attend the school (the last left 2 years ago) and even more recent experience of a friend who has also 3 kids at the place, is that it certainly is hard to get in (that may make it elitist I guess) but that once you are there, it is a really lovely happy school. The children certainly treat each other very tolerantly indeed, and seemingly, all different types of personality are universally respected. No way is it snooty. My childrens' friends from the school were just normal bright South London kids. In addition, it offers a vast range of things outside the exam curriculum. No way - by the way - is it an exam factory, though the results are superb at all levels. There are no such things as boys or girls subjects either - equal numbers of each gender do subjects like physics (sometimes seen as a boys subject) and french (girls' subject?). Some schools are co-ed, but few are exactly 50/50 boys and girls like Alleyns. As I said, it offers so much outside the classroom, be it sport, drama (wait till you see the brand new theatre), art, music (they have a fantastically high standard of musical performance), CCF, DofE, Field Centre in the Peak District that all y7 spend time at in their first year, etc etc. It is expensive though, but I would not put either Colfes or Dunstans in the same division as Alleyns, which is definitely in the premiership.