Caroline_S

We?re about 400m from HBAED but I have friends slightly further (about 900m) who also got places.

We have a place at Harris Boys and are very pleased - will DM you akc74. We are very lucky to have several brilliant schools on our doorstep in East Dulwich - Charter certainly isn?t the only option! akc74 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I was under the impression the first big shakedown > of lists would be happening between initial > allocations and next Monday 15th, when I think we > get updated waiting list positions. > I may start a separate thread in due course when I > know more about waiting lists, but in the meantime > am interested in hearing from anyone via DM who > has been allocated HBAED.

Thank-you, that?s very reassuring and great to hear you and your son are so happy with it.

I think the lack of primary bulge classes in recent years is because there are now two new primary schools providing 120 extra places in the system, rather than fewer kids. So I can?t imagine demand for secondary places reducing in the next couple of years. Can I ask though, while there is a lot of talk about catchments for the Charters being tiny, are local kids getting places at Harris Boys? This will be my preferred choice in a year?s time but has the catchment there gone micro too? We are just off Peckham Rye, north of Barry Road, so the dreaded ?black hole? area of ED that was alluded to in an earlier post.

I am considering using the New Gumboots after school club which collects from my son?s school and takes them to the East Dulwich Community Centre. I know they serve a few schools in the area. I?d be really interested to hear about people?s experience of this - pm me if you prefer. Thanks!

Another very happy family here. Our son is in Year 2 and loves school, is thriving academically and has lovely friends. We feel we've really fallen on our feet. I would say that the school is ambitious and does have high expectations for achievement but I have never for a moment felt that this has come at the expense of the children's wellbeing. Their enjoyment of school and learning always appears to be paramount. The head and / or the deputy head are on the gate every day and always happy to chat to parents, as are the class teachers. Whenever I've been in school during the day I've always been so impressed with how calm the atmosphere is and how lovely the kids are to one another. In a nutshell, I'm delighted from both an academic and pastoral perspective and would absolutely recommend the school.

Ah, thanks so much Pugwash!

We had a bouncy castle party at Harris Girls' sports centre for my son's 5th birthday. Very reasonable, and massive space for running around. They provide balls and hula hoops as well as bouncy castle.

Does anyone know if the kitchen at East Dulwich Community Centre on Darrell Road has an oven that works?? Tried calling several times to check but no-one answered. There's one in the photo on their website but I'm hosting a kids' party and planning to cook hotdogs and now fretting that it might no longer be there. (I do like to have something to worry about with these things!)

I discovered Nigella's chocolate olive oil cake when my son was dairy-free and still make it now - it's delicious! http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/CHOCOLATE-OLIVE-OIL-CAKE-5551

The after school club offers football, ballet and Spanish. In school, the children have weekly recorder lessons every Wednesday with a dedicated music teacher who comes across from Harris Girls. They don't have desktop computers but they do have a massive pile of brand new iPads which the kids have access to throughout the week.

We were 6th on the waiting list for St John's last year and were not offered a place. Just before Christmas they contacted us to see if we wanted to stay on the list - by then we were number 2 so we took our name off. Sorry - that's not what you were hoping to hear, I'm sure. But I think it varies a lot - maybe we were unlucky last year.

Martspec. You say you want to state some "facts" about the school, yet by the sound of it you are not a parent yourself and have heard your "facts" secondhand from a friend who is unhappy. Your post is actually very biased and I do not believe it to be an accurate reflection of the way the vast majority of the parents feel. I do not agree with your statement that "a large number of families are unhappy" with the school and the head. On the contrary, my impression is that the majority of parents are extremely pleased with the new head and the direction she wants to take the school in. You give the impression that families are leaving in their droves but again that is not the case. I think we have gone from about 49 children to 46. A small number might be leaving next year, but we've been told that a small number will also be joining our soon-to-be Year 1. I also know of several families who have turned down offers from other well-regarded schools including Goodrich, Heber and Bessemer Grange to start at or continue with Harris. Fuschia and Landsberger. It is not fair to compare last year's number of applications with this year's. The admissions process was done completely separately so we were all holding two offers and as such no-one was listing it as one of their 6 choices. Many families did not even know about it until after the admissions process. You are both well-known for taking any opportunity on this forum to have a go at Harris schools for some reason, despite not actually having children at these schools.

Also, what's special about Harris compared with other primaries is that it's so tiny it's like sending them to another nursery - lots of lovely new toys (literally) and no enormous children rampaging about!!

ksh Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Our son was at Goose Green nursery > so I guess we are concerned about the transition > and upheaval. I felt the same last year - my son loved his nursery and had strong bonds with the staff and I was heart-broken about moving my son to start at Harris. In fact we had a space at its school and very nearly kept him there. But for various reasons we moved him and he's never looked back. I was amazed how quickly he adjusted and I don't think he's ever mentioned missing the old place once. The summer holidays helped of course, but we had a couple of picnics to meet other families last year which meant there were lots of familiar faces on day one - for him and us.

Yes, today's newsletter home says they had 180 applications and will be full next year. So cohort will almost certainly be very local to Lordship Lane. Glad to hear you are feeling more reassured, Debbie08!

Monkey Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Well, that did not last long! Hope the new head is > more committed to ED than the previous head was to > the school. Actually I don't think that was the case at all and so this is a bit of an unfair comment. He is still involved with the school. It seems it was an unusual set of circumstances that led to a slight reshuffle of staff within the Federation and they have assured us parents that this is certainly not something that will happening on a regular basis. All staff in post seem hugely committed to the school.

We continue to be very happy, as does my son who has had no trouble at all settling in or returning after the half term holidays. We had our first parents' evening this week and, whilst there are obviously no stats for the class's progress as a whole, my son is making great progress with literacy, handwriting and maths and I was very happy that his teacher has a clear plan for his individual development in these areas. The staff are very responsive to parents' feedback. In fact we have just asked to be removed from the waiting list of our original first choice of school as we have no concerns at all about Harris.

katgod Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Interested in the bus stop - does Harris have > power to move bus stops? The member of the team who talked me through the plans at the public consultation presentation last week said that the bus stop would remain in place.

> I don't understand however why you are equating > good design with an undersized school/ poor use of > the site and a plain and fuctional design with > good use of the plot . > I didn't mean to sound so simplistic but what I was getting at was that some suggestions above, such as using bricks and mortar or wood cladding, would be more costly. Having met the team at the consultation meeting, I had the impression that many of the design decisions were due to budgetary constraints, or due to the limitations of space. For example, I was initially dismayed that the building will be four storeys, but I am prepared to accept that this is the compromise to ensure they retain as much playground space as they can. I know that the constraints of budget or space shouldn't preclude good design but the reality is that there isn't a bottomless pit of money.

As a parent of a child at the school, it is incredibly disheartening to see a couple of pages of comments from people wringing their hands over the plans' lack of architectural merit. Yes, I agree that the look of the proposed building is pretty uninspiring, but my understanding is that they are working within a very limited budget and a small and complicated site. Frankly, if it's a choice between something architecturally interesting but expensive, and then therefore potentially small, or plain but functional and making the best use of the limited space, then I'd far rather they work towards the latter. The teaching that goes on inside is what counts. Also, please bear in mind that the school itself is already in existence, and your comments could have a real impact on the school's plans for a smooth transfer across to their permanent site. The move has already been delayed, and it would be a great shame if it were delayed further due to local objection that the building just wasn't pretty enough.

All our conventional bath toys have been shunned in favour of empty Calpol syringes used to squirt water out of the bathroom window (and everywhere else).

Another very happy family here! We are thrilled with our choice and our son has had a very happy and stress-free introduction to school life. The staff ratio is amazing and we too are very impressed with the head so far, who has been really keen to get parents involved with developing the school. Until this week they've been concentrating on helping the children settle in so there has been no homework etc and as such it's hard to comment on their approach to teaching or the curriculum, but the school's specialism is literacy which personally I am really pleased about. And as the school is brand new there is a very special sense of community already which has been lovely.

We live on The Gardens and use the garden regularly but the gate is always kept locked. You should be able to get a key easily - try the Grainger office located in the ground floor of the house opposite the gate. Not sure of the number but has a black door and is where maintenance people come and go from - usually someone there on weekday mornings I think.

Thanks for organising our first meet up, Norfolkvillas - really looking forward to meeting everyone on 27th! This lovely weather has made me think it might be good to get the ball rolling with a kids' picnic / meet-up. I'll send an email round to those of us already in touch but if anyone else would like to be included, please PM me your email address.