samstopit

Bigup for Alan Naish of 1-2-3 Chimney Sweeps who did another quality job of our chimneys this morning. Always good to see him! www.naishandsons.com

We use 1-2-3 Chimney Sweeps who are excellent, do a good job without any mess. They charged me £150 for two chimneys. It took about an hour. The website is www.naishandsons.com

Kingsdale offer two in Key Stage 3. They can choose from French, Spanish, German or Latin.

Sorry, yes I meant that those were the two languages they offer. They learn French or Spanish from Y7.

They offer French and Spanish from Y7.

thank you that's a good idea

We found a smallish antler on holiday in Northern Sweden and would like to get it put on to a small mount that could stand on a shelf. It's for my son's birthday in a couple of weeks. Any idea where I could get this done relatively locally - we are in SE22. Thanks in advance.

Thanks!

Does anyone know if dog kennel hill adventure playground are running their kids? holiday club over May half term? I?ve called and emailed but getting no reply. Thanks

I would be with you bodsier except it looks like our son will be going to Kingsdale in September, not Charter. He has already said he doesn't want a smartphone. But no doubt he will be the only one and we will end up buying one so he doesn't get picked on.

what do you do if you've opted out of child benefit?

Hi bodsier and Renata I assumed I didn't need to do anything in terms of accepting my son's school place as he got his first choice. But then I got a letter from the school (Kingsdale) saying that I needed to fill out a form accepting or rejecting his place by the 15th March, otherwise his place would be offered to the next child on the waiting list. It's a good job we opened the letter (I often assume letters are just marketing and they get shelved) as we didn't get this information by email and we could have lost his place. I thought I'd share this because it contradicts the information in the email from Southwark which says you don't have to do anything. Don't want to panic anyone. Renata can you advise if it's just Kingsdale which expects this? To everyone who isn't in our lucky position, hold tight and I'm sure the waiting lists will move soon. Good luck.

Thanks Cora. Do you think the scholarship gives him much more than he would have got anyway? How does it work, do they get extra coaching sessions? Good to hear the school has an inclusive feel too. It's such a big school (compared to primary) it felt a bit overwhelming on the open days.

Hello, I'm looking for advice please as our son (currently Y6) has been given a half scholarship in sport at Kingsdale. If he gets a place (I know this isn't guaranteed by the scholarship) does anyone know what the sports provision is like and whether the scholarship place amounts to much in practice? I've looked at the web site and it looks like he would get some extra tuition and workshops which looks good, but would be glad of any insight from anyone with a child already there. Thanks in advance.

Hi bettyorange All state secondary schools should be supportive but some are better than others in practice. I was quite impressed by the SEN offer at Kingsdale. I met the SENCO a few weeks ago and he claims there is no attainment gap between kids with SEN and those without at Kingsdale. He puts this down to well trained staff and an established approach to identifying need in the first term and putting strategies in place. He also said there is no stigma attached to the additional support you get if you have dyslexia / learning needs because the more able children also get this input for various reasons. The most recent Ofsted seems to back this up. I'd be interested to hear from anyone who does have a child at Kingsdale, if you have any evidence of whether this is as good as it sounds? Charter East Dulwich might be another option - the Head is saying the right things about making sure there is no attainment gap for kids with SEN / low prior attainment, and he talks about the interventions the school will put in place early on. But they have so far been working with a small number of children and it's hard to know if they will be able to cope with a bigger and potentially more mixed cohort from 2018. I think Elm Green does have a dyslexia unit but you have to live in catchment. Not sure about Deptford Green. Hope that's some help.

Thanks Katy and Inkmaiden. Let's hope the new building will be ready for the 2018 intake. Any intel on how likely that is? I went past on the bus this morning and couldn't see any signs of progress!

I saw on another thread that Habs furthest distance this year was 660m. This is the first year of no banding so that's helpful to know. But do we know if that furthest offer was purely a distance based offer or was it SEN / sibling / child at their feeder primary?

Scruffy Mummy can I ask where you heard that Charter ED will expand? I was at one of the open days inOctober when the Head said he planned to stay at 4 forms of entry even when they are in the new building which will be big enough for 8 forms. If he has moved on this position it would be a big help to the community. The 2018 intake is projected to be far bigger than previous years.

I was happy to see the news today that the Charter School ED has a new temporary building on the site of the former Lewisham and Southwark College campus on Southampton Way SE5. Looks like a good site with potential for the school to get off to a good start from day one. They still plan to move to the Dulwich Hospital site for September 2018 and the admissions policy will stay the same. http://www.chartereastdulwich.org.uk/page/?title=Our+temporary+school+site+at+Southampton+Way&pid=120 I'm wondering if this will mean a wider intake will be possible in September 2016. Does anybody know? Would be great if the school could be six forms of entry from 2016 as I think this was the original intention for the school.

My copy is next to the bed and I am dipping in and out of it, enjoying it very much.

Thanks so much redjam and nunheadmum. I will start looking into it. Do you know, if my eldest gets a sports / music scholarship, would his younger sibling get a sibling place at the school? Or are sibling places only given to children who get in through the normal admissions criteria?

Can anyone tell me when the music / sport scholarship tests are held for children wanting to try this route? Also which of the state schools locally do sport or music scholarships. My eldest isn't quite at this stage yet but I'm wondering how it all works. We live in ED / Peckham Rye. Thanks.

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Bradley cleaned our carpets for us today. He was very professional and did a great job, even advising us on a minor issue with moths that we weren't aware of. The carpets look so much better, we are really pleased with the result. I'd recommend him if you need your carpets cleaned or if you want some advice on how to deal with moths etc.

There will be a significant overlap between the existing Charter catchment and the new school which enriches an area already well served and leaves others out of catchment. Unfair and unnecessary. A nodal point would reduce the overlap and put families in catchment who currently don't have a co-ed school nearby. I don't think families in Peckham rye / nunhead would otherwise be in catchment, what with a projected population surge, siblings, and a nodal point to the north of the site.