bornagain

Grotty Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > http://thebea.st/1d94BTK > Well said Yes indeed.

nunheadmum, my oldest now well into her teens was a non-reader. I used to dispair like you that she showed no interest in reading (I love reading!). Did similar to you, library visits, buying books in hope she would be interested. To no avail. I remember particularly gruelling pre-bedtime sessions reading James and the Giant Peach to her. The relief we both felt when the book was done was palpable! I am not going to say that she now loves reading, but she has a GCSE English Language under her belt (taken a couple of terms early) and will be sitting her GCSE English Lit this summer and is studying Steinbeck and Priestley :) She is perfectly literate and is actually a good writer and linguist. However she still doesn't read much. Please don't worry too much that your daughter is not an avid reader. Looking back I wish that I could have relaxed a bit more and not tried to push her into liking stuff that I did when I was young. I suppose we all wish that our children are like us, share the same interests but life is not necessarily like that. If your daughter is anything like mine, she will take an interest when it suits her - I remember a stint of 'extreme reading' when she read all of the Noughts and Crosses series one after the other, reading 24/7. Another time it was the entire Twilight series. I remember thinking then that I wished she would STOP reading and do something else lol. Good luck!

The Hamlet is an excellent school but may not be everyone's cup of tea. The quality of teaching and curriculum is first class. I am sure that for many children the Hamlet education will be more than sufficient to prepare them for selective and private education. Perhaps because of its location, the school does not feel like many other London state primary schools. It was quite a culture shock (for me!) when my child started there. The school is not that diverse and the ethos is quite prep school-like and to my mind rather old fashioned. However this may be a major plus for you!

Ok, the figures are for the entire chain, so an average. The figures include those from the highly academic Harris Crystal Palace to others less academic. Also these figures do not address the allegation that Harris school help to massage their results by disappearing students in KS4. In fact these 'good' results could be argued a result of this practice. Another statistic is the English Bacc percentage. i.e. those students taking the hard academic subjects (English, Maths, 2 x Science, 1 x Language, History or Geography) The national average is 23%. Only 4 Harris schools achieve better than that. http://www.education.gov.uk/cgi-bin/schools/performance/group.pl?qtype=GR&f=t1tBSNlqyr&superview=sec&view=aat&set=1&tab=149&no=998&sort=ks4_13.ptebacc&ord=desc But the thing that depresses me is that these statistics are not that important. A good school is much much more than just a set of percentages. It is worrying that Harris et al put such store by their 'good' results. The cynic in me thinks that the reason for this is that statistics are so easy to massage and manipulate.

???? Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > So. Let,s just stick with what we,ve got and close > ranks eh and ....quite a lot of us aren,t actually > that impressed with what the monopolisttic LEAs > offers or certainly offered to be > frank.....politics and propaganda works both ways > and vested interests are at both end of this > debate. I tend to question the agenda of those > that constantly attack any attempt at reform by > nature. Clearly you have a political agenda yourself. Just to clarify your point, there are NO secondary schools in Southwark run by 'the monopolistic LEAs', all are academies or free schools. It seems me also that vested interests locally are the academy chains who run a large proportion of the local state secondaries.

appollo440, does your 'facts' refer to the entire Harris chain's average or to a specific school, if so which one? Given that you have only posted twice, both times strongly in favour of Harris, it would be good to put context to your comments. Who knows you may be the Harris PR department, or Sir Dan or even Lord Harris himself!? BTW I don't think anyone is denigrating the work of the Harris teachers themselves. I am sure that most of them are genuine, hardworking and dedicated. It is the Harris system that people are querying. Judging by the call of strikes at Harris Boys, it is these very same hardworking teachers that are calling Harris to account for making their jobs harder.

Horrid Henry? Flat Stanley? My girls loved those! Also some kids just don't like stories, they just 'don't get it'. So could try some non-fiction?

Thanks Fuschia for posting the links. Depressing reading but not totally surprising. As I tell my kids, if something looks too good to be true then it generally is. So the question is what are we/Southwark/Harris/Gove going to do about it?

I hear the nay sayers to vaccination but I can't believe their selfishness. Not just because they are not doing their part in trying to maintain the herd immunity that Britain currently enjoys. No, by not vaccinating, they are exposing their children (those that they claim to protect) to a life-time of risk. Living in Britain your unvaccinated children may be relatively safe but what if they go abroad? Also a lot of these childhood illnesses become MUCH more serious when you are adult. I know from painful experience as I got chicken pox in my thirties. I have NEVER been so ill in my life, and I have had my bouts of severe ill health including several abdominal operations and a 3 month stint of chemo. Chicken pox contracted as an adult tops them all. We live in an international world where we take foreign holidays and young people go on gap year stints all over the world including areas where the health care is not that great. For their sake please get them vaccinated.

One option is to go freelance.

Love Mabel on Melbourne. Also the smaller St Christophers have a good selection.

Yes, bed/phone/laptop is the prefered combination, usually all together with headphones on (!). I usually have to text her to get her to come down for supper!

Yes, mine spends 95% of her time at home in her bed, asleep or otherwise!

Just to clarify InTexas, my comment response to James's comment to you in the post before mine. Yes, would be interested to have this confirmed.

Thanks, InTexas for the interesting link. Depressing isn't it how organisations will manipulate to their advantage. Confirms my cynical view that if anything seems a bit too good to be true then it generally is not true :( I think you are right to post it here as although this thread is not specifically about Harris per se, Harris is a major player in secondary provision locally and all parents reading this thread would be interested. James, it's good news that the proposed new secondary will not be a Harris. All who posted against another Harris will be pleased!

Yes, echo Mrs TP about teens. It's good to have rooms that adults and teens retire to separately to avoid conflict. Kitchen should remain neutral space.

Consider alternating both depending on needs and fancy. We frequently move table and sofa between rooms. eg in the summer we have dining in the dining room and use the sunnier kitchen for family room. Vici versa in winter. Make sure you buy furniture that go in both.

Thank you, so DofE have a ready fund to buy up land for use by free schools? Not sure if that is better than being owned more locally i.e. by the council?

James or anyone else who can answer! If Harris sets up a school on the police station site, who will own the freehold? Who will buy the land for use as a school? Will it be Harris, Lord Harris, central government or who? That piece of land is worth a fortune and I think we as a community should know who will actually own it if a school is built on it.

Thank you James but you haven't actually answered my question. You said ?' to apply to Southwark Council for the site to be listed as a community asset under the 2011 Localism Act and *we* be allowed to *buy* it for community use. My question is who will be buying it? ie stumping up the cash and owning the freehold?

James, please can you clarify - who is the 'we' that may buying the site - Harris, Southwark or some other organisation?

I had this recently and posted about it on another thread: Not sure where you live but we had a young girl going door to door today down our road. I live near the ED station. I answered the door pretty promptly (the delay being just long enough to go downstairs to the front door), but there was no one at the door. I was puzzled and stood there for a little while looking around to see if anyone was there when she suddenly appeared from down the road. I thought this was v. strange as a normal sales person would allow more time to ensure that someone came to the door. She claimed to be offering a check on home security but to be honest, her sales pitch was so garbled that I couldn't really understand what she was trying to sell me. As we have an alarm, I said I was not interested (was mildly puzzled as I explained this to her that she hadn't noticed the alarm box at the front of our house!) but anyway when she finally got the message that she wasn't going to get anything from me, she pulled a very unprofessional face and stormed off. We have had three burglaries down our road in the past few weeks. The last one just last week. Am I paranoid in thinking that she was someone casing the joint? I've heard that gangs send out scouts to check things out? To be honest, she looked and behaved more like a scout than a legit sales person (she offered no id) Also to add that when the police came round to speak to us about the burglary next door, he said that this area is targetted as being relatively affluent than surrounding areas ?

Cubanbreeze Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- I think you need to listen to local people instead of offering them a yes/no option on something you refuse to define. Will other people on this thread join me in calling for a public meeting about the future of this site? Either that or spell it out here. What's the plan? Is it for another Harris? Or is it for a free school? If it's the latter, who is in the frame to run it? ------------------- Yes to a public meeting, not just to the future of the site but to the future of secondary education in ED. Yes, what is the plan? From the coy comments about 'plenty of contenders' but refusing to name them, I think there is already a shortlist (may even be of just one) of possible contractors. Transparency is the key to democracy. You will rapidly lose support and credibility if you are not upfront with the community!

Sounds your guy is genuine, at least more genuine than the girl who came around here. She definitely didn't have a uniform nor a sidekick.

Not sure where you live but we had a young girl going door to door today down our road. I live near the ED station. I answered the door pretty promptly (the delay being just long enough to go downstairs to the front door), but there was no one at the door. I was puzzled and stood there for a little while looking around to see if anyone was there when she suddenly appeared from down the road. I thought this was v. strange as a normal sales person would allow more time to ensure that someone came to the door. She claimed to be offering a check on home security but to be honest, her sales pitch was so garbled that I couldn't really understand what she was trying to sell me. As we have an alarm, I said I was not interested (was mildly puzzled as I explained this to her that she hadn't noticed the alarm box at the front of our house!) but anyway when she finally got the message that she wasn't going to get anything from me, she pulled a very unprofessional face and stormed off. We have had three burglaries down our road in the past few weeks. The last one just last week. Am I paranoid in thinking that she was someone casing the joint? I've heard that gangs send out scouts to check things out? To be honest, she looked and behaved more like a scout than a legit sales person (she offered no id)