Ruth Campbell

Morning, We have an 18 yo French cousin living with us as an aupair who is struggling to meet people. Does anyone have an aupair that might be keen for someone to have coffee with? Or a teenager who might like some French conversation?

I'm currently looking for a french tutor to come just near the Horniman for my 8 year old (and possibly my 10 and 6 year old in the future). Does anyone have any recommendations? Ruth

Another recommendation here for Lee. We had a burst pipe over the weekend, and he came to our rescue yesterday to sort it out for us. He reaponded quickly and professionally. He managed to find and solve the problem immediately and our water was back on in no time. Really impressed and wouldn?t hesitate to call him again is we need help in the future.

I'm so thrilled for our wonderful little school. Having been there from the beginning on the temporary site, through struggles to get planning and people saying that the building would never happen, we have always known what a brilliant job the leadership team were doing. The ofsted report really just confirms everything the parents already knew, but I'm so pleased for the school that it has got the report that it deserves.

Hi. We have a child in year 2 and in reception and really love the school. The children are stimulated and love learning. The staff seem to be genuinely very happy and caring and teach the children's an inspiring way. Both of the children telly love school so that in it's own right is a big positive. We took the leap of faith at the very beginning and are so glad that we did. jo Conduit the head is amazing as is our new assistant head Ms Wisnia who really champions the mastery concept which is really helping us support the children's learning. There are real benefits from the school being smaller at the moment but we also don't feel like we are missing out. We have a gray array of after school clubs (from chess to pottery and drumming)and the growing parent community is really thriving. Our Christmas fair was rammed. Do feel free to PM if you have any other questions.

I really don't want to get into a row about the benefits of Harris or other elements of the education system. All I am able to reiterate is how happy we are with our school. What seems amazing to me is that the very anti Harris argument fails to take into account that we are in an area that is massively short of primary places. We live within 400m of a good and an outstanding school and last year we got into neither. As such, without the new Harris we would have been at a school 1.5 miles away in a failing school. Instead, we are in a school that I can walk to, where my son is happy and thriving and is giving him a great education. Why you seem to need to put down our own experiences because of your dislike of Harris is beyond me. We can either look at the school and be positive, or we can try to find fault. We could equally look at every school in the borough with such a view and no doubt find fault. Anyway, this will be my last post on this thread. I hope that new parents can see that the majority of the parents are very happy with the school and look forward to meeting the new intake in september.

Bisou. A couple of parents have left when they were offered their first choice schools from waiting lists, and I assume that we wil sadly loose a couple more to the new Belham, but as far as I know this is largely due to location. Mary spec says that he is not a parent but knows someone who is. The reception class is open plan as it allows them to have largely free flow facilities offering greater resources and better leading opportunities. If you have concerns I would suggest you talk to Jo our new head. I would be very suprised if you were not impressed with her and the way she is building an excellent school.

Martspec I'm sorry that your friend is unhappy. Not every parent at every school is always going to be happy. I would say that the majority of parents are happy. It is public knowledge that the planning permission has not yet been granted, this is due the the local authority not setting a planning committee date. Nothing to do with the school. As for the new head, most people are very happy withe the changes she has implemented. These include an array of school trips, greater communication with parents about the learning activities, improvements to the outdoor learning environment, more involved homework, parent forums and workshops assistance with setting up the PTA. She's also done all of this while sorting out some of the issues left behind by the old head, which included employing one of the teachers on an agency contract, allowing him to leave with no notice over the easter holidays. This situation was dealt with brilliantly by the head by bringing in one of the teachers who had been employed to take on year one (she had just come back from travelling). As such the class will not be disrupted again as this teacher will take on the end of reception and take them through to next year. As much as you feel it's unhelpful for us to say how pleased we are with the school, it seems far less helpful for you to be posting hearsay negative comments. As with any school it is not perfect, but we are extremely happy that we have been able to be at this new school from the start. I realise that for some radon there is lots of negative thoughts about Harris and I don't fully understand this, particularly from people who are not involved in the school and the federation. Please do not dismiss something that many of us are very proud of being a part of without fully understanding the situation. And to new parents, please don't be put off by hearsay! We are a friendly and enthusiastic bunch and look forward to meeting you in the summer!

Landsberger. I'm not quite sure why you seem so suprised that so many people applied. As you can tell, those of us at the school are genuinely happy and pleased that we are there. As Norfolkvillas says it would be surprising if the school lied about figures that will be published. Perhaps your "contact" got it wrong.

Hi Debbie, Our son is at Harris and we are very happy, infact we couldn't be happier. The new head is really great with a clear vision for achieving an outstanding school, and the staff are all welcoming and clearly very good at their jobs. The children are mainly from East Dulwich and they all seem very happy, settled and thriving. There are so many benefits to the new school not least the small scale which eased the transition from nursery, the bright teaching staff that have come to the school and the strong sense of community that has been built over the last year. The school site is now anticipated to be ready in sept 2016, but the lovely thing about the temporary site is how close we are to the park so many of us are glad we will get another summer of after school trips to the adventure playground! Welcome! We are planning a new parents welcome picnic (details to follow) so hope to see you there.

The delay in giving waiting list information is so frustrating. In fact Lewisham very carefully only provide it two days before the deadline for notifying that you are planning to appeal. This seems yet another way of making life difficult for parents who are in a horrible situation. I know that they prefer to have all of the information about accepted and refused places so that the position on the waiting list doesn't get peoples hopes up ( thats the reason they give), but frankly some indication would be better than none. They clearly have the information, they simply don't want to pass it on.

I think that fairlawn is still a good school but from what I've heard from parents with children there it is in turmoil at the moment. We didn't put it first even though we are pretty local, although we didn't get in anywhere local at all!

I had a theraline belt and it was ok, but the breast feeding pillow was better! I will see if the person I lent it to has still got it, and if they have you are welcome to it.

We've now accepted our place and as such would love to come to any summer meet ups.

Bonacara, did you get in anywhere else? We are 370 from horn imam and were reused on distance but the last place was more than 300m

I will visit Turnham. And we are considering it, I just think that it's sad that aware within walking distance of so many schools and will have to drive! We are no. 9 on the waiting list for Goodrich which is better than I would have thought and will see what the second round throws at us.

We are 378 from horn imam and 432 from fairlawn. Fingers crossed for second round.

Nope! Distances this year are Horniman 315.78m Fairlawn 345.11m

So for anyone wanting some distances Horniman School - 315.78 Fairlawn - 345.11 Elliot bank - 322.82 Sadly we have missed out by 60m from Horniman and by 90 from fairlawn.

After our disastrous schools application we are now considering going private or at least exploring the options. Does anyone know which schools might still have places? I'll obviously be calling around, but it would be nice to know any inside knowledge.

It would be good to get a list going of the last distances offered at the schools. I'm in limbo as I'm in Lewisham and they didn't bother staying open late tonight. I still can't believe we didn't get into any of our choices, and got Turnham which is a miles away. Off to apply for a place at the Harris free school tomorrow, and anywhere else that might be an improvement. What a nightmare.

So disasterous result here. What do I do now...

Does anyone know when the details of the offers go online ? I'm feeling sick with nerves. With no Horniman bulge we are probably stuffed...

Sorry, slightly drip feeding responses. The part of the reason that You wouldn't be given steroids with an induction is the physical process of birth squeezes the lungs in a way that a section doesn't. There is also a release of hormones at 39 weeks which helps mature the lungs which is why they go for steroids before that.