Donatella

Air ambulance landed in Alleyn?s field. Six people get off and walked towards the building.

Hi Sue, I can recommend Betsy from Dulwich Tutor. She helped my boy during the spring lockdown. We weren?t planning to do the 7plus but at the end we decided to give it a go following Betsy?s advice.He got offered places both at Alleyn?s and Dulwich College. Betsy is very knowledgeable and great with children!

A big shout out for the South London Music shop on Grove Vale (East Dulwich). I called them to check if they had strings for electric guitar for my child and I could go and collect straight away! They are really struggling and it would be such a shame to see them go. They sell loads of music related toys for little ones as well as everything else music related. They have an online shop or you can just ring them. Thanks

Hello everyone, Is anyone considering private tutoring for 7+ and would like to pair up with my 6 years old boy? I have an AMAZING teacher (based in East Dulwich) who would like to do group classes (2/3 children) if possible so I am looking for someone with a child at roughly the same level. Please pm if you are interested. Thanks a lot. Donatella

My son is at Le Nid and he is staying there and my youngest will start next year. I have visited several nurseries in the last month (near some of the schools where my eldest might get a place). Some of them marked "outstanding" by OFSTED and even if the tick all the boxes I personally wasn't overwhelmed by any of them. Talking to other mums during the visits I feel that Le Nid has gained a bad reputation following the OFSTED report and comments on various forums. I think this is a bit unfair on them. Yes,the nursery was very badly run and lucky OFSTED picked up on it and gave them a chance to turn things around. The new manager Paulina is doing a wonderful job, she is training and motivating the staff and she is very good at listening to parents suggestions. Sadly many children are leaving. This is going to be a challenge for Le Nid but gives many parents on long waiting lists in other nurseries a the chance to get a place from September! Please go and visit the Le Nid, have a chat with Paulina, have a feel of what the place looks like and how it is run. Hopefully you won't be disappointed. Thank you for reading.

Hi, Yes the group is private!

Hi! The Facebook group is called "East Dulwich winter babies club 2016-2017". Everybody welcome next Saturday- partners as well as older siblings! I hope there will be more chances to meet up before babies arrive. X

Hello everyone, For those who are not on the Facebook we are meeting in the "Snug Room" at the Clockhouse on Peckham Rye from 4pm on Saturday 24th September. I hope to see as many of you as possible, Have a lovely weekend! Donatella

Hello everyone, It was really nice meeting some of you at the Plough last Saturday- thank you so much for coming! I have now set up a facebook group- https://www.facebook.com/groups/346664959055265/ If you are interested, could you please add yourself to the group? It might be slighter easier to follow then this forum :) Have a lovely week everyone Donatella X

Hi Ola, I also think that pilates is a really good exercise for pre and post pregnancy as it will help with your posture as well as strengthen your pelvic floor. (I'm a Pilates instructor and I cannot praise it enough). As good as it is, though Pilates is not an aerobics exercise.If you are looking for a more "aerobics" kind of thing ,in my first pregnancy I used to go to a class called maternally fit - it is in Clapham North (5 minutes on overground from Denmark Hill). It is an excellent class, run by a physio from st Thomas's specialised in women health.It combines a cardio warm up (on the Swiss ball, which makes it suitable up until the very end) as well as pelvic floor work (loads of it), legs and arms. You will be sweating a fair bit but she is very carefully to have little breaks in between to keep your heart pumping but within certain limits. Swimming is great exercise too (expecially towards the end). aqua gym could also be a good alternative (as it is low impact on those joints), but I would double check that the instructor is qualified to teach to pregnant women and happy to have you in a general class. Also 40 minutes of bricks walk is a good daily practice ( I'm going to start doing it myself if you need company we can go together!).if you used to run before getting pregnant and you don't have any medical condition, you can keep running. Lastly, most gyms have got personal trainers that are qualified for pregnancy- you can book an hour session with one of them and they will make you a program of exercise that is suitable for your growing belly. You need to be very self motivated though to go to the gym on your own-- I know I am not a gym person! ;p I hope it helps- if you need any more advise just send me a pm! Happy to help! X

Hi Balbina! Sorry I am just catching up with older messages and I have just noticed yours... We have about 12 people who agreed to come to the Plough tomorrow. I will be at the table with pink&blue baloons! I am going to get email addresses/phone numbers for whoever would like to be on a Facebook and/or whatsup group. I am also finding hard to read through this forum (expecially on the mobile) as there are quite few messages now! See some of you tomorrow! Donatella X

Hi all, I look forward to meeting some of you tomorrow between 4 and7pm at the Plough! X

Hi all! There are quite a lot of us now! I am going to work on an updated list soon as it is easy to loose track... There should be around 11 of us on the 20th (so about 20-22 adults if we include partners). I have reserved an area at the Plough on Lordship Lane from 4pm-7pm on the 20th August under my name. It seems to be one of the biggest place and they are happy to reserve an area outside if the weather is good. They are also children friendly so you can bring the little ones if you wish. Feel free to pop by anytime :) I look forward to meeting some of you then! Donatella p.s. If someone new wants to join in on the 20th - YOU ARE VERY WELCOME! The more the merrier! ;) X

Hi there, My child (2 and half) has been going there since they opened last November and absolutely loves it. He was in a different nursery before and I have noticed a huge difference. The staff is really caring,and the two managers are polity and enthusiastic (although the admin can seem a bit disorganised at times, like in many other nurseries I have seen). They really focus on the children though- which is really reassuring. They have regular classes like tennis,music, Chinese, French and Spanish on weekly basis and they also organise plenty of other activities like messy play and craft&arts. they even take them out to the park occasionally. The food seems fairly varied and looks good (My child is a very fussy eater!) The outdoor space is good enough- they let them play outside as much as possible, which is really nice in summer months. The building has been re-done recently and all the toys are brand new. I would recommend Le Nid without hesitation. Donatella

Hi all and welcome to the new ones who have joined! So far it looks like there might be nine of us for 20th of August and possibly the same for September. It should be about 20 of us, including partners, which is quite good! :) I am going to confirm a venue next week- I am waiting for confirmation from a couple of places- ideally somewhere with an outdoor option if the weather permits and somewhere toddler friendly for those of us with kids! Claudine,congratulations on the news of a baby boy!Did you have your scan yesterday by any chance? We were there too- got the same doctor as 3 years ago. He even recognised us, which was very nice. :) Someone was asking for feedbacks on giving birth at Kings. I personally didn't have the greatest experience last time but I think it really depends on the kind of labour you have (I was strepb+, had to be induced and everything went downhill from there...) However, I think the antenatal care is overall very good and the doctors on the labour ward are also great- I felt in very good hands.It is a real shame though that the midwife that will deliver your baby is not the same one who follows you antenatal- this is the case in many other countries and it would make such a huge difference during labour in my opinion. :( I look forward to meeting some of you soon. Donatella

Hi all, We seem to have already quite a big group here :)... Should we set up a couple of days for meet ups- maybe one in August and one in September for now? It might be difficult to agree on a date, so I would suggest we pick two days hoping that most of us are free? What about 20th August and 24th September in the afternoon? That would give more time to other Winter mums to join in! I am happy to book an area in a pub/caffe around lordship lane. It would be nice to meet in the park but I'm not sure we can trust this British summer!!! I look forward to hearing back from you! Donatella X

Hello and congratulations to all! I'm Donatella, I'm in East Dulwich and due my second one on the 11th of December. Balbina, I think I might know you... We bumped into each other a couple of times at the playgroups in Dulwich Village and at Crystal Palace! So nice to hear you are going to be on maternity leave same time as me! I'm looking forward to meeting new mums hopefully to hang out with and help me keeping sane!it is going to be a very busy winter indeed :) D X

Hi there, We have just moved to the area and recently discovered this lovely forum full of really valuable information. :) I am looking for a childminder for my 15 months old boy ideally in the ED area. I am looking for a couple of days a week.I am very flexible as I am working from home at the moment. Any advice would really appreciated!