tor

1st baby - 3 days...yes, seriously...three days of contractions every 8-10 minutes, got to 3 cm 2nd baby - 14 hours of contractions every two minutes, got to 4cm both ended in emergency c-sections - i don't 'do' birth well but even so the second time was quicker!

just to let you know that we have been verbally offered a place at the horniman school which is our favourite school. as for goodrich (from which we're only 450 metres away) we're still well down the waiting list....crazy!

Does anyone have children attending either of these nurseries? I've heard good things about Blossoms on Dunstans Road but not much about Excel. Our son is currently at Bright Horizons which we're really happy with but we need to move him to somewhere a bit closer to home for pratical reasons. Thanks

horniman - 1st fairlawn - 2nd pdarling - i don't understand how you can be 7th for fairlawn and me be 2nd? very strange... have you been to look at the horniman? i haven't even though i put it down :-S - on paper it looks great and at this stage looks like the most likely school we're both going to get into!

that just doesn't make sense unless maybe now i'm 1st for horniman? and as for me being 2nd for fairlawn and you being 7th - that's just ridiculous. (for anyone reading this, me and prdarling live three doors away from eachother) anyone get the feeling they're making it up as they go along?! i'm going to call lewisham now and find out ... will let you know.

nope, no offers here. we are 3rd for goodrich, 12th for heber, 2nd for fairlawn and 2nd for horniman. nothing has moved other than we've gone back a place at goodrich. great!

good news for us - i've just been told we're 2nd on the waiting list for goodrich. panic over!

bawdynan - would you mind posting her email address on here? i'm at work and i don't have the letter with me. thanks!

let's not forget that the issue isn't just being allocated a 'satisfactory' school in relation to an ofsted report but also the problem of getting your child to school, finding a childminder who will collect from a school etc when you're given a school which isn't within reasonable walking distance.

good point cora - i'm not sure what the solution is but it's certainly an emotional subject for all of us dealing with it.

i repeat my nearest school is goodrich and we didn't get in even though we live only 465 metres away.

misticnutmeg said If your nearset primary school happens to be graded satifactory or good you should choose that school;once in, join the parent society and make a difference for heaven sake! errr, my nearest primary school is graded satifactory and i did choose that school. it's called GOODRICH. sorry to be blunt but do you know what you're talking about?

clux - I thought that I was being realistic believing that my child would get into a school 465 metres away! As prdarling mentioned earlier, the catchment for Goodrich this year was just 440 metres which is insane. It is reassuring to hear everyones stories of their children eventually getting a place. I will cling onto that hope rather than putting our house on the market. It's just my husband I have to convince now ....

thanks for your support barry - i'm guessing either you don't have children or your child has got into a school of your choice.

apologies - the failing school i mentioned is on the nunhead/peckham borders. it's rye oak and it WAS in special measures a few years ago. in the heat of the moment i didn't really pay much attention to the exact geography and skimmed the ofsted report. whether it's in nunhead or peckham is irrelevant as far as i'm concerned. i pay council tax and i am a british citizen and yet my child can't go to the school less than 5 minutes walk away. instead i have to somehow work out the logistics of getting a 5 year old possibly along with a one year old on a bus every morning in the rush hour. then in the afternoon i haven't got a hope in hell of finding a local childminder who will pick up from rye oak while i'm at work. i'm sure plenty of you know how i feel but i honestly thought goodrich would be a dead cert.

fuschia - yes goodrich is our closest school, it takes less than 5 mins to walk there, it's literally a couple of streets away.

I'm just really hoping it's a mistake - if it's not then there's been one serious baby boom in 2005.

yes - i think we do know eachother! you have two boys as well? i was hoping it was a mistake but clearly not if it's happened to both of us. is it wine o'clock yet?

i also live in ryedale and i also feel sick... we put down goodrich (obviously as it's our closest school and less than 5 mins walk away) and have been offered a place in nunhead/peckham. what do we do???

I need someone's help that's for sure. We live two streets away from Goodrich and have been offered a place at a failing school in Nunhead. How is this possible??????

Ryedale is a lovely street - we've lived there for just over a year and touch wood we've never had any problems with any crime. Our neighbours are lovely, the views from the back of our house look onto 'the meadow' - ok, it's an old cemetary but it's still green and the closest thing you'll get to a field in this area. As someone on a previous post said, it's less than five minutes walk to the park and you've got the Co-Op at the end of the street. The only down side is the transport, if you can't live without a train line next to you then it's either a 12 minute walk up a steep hill over to Honor Oak or a long wait for a 5 minute bus journey down into Peckham.

I agree - if everyone who has posted on here emails the relevant people at the council then at least we should get a proper consultation at the end of it to decide whether or not they stay. Personally I think they're ridiculous: dangerous for cyclists, time wasting for car users and no safer for pedestrains. The least the council could do is change the timings so that the main road lights stay green for longer than 25 seconds (I timed them this morning!).

We had exactly the same experience where we given a very competitive price and then on the day they claimed that we had more stuff than when they had come round to quote. (Where had we been 'hiding' these extra boxes is anyone's guess) So, they had a van load of our possessions and said they wouldn't unload it until we paid them an extra ?200. We were held to ransom so we had to pay it. It made what was an extremely stressful day already so much worse. Their names are ASL Removals and they're based in Forest Hill. DO NOT USE THEM!

I would second the card shop just down from Somerfields. Both the guy who owns it and his wife are always friendly and smiling. Also, Bells are fantastic. I went in there a while ago stressed out to the max about trying to get a shower fitted when the plumber had installed the mixer far too high up the wall - blah, blah - anyway, not only did they come up with a solution but they also made me laugh which was much needed that day.