motorbird83

We have a new au pair in Dulwich who would love to meet up with other au pairs in the area. If anyone is in the same boat, please message me!

I was wondering how much au pairs in London get as pocket money? I mean genuine au pairs over from abroad for a cultural experience doing 20 hours a week. It seems like English live-in nannies are being called au pairs sometimes now so I just wanted to be clear!

If this is for a cot it shouldn't be reused. Babies using previously used mattresses is known to increase the risk of SIDS. Its best if you just dispose of it.

That's terrible. I hope no one is seriously injured.

There are other stay at home dads. I would just go to lots of group activities (Whippersnappers, Gymboree, etc) and he might find some other dads in the crowd and strike up a rapport. To be honest though, once the babies are past a certain age the number of parents thins out quite a bit from what I've seen. Good luck!

Herne Hill School pre-school allows for some half-days and I can highly recommend it.

Schools can't run at a deficit. A school in financial trouble will have to cut staff, the extracurricular offering, learning support and / or be at risk of closure. None of that is good for pupils or staff who risk being made redundant. mrwb Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Good for the kids and teachers if not for the > schools finances! > > oliviaandmilo Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > Currently class sizes have become smaller in > > London as the bulge classes put in place 10/12 > yrs > > ago can't remember exactly! Means since then > the > > birth numbers have dropped and after extra > schools > > were built at the time of growth they now find > > they are in a situation where schools are > closing > > and class sizes are getting smaller in state > > schools! Some yr groups have as little as 16 > > children.

Schools can't run at a deficit. A school in financial trouble will have to cut staff, the extracurricular offering, learning support and / or be at risk of closure. None of that is good for pupils or staff who risk being made redundant. mrwb Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Good for the kids and teachers if not for the > schools finances! > > oliviaandmilo Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > Currently class sizes have become smaller in > > London as the bulge classes put in place 10/12 > yrs > > ago can't remember exactly! Means since then > the > > birth numbers have dropped and after extra > schools > > were built at the time of growth they now find > > they are in a situation where schools are > closing > > and class sizes are getting smaller in state > > schools! Some yr groups have as little as 16 > > children.

30 is the max allowed for years R through year 2. Classes can be larger in later primary but its not usual. legalalien Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Just out of interest (not to make any particular > point), what have class sizes been in England > historically? I think they are around 30 now? I > was educated overseas and our standard class size > was 30-32 (one teacher per class - at least for > primary and core secondary subjects), this was > taken as a given and not really debated much / > seemed to work OK. Have class sizes here > increased over the years or have they also always > been around this mark? (Obvs might be smaller in > more remote spots, so thinking about maximums in > populated areas)?

Nigello Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > What costs are likely to be paid if a school is > made to close? Do they compensate staff for wages, > etc? Redundancy and buying new uniforms for the children allocated to new schools etc. However, its more affordable than running the schools at a major loss. They will be closing / margining a number of schools over the next 12 months. Its truly a financial crisis for the borough so radical action is being undertaken.

I should clarify, I'm not defending academies in general (they have their pros and cons) but in this instance it doesn't have much to do with the problem being discussed.

Existing schools converting to academy status doesn't add any new places in the system and academies don't typically change their admission numbers as that's not really the point of converting. School rolls are falling in London because of Brexit, covid and lower birth rates which started falling in 2012. None of this is related to the academy programme. The drop in pupil numbers is affecting both LA schools and academies with the same negative consequences for both. Part of the process of a brand new school getting approval to open (which will add new school places) is the local authority providing an impact assessment on existing schools. Its designed to prevent unnecessary places being created that would have negative financial impacts on existing schools. Harris Primary ED and the Charter ED shouldn't have been approved as it was already clear that the drop in the birthrate from 2012 onwards among other things meant long term the schools wouldn't be needed in this location based on Southwark's initial forecasting. However, decision making was swayed by a political pressure campaign led by local parents and councillors insisting that the demographic forecasts were wrong and action needed to be taken etc. legalalien Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Yes Penguin, I?m sensing a theme. > > Motorbird so DfE approve schools opening but after > that don?t control their intake? Or do they > technically have the power but just don?t exercise > it in practice? > > I?m getting boring now but I can?t get my head > around LAs having to try and manage pupil places > without having any control over academy intakes. > Is this because the initial Labour policy was that > failing schools could academise and it would only > be a small proportion that probably weren?t > super-attractive? And then (I have been googling), > the coalition govt introduced converter academies > so better schools / everyone could convert, and > this current problem is an unintended consequence?

There is government has control over Academies, but its central government rather than LA control. The opening of both the Charter ED and Harris ED still had to be approved by the DfE. The poor allocation of resources is really the result of a political process that prioritises the concerns of vocal middle class voters over data. I don't think academies are really the problem here. Plenty of academies are feeling the financial impact as well as LA schools.

Politicians job is to get re-elected so despite the evidence they bowed to pressure in both instances. Parents simply argued that Southwark's projections were wrong as evidenced by all the bulges that were needed at the time to deal with the demographic birth surge from about 10 years ago. Anyway, what a waste of public money. Dulwich Village Infants catchment went out 4km this year which is crazy. Many schools are running at below capacity and will need to cut back on the level of provision (extracurricular, learning support etc) to balance budgets which has begun already as part of funding bailouts. After that some schools will have to formally reduce count or close as St John's did this summer. https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/southwark-primary-school-in-over-200k-debt-set-to-close-as-pupil-numbers-plummet-2/

This isn't a problem unique to Southwark, its across London. Some articles on the point but north and east London are quite badly impacted: https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/london-schools-close-families-choose-move-covid-b942476.html https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/apr/16/primary-schools-in-england-record-steep-fall-in-demand Nigello Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I don't understand - how come it is permissible to > go across council borders if there are schools > that have places to fill in your home council? Or > have I misunderstood? Can't really understand the > idea of local level school administration - why > not be national, like in France?