largeginandtonic

Hi EDF family roomers, I just wanted to send out a plea and a big shout out to the amazing team at Walters Taekwondo, who have been hit very hard by Covid-19 and need support to rebuild their membership base. For those of you who don't know, Walters Taekwondo is full-time dojang based in Peckham. They teach taekwondo to adults and kids and also offer fitness sessions and personal training. It's a very special, inclusive, positive club with strong values and excellent teaching. A link to the website is below if you want to take a look. http://www.walterstaekwondo.com/index.html They've been hit badly by Covid, with school contracts cancelled, membership dropping dramatically and holiday camps closed etc. They have now re-opened the dojang with lots of care and thought about how to do this safely, and are also offering online classes via zoom so you can choose whether to attend in person or online. There are fitness classes too. They've been keeping afloat with support from Sport England's emergency funds etc but to keep going they need to get their membership back up again. So if your child might be interested in taking up this sport, or you fancy trying it yourself, and you are in a position to afford to invest in sport and fitness at the moment, please do consider supporting this club. My son has been a member for years and is now the proud owner of an under-16 black belt and I've recently been doing some of the fitness sessions as an alternative to the gym (it's much better value I've found!).

Hello, I think this is a great idea and I've just completed your survey but wanted to add a few other comments. We live at the top of Champion Hill and we've chosen not to have a car for 20 years for environmental reasons. The kids are now older and cycle independently but I can think of lots of occasions over the years when a cargo bike would have been very useful - especially when they were very small and also when they started going to activities in locations which are hard to get to by public transport. The attraction of the cargo bike would be (a) carrying two kids simultaneously and (b) the ability to carry other stuff too - eg kit, musical instruments etc. I also would have used it for shopping (and would use one now for shopping if the scheme is set up). But it would need electric assist. I can barely get myself up Champion Hill without electric assist, let alone any cargo. I don't think it would be easy to persuade families with kids to give up their cars altogether. But I do think you could persuade couples who may currently be cycling (eg to work) not to buy a car as soon as they have kids. So many people told us we'd need a car when we had the kids and I've seen a lot of couples get a car at this point because they feel they just have to and it's difficult/exhausting to manage without. But of course once you get a car, you can become quite dependent upon it. I think your scheme could help deter people from ever buying a family car in the first place, and that could have a significant impact.

gather Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Hi lucerne - we?ll have both of those: Faith In > Nature shampoo/conditioner/body wash, and cleaning > products from SESI, Ecoleaf and also things like > citric acid, bicarb, dishwasher salt. I agree this is excellent news! I don't like the Suma shampoo & conditioner which is stocked in Karavan but I buy it anyway. I would love to switch to another brand. I'm really looking forward to you opening!

Hazel - I've been getting Freddie's Flowers for couple of years - they are wonderful. Full of the sort of flowers I'd love to grow myself if I had any space or talent! It's a bit like a veg box scheme in that you get a box delivered and it's different each time, with very little packaging. The flowers tend to be seasonal and seem reasonably local (although I don't think Freddie makes any particular commitment about air freighting they don't strike me as having been flown half way round the world). They do genuinely last for 2 weeks - despite my leaving them in the kitchen, forgetting to change the water and generally not doing all the things you are supposed to do with them. I've honestly not seen flowers of this quality or type in the shops. They are very expensive though. When we dont have much work in our household we have to stop them for a bit, but it's always the first thing I want to restart when we get a bit more cash (before e.g. being able to get the odd takeaway) as they are so gorgeous. Angelina - surely Hazel's code will only work once? I expect they have to get people to try them out in order to believe how lovely they are.

Thank you so much - I will try them and come back with feedback!

Does anyone know of anyone who could make two roman blinds for me? I have picked the fabric and know what I want so I don't need any design advice or anyone to come to the house to measure up etc. There used to be someone recommended on here who made a blind for me a few years ago but he has moved country!

Thank you bonhomie - that is really helpful! When I was talking about it being too late, I meant it's a bit late in the summer holidays to be organising 1-to-1 lessons before school starts! Sorry - I wasn't very clear, was I! What puts me off weekly lessons is mainly that my little chap's health isn't great and so he's likely to end up missing loads of weeks once Autumn/Winter sets in. That and the fact that he can actually swim reasonably effectively (he could do a length) and is not remotely scared of water but would end up in a beginner/early improver class because of his lack of technique and then I wonder how much progress he would make. They do swimming in school from next term and I just thought it would really help if he could have a few intensive 1-to-1 sessions next week whilst his health is good. I've come across Dulwich dolphins and they look good, but not for him I don't think - he's never going to be a swimming club type because of his health, it's really only a summer thing for him. But I'd never heard of swimming nature and they sound really good so I will see if they can do anything next week - thank you for mentioning them (and I'm sure others on here will find that info very useful too). I will report back if I end up using them! Anyone else with any ideas? All gratefully received!

Hi all, We've left it a bit late but want to try to arrange some 1-to-1 swimming lessons for our 7 year old, who has learnt how to keep afloat and muck about in a pool (for ages!) but not swim with any recognisable technique. I tried contacting the teachers at JAGS sports centre in the past but they have very limited availability or did not return messages. I'm not sure we need a very experienced teacher - just someone who is prepared to go to one of the local pools a few times next week and help him with his technique. I'm even wondering about a student who has patience and some idea how to teach front crawl/breaststroke. Does anyone have any ideas or know anyone who could help us? Thanks!

I don't think they said - there was just one question from a parent about transport I think, and the question was about whether buses were planned for both kids staying for after school clubs and kids choosing to go at 3 (or end of core day). They didn't ask about the pick-up/drop off point.

The focus was on the enrichment activities - i.e. music, sport and after school clubs etc. The key points that I picked up were: Sport - likely to be an extended school day on Wednesday for sports. Kids will (mostly?) be doing sport at Charter ND but they will be making use of other provision (e.g. Jags, Dulwich Hamlet and Burgess Park). The new sports hall on the hospital site will be built before the other new buildings so should ready in the second year, giving them more options. There'll be various sports clubs/teams. Generally there will be separate teams for Charter ED and Charter ND, partly because most competitions don't allow mixing but also because it is more inclusive. The range of sports clubs will depend partly on what the kids want. Art - the art teacher showed us what they do in Charter ND which she is looking to replicate. Again, there will clubs. She also said there would be more time for art trips than year 7s might get at an established school. They won't have their own kiln but can use Charter ND kiln. Music - we heard less about this but choir and bands were mentioned as after-school clubs and the deputy head talked about her personal ambition to have all kids learning an instrument. Languages - French and Spanish will be part of the curriculum, Mandarin will be taught to about 60 kids who have the capability to try it (they talked about it being more or less compulsory for them, although kids who hate it can opt out). Portuguese will be an after school club. More languages will become on offer as the teaching staff grow. Drama - new Head of Humanities is a former playwright and actor - definitely a school play and sounds like there would be a drama club. After school activities generally - on top of the the clubs mentioned above, there will be a range of other clubs, e.g. debating/school council and homework clubs/extra support with Maths and English. There was a lot of emphasis on how Charter ED kids won't have to compete for places in an after school club with Charter ND kids - the idea is that Charter ED will have its own clubs and link up with Charter ND only if the number of kids is small, although some clubs will take place at Charter ND. Although this was clearly the ambition, they did acknowledge that the ability to run all these clubs is going to depend to an extent on the kids being willing to participate in them! They want everyone to do at least 2 clubs. They will talk to the founding cohort of kids before they arrive to see what they are interested in. There were some other questions from parents about setting (year 7s will be in mixed ability groups, but with nurture groups) and transport (buses at 3 pm when the core day ends, buses to Charter ND when needed, buses home at 4.15 when after school activities finish). I'm sure there's other things I've forgotten to mention but maybe somebody else can come along and plug the gaps!

I have a seriously dog phobic child and I really sympathise. I would recommend lettsom gardens - you will need to join up and get a key but it is not very expensive. There is a large hard standing basketball/football pitch area on which both my kids learnt to ride a bike. I would be pretty confident that you won't see a dog - they are not allowed (although of course some people ignore that!)

The South Bank is perfect I think. The "beach" on the South Bank would be great for those ages. Also there's the disappearing rooms, but you'd be best taking towels and a change of clothes (and the water might be a bit cold for your 2 year old?). I took a wetsuit for my youngest! Then they could play on the wooden rocking animals at Gabriel's wharf. There is also the Carsten Holler exhibition at the Haywood Gallery, where they can play inside a giant dice, but that might be expensive because they won't be able to do most of the other activities there (and the entrance might be a bit scary for the 2 year old). I love the South Bank!

Trine Adams Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > SPACE worked to secure the hospital site and spoke > with Charter regarding a second nodal point (which > wouldn't detract from DKH) but would reduce the > overlap with the current Charter, thus freeing up > more school spaces in the whole area to the North, > East and South of the current Charter; this was > before the now consultation. They are happy to > speak with anyone about what they suggested to > Charter yet I know of no campaign, posters, > letters to the community or local schools, > postings or false rumors. And this confirms that SPACE also asked for that second nodal point!