Is Leapers still drop in?

[curlykaren]

Before I went to Wales for six weeks Jean at Leapers had been saying that it was going to be changed from a drop in group to having allocated sessions. Does anyone know if this change has been made or can I take little man tomorrow afternoon as I used to?

cheers x

[The Nappy Lady]

Hmmm, I THINK it is changing after Easter, but if possible would telephone before you go just to be 100% sure.....

Molly

x

[curlykaren]

thanks molly x...now if you'll just pop along there and try and get into the morning session as a trial run for me that would be most helpful?? x x

[littleEDfamily]

Emphatically no! I wouldn't even try it. Jean is sticking to the new rules to the letter! It's now by age group on different days and strictly by allocated places only. The format has changed a bit too.

After all the hoo-hah, we were lucky enough to be offered a place in the 3 year old session and we are really enjoying it. (By the way there are spaces in the 3 year old Wed PM session even though we are SE22, but it's much more structured than it was so may not be your cup of tea if you're after more of a playgroup feel - it's def more of a course now).

[curlykaren]

thanks littleEDfamily...so how do you get to be allocated a place then? Seems a bit rubbish that I wasn't sent some sort of letter?

[lorraineliyanage]

They were handing out application forms for a good few weeks in advance to all the attendees, so had you attended, you would have received a form. You can always go to the reception and pick one up for the next session of 10 weeks. To save costs, I imagine they wouldn't post out application forms, but hand them out when people attended which seems fair.

[nikki73]

I handed one in but never got a response. i know i should chase but never seem to get round to it.

[lorraineliyanage]

You should have had a phone call and / or a letter informing you of the decision, I think most of the mums got one of these or both.

[curlykaren]

well, if you were away or ill handing them out when attending not really that useful?

[littleEDfamily]

I called to follow up on my application, and it sounds like people only got a call if they had been accepted (which I thought was a bit rough - nice to know one way or the other). Personally, I never got a call to say 'yes' though, but to be fair I was overseas at the time.

I'm not sure how the other ages' sessions are going, but it is disappointing to see the 3 year olds under-subscribed (ie people with a place) and even fewer turning up on a weekly basis. There were 5 of us last week! Even some of the kids are commenting on where everyone has gone :-(

[lorraineliyanage]

No, but being reasonable, they can't be expected to cover such situations. It would be a great waste of taxpayers money if they were to post out letters to every single person who has ever attended. In fairness, most people, if ill, would not be away for 6 weeks so your situation is obviously exceptional. Anyway, a quick trip there to fill in a form will put your name down for the next session.

curlykaren Wrote:

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> well, if you were away or ill handing them out

> when attending not really that useful?

[littleEDfamily]

I'll mention to Jean or someone there that it would be useful to add something to the application form about how you should find out if you have been accepted for future courses.

By the way, I also asked what the criteria where, and the person said (paraphrased) 1. Proximity to the centre 2. Degree of need (which I guess, without understanding what constitutes 'need' is quite subjective (but prob in the realm of 'special needs', on the part of parent or child) and 3. How much you've used it before (ie they prioritised new people).

Anyway, it would be great to have a few more 3 year olds to play with, so call the centre and get on the list!

[curlykaren]

yes, it did seem that one of the drawbacks to the new system was going to be under use of the service (talking of waste of tax payers money) and as the afternoon sessions we used to go to were never full anyway ( more than five though!?) found it difficult to see the rationale behind the changes? Anyway, ho hum, guess we will have to wait our turn.