dulwichbloke

For my part I was rather astounded by the level of uninformed governor statements at the meeting. First of all, I have to ask myself how the Chair of governors (and apparently all of the governors?) thought that statute required a resolution in favour of an academy conversion BEFORE it was permissible to enter into consultation - when there is plainly no such requirement (which is frankly hardly surprising as that would be counterintuitive). One or two noisy characters (apparently supporting academy conversion) were loudly making the point that people should read the DFE website and inform themselves. Well, I agree, but SURELY the same should apply in spades to the actual governors??? A cursory look at the DFE site makes clear what the process is and it clearly refers to consultation taking place BEFORE a resolution. To make things simple for governors and others the DFE have even produced a flowchart of the process... http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/flowchart%20on%20conversion%20to%20academy%20status.ppt This took me 2 minutes to find in the section on "Academies - how to become an academy - steps". I would have hoped (and expected) that the chair of governors/governing body charged with such an important decision/process would at least have got that very basic legal/procedural/common sense point right. That they haven't done so gave me no confidence at all. There were several fundamental respects in which the decision making process appeared to be flawed - I was particularly concerned that the gentleman who was introduced as being the 'finance man' appeared to be advancing a seriously flawed/illogical argument on funding and ignoring some pretty basic realities/concepts that have a material effect on the pros and cons of such a move. I should say that I went to the meeting broadly in support of a conversion to an academy (or at least I would say that I had a positive open mind). I came away thinking it was ill thought through and concerned that those who appeared to have pushed it through to this point, didn't know what they were doing/weren't very competent (with the exception of the parent governonr doing most of the talking, who appeared at least to be taking points on board - I hope he was). The 'finance' guy just seemed quite defensive and abrupt - I got the impression (rightly or wrongly) that he wasn't too keen on any real consultation. If wrongly, then I would apologise - it was just my impression from the way he presented. All in all, I was quite taken aback.

Thanks. That's all interesting. IanR - I'm afraid you have lost me - I don't know what your reference to 'synch'ing at 7Mbps means - like my line speed, my knowledge quickly reaches its limit! Anything with Mbps rather than my Kbps sounds fast to me, (I am running on low hundreds in terms of Kbps) but I'm keen to know if there are other measures of capacity out there, that I ought to be aware of.

Thanks. Just out of interest, what is your speed at the moment on the Speedtest program? My Talk Talk is at 168Kbps and my streaming does not 'stick' - there is no streaming!

So, is someone going to do something by way of reporting him to the Police/RSPCA? Peckham Native - your mum appears to know who he is. Others do too. I would suggest someone reporting him, rather than just moaning on here about it. If he is left to his own devices his dogs will likely kill again and if that could have been prevented...

"What have I missed?" James - you missed the point of my posting - that's what you missed! I was saying that I wasn't in favour of the heavier weights, for the reasons I stated and which I won't repeat. If you are interested (apparently not), you can just read my earlier posting.

Hmm. I see you decided to reply to my last post about the Lib Dem's political record, but didn't bother responding to my earlier initial (constructive) post about the new gym and the weights situation. Was that a lower priority for you? I suppose it must have been. No worries (btw I did previously vote for the Lib Dems - I wasn't making a biased political point).

I would congratulate you James, but it seems you have probably congratulated yourself enough already! Maybe if the other manifesto promises had materialised, the Lib Dems wouldn't have lost control of the Council last year?

Nice one James. I was just about to join up for a year at the new gym, having cancelled my Fitness First membership yesterday, in order to to do so. I may not bother now, if it means there are no free weights available without a good long wait. ps - I think you mean to say, with immediate "effect"?

I can help you out on that one (maybe). We (I) got talked into switching phone and internet provider, six months ago, by what looked like a great deal from Talk Talk. The minimum contract period was 18 months. Switching to Talk Talk was a disaster. The broadband has never worked anything like properly and it took hours of complaining on the phone to get simple caller ID which we had paid for (every time being told something different by someone in India). Half the time we got cut off, while being on hold. Dealing with Talk Talk could not have been worse - I felt like punching myself in the face at times, the frustration became so bad - it would have been light relief. About 6 weeks ago, without any warning at all, Talk Talk services ceased working with any router other than their own, so our Belkin router had to be replaced. I still can't believe they didn't give any warning and just waited for us to contact them to say our internet stopped altogether. After getting the 'correct' router our internet has been even slower. Last week the internet speed checker Talk Talk had me run said our line speed was 134kbps (yes- about 1/8 of a Mb!). We have called them maybe 20 times over 6 months. The customer service is a complete joke. Finally, after several more hours of phone time and days of having no operational internet/email (which is a diaster for working from home) I called to aggressively say that they could stuff their fixed 18 month contract period and see me in court if they fancied explaining how they had breached their contract by not providing a service which was fit for purpose. Before I could launch into my tirade, the person on the other end politely said that was fine - all I needed to do was make arrangements with a new service provider and the contract would be switched over. He said that it was an 18 month contract, but because we had had more than 28 days of problems with the internet, they would not hold us to the full term. All that is a long way of saying that if you log your problems with the service provider and call them to complain, they will have a note of your calls and my guess is that if they see you have had repeated problems, they may not try to keep you to a long contract. I suppose each company is different, but I shouldn't think any of them would think it was worth holding out if they had provided a crap service for a long period of time. That said, I was ready to cancel my DD before they took any more money from it and would have fancied my chances in any small claim. In reality I don't think they would bother with a small claim. I would be susprised if Virgin wanted to piss off someone with their entire brand for something like this (but might be wrong - it's just a feeling). Finally, ironically, I was just about to sign up to Virgin Media 50Mb as it is the only fibre optic option around here and I am sick of the crap service copper cable was giving us. I also read about Virgin Media's customer service awards! Now I'm confused as to what to do!!

Hopefully nobody will kick sand in my face for saying this, but from my perspective, I don't think it's a bad idea to try to put off some of the dedicated body builders/regular users of very heavy weights. I like to use free weights as I think they are generally better for you than repetitive machines, which only work a limited range of muscles. However, in every gym I have been to the free weights area is usually being hogged by 'regulars' who seem to spend hours on the free weights (quite a bit of that time appears to be spent resting/checking themselves out in the mirrors) and for whimps/irregular users like me, it gets in the way of a decent workout (its a real nuisance to have to wait ages to use the weights you need). I think there's definitely a distinction between the mass appeal market and the serious weight training market and the two don't generally co-exist too well. It is NOT because there is anything wrong with heavy weight training, or trainers, or that they are some how undesirable, it is just that in practical terms you need many more free weights and more space available if they are present if others are also to have decent access to the weights, rather than being stuck with the machines.

That's fine when it comes to not losing something of great financial value, but doesn't it miss the point somewhat? (unless all you are suggessting is that people shouldn't flash expensive stuff around - in which case I would agree) The trauma of being mugged is not usually in losing something worth money - it's in the act itself - the violence and/or threat of violence and the effect that then has on you or your children. OK, it may be some (small) consolation for the thug to give you your battered item back after the event (probably with a sneer) but I'm not sure that would make you feel much safer, or less violated.

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Indeed, a drug/alcohol/testosterone/gang/rage fuelled (or whatever it may be) attack on someone is hardly going to be prevented by the attacker thinking there may be a (slight) possibility of bumping into a car park attendant or a beat policeman, at the precise moment the argument/attack takes place. Surely the carrying of deadly weapons which cause what would otherwise be fights into life threatening events, may be more of an issue?

I was thinking along the same lines! James Barber's observations seemed rather odd to me. James, do you have some information about where this boy was attacked? It appeared to me that he died alongside a busy road (at quite a busy time) by the station, not in Sainsbury's car park.

How can it possibly be that after all that money has been spent on renovation, the water in the pool is so cold that the pool is substantially unusable/unpleasant to swim in? It smacks of gross incompetence on the part of management there. Has the manager tested the pool him/herslef to see if it is fit for purpose? If not, why not? It's hardly as if it is a minor detail that could be overlooked. If it is intentionally being kept at such a low temperature in order to save money/maximise profit, that's an abuse of all the public money spent on the place.

Posted by: trinity Yesterday, 08:58PM "So traffic is not a problem as they cycle on the pavement, abduction is not a problem as there are so many parents doing the school run that leaves the problem of crossing the roads - which (according to the Daily Telegraph)so the family have minimised that risk by making sure they cross at a junction with a lollipop lady. On the DT website Mrs Schonrock said that she believed the benefits to her children outweighed the risk. I agree with her." If you agree with her about the benefits outweighing the risks, why don't you get your 5 year old to make his or her own way to school, rather than getting a nanny to pick them up? Is it because in reality it is just a pointless risk and negligent parenting to leave such young children to fend for themselves. Surely, they can learn to be independent without being put in such a position?! The independence excuse is just that - an excuse. It doesn't stand any proper scrutiny.

Hi Tina, It's definitely worth visiting as many schools as you can reasonably manage, as they range from the appalling to the very enlightened. A lot will also depend on what your son's particular needs are. We are just going through the process with our 4 year old (choosing a school and applying for (and getting) a statement). If it would help to chat through what he have found out about local schools and the statementing process, feel free to PM me a telephone number and we can speak. Also, there is the ED autism support group on the last Wednesday of every month at 7.30pm at the Magnolia pub. You can meet others in a similar position there.

I'm disgusted by this. I don't know whether the temporary lights and the lack of any pedestrian lights played a part in this awful accident this morning, but I wouldn't be surprised, having seen how awful the traffic has been there. Whether or not it was a contributing factor, this is always a dangerous and very busy junction, but all the more so for the last 4 or 5 weeks. Day after day these 'works' have been deserted, but the lights have stayed up. JBarber posted that he had been told the works were ending on about 8th January. Here we are at the 26th, almost 3 weeks later (with little or no sign of any on-going work since 8th Jan). This morning a young girl is killed there and by the evening, someone has finally turned up and finished the work in a couple of hours or so and the whole junction is re-opened. Surely their sudden arrival is no coincidence. If that was all that was needed to finish and re-open the junction, why did it take so very long? I will take some convincing that there was no way they couldn't come and make it safe sooner. Someone concerned should explain.

I'm very sorry to hear about that - how awful. Do you know where the dog owners live? It's ridiculous for the police to say there's no offence. My cats go worryingly close to where that happened... if I saw that happening to one of mine, Even though its not the dog's fault, I'm afraid I would kill the dog if I had a spade handy. It would be tempting to sort the thug owners out as well.

It was twattish. Anyway, in a way the comment was helpful, as I shall be popping round to Vince's Bakery for my tea every afternoon now I know its free/safe.

What a twattish thing to say vinceayre! Presumably anyone who wants to rob or steal from Vince Ayre Bakers in Nunhead can expect to stroll away unchallenged?!

It has a garden?!!! I only recently discovered it and haven't been that far back and never in good weather... I might be seeing you there later then, if you do decide to go there!! Thanks for the info.

But... my recent favourite by miles is this place in Crystal Palace. http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/restaurants/domali-cafe-review-43345.html It's called Domali. It is almost exclusively veggie, so does really nice tasty stuff - not just basic afterthought non-meat stuff to allow veggies to go along. Because their stuff is so tasty, even my committed carnivore missus liked it a lot! Also, they do stuff like fish (smoked salmon etc) so its not strictly veggie. Oh, and the waiting staff were really nice and friendly and helpful (and that's all I'm saying because Mrs Bloke uses this site as well!). The whole place has a nice atmosphere and serves booze as well, which is great for a long weekend all day breakfast.

Rye Hotel is pretty good for veggie. If you like Greek, (which might be nice on a sunny day like this) there's a place in Camberwell that I like. I'm veggie and when I've been, they have always been really helpful in subtituting more veggie options into the Meze. Mrs bloke is a meat eater, so that often works out a good option. Here's a link with details. There's a couple of negative reviews, none of them are mine, but I would be one of the positive ones had I done a review! http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=greek+restaurant+camberwell&fb=1&split=1&gl=uk&view=text&latlng=14665726733374217051&dtab=2&ei=akciSvfeDKC8jAew48WuBw&oi=md_reviews&sa=X