espelli

David fixed a leak on our flat roof today and has done a great job. He was really prompt at communicating, flexible and accommodating and a pleasure to work with. I would definitely recommend him and will use him again if we need to.

Jules-and-boo it is now possible to delay school entry by a year and still go into Reception. Most schools now start all the children in September unless their parents defer their start. I work in primary education and in my experience there are big advantages to being one of the oldest in the year. There are Summer born children who are ready for school and flourish but in my experience many do not find it easy and this effect can last well into KS2. The levels of maturity between children who are 9 months apart in age at 4 years old are quite marked. For many years the progress of summer born children has been a cause for concern with some studies even linking the effect to impact on degree results. MarianaTrench in terms of your daughter being premature it could be very beneficial for her to be with peers of her adjusted age rather than with those who would be a year older. My son was premature and he is much more in line developmentally with those who were born around his due date. It would be worth checking with the Southwark admissions team, but I can't imagine that a secondary school will want a child to skip Year 7 and go straight into Year 8, and if a child started at my school having deferred a year, I would not want them kicked out in Year 5. I am so glad that they have changed the rules on this as it can make a huge difference and if my son's prematurity meant that he would straddle a year, I would definitely be considering it. You know your daughter best. Is she at Nursery at the moment? How old are her friends? Astrid83 it could be helpful if you spoke to the SENCo at your your nearest/preferred primary school about how flexible they are willing to be with children with SEN. Starting with part days and deferring start of school are all options they could consider. If you are considering an Educational Health Care Plan you can specify how you would like your child to start school. We have a child who was part time until the first term in Year 1 as he is July born. He is now managing very well in school full time even though he is one of the youngest and has ASD.

Yes agree with the above - I loved the stretchy wrap with my preemie. He was just under 4ibs when I started using it and it was brilliant. I had a kari-me. Congratulations!

We will be applying for a reception place for 2016. The expansion has been talked about as a definite for a while and was part of Southwark's school places plan so I am surprised to hear that it seems not to have been agreed at governor level. Hopefully Renata will be able to shed some light on it.

The small project is a great organisation and is grateful for donations. http://www.thesmallproject.org.uk

Hello Renata have you managed to get any more information from ivydale about the reasons the expansion won't happen on schedule? We are currently in a black hole for schools and we were hoping that ivydale expanding would give us a chance at one of our nearest schools.

I would agree with others and suggest you talk to the school about a dyslexia assessment. Touch typing is an excellent way of speeding up a child's writing and there are a number of apps and programs that you can download. Two that I have used with children are tux type (free download) and nessy fingers which there is a fee for. Often when children have physical difficulties with pen grip and control it can be helpful to look at their gross motor control too. Strength and stability in the shoulders is essential for writing as is the ability to cross the midline with control. Activities such as dance and gymnastics can be really helpful as well as Lego etc. Lefthandedness should not cause the difficulties you describe although sadly many left handers struggle because they are not taught good habits with their pen grip and there can be lower expectations of what left handers are able to achieve in terms of neat handwriting.

There is - it's run from the PRUH site. The person to contact is Karen Lewis on 01689864924 or email [email protected]