espelli

Hanstands, I hope you manage to find a nursery that will support your son's need to be active. Apologies if this is the wrong place to mention it, but thought that you may also be interested in this proposal for a primary school run very much with children like him in mind. Urban Green Primary I am involved in the proposal and our group decided to start it because so often this drive to climb, run and explore continues after the age of 5 and we think it is important that children are able to continue their learning and development with this as part of the curriculum.

The same thing happened in Dulwich Park the other day too. All I could see in the back of the car was a man in a suit. Wonder if it was the same person. They turned out of the park and headed up towards Dulwich College.

It would be amazing to have a Forest School type area that children could use. Forest schools are wonderful and make such a difference to city children of all ages. In which case leave it wild - as long as there aren't too many brambles!

Sadly I didn't take photos, but it was definitely worth waiting in for! ;-) And they still do them Fire Home Safety Visit

The Fire Brigade came to look at my flat and fitted a smoke alarm for free. They also gave me some good advice about exit routes etc. They had to cancel one appointment due to an emergency, but a whole fire engine load of fire fighters turned up the second time! It might be worth checking with LFB that they still offer this, it's a great service.

I'm mostly Spiderman and a bit Wonderwoman. I am also apparently intelligent, witty, a bit geeky and have great power and responsibility. Loved the questions.

newmother - The Key Stage 2 tests are in English and Maths. There is a reading comprehension test, two writing tasks (one 20 minutes and one 45 minutes) and a spelling test. The scores from all of these are put together to get the final English level. For maths there are two 45 minute tests (one without a calculator and one with) and a mental maths test. These all count towards the final Maths level. Until 2009 there were two tests for science as well. Children can achieve levels 3-5 in the Key Stage 2 tests. Any levels outside of that will be assessed by teacher assessment. The average child is expected to be a mid level 4 by the end of Year 6. The tests are all done in the 2nd week of May and schools are told which tests to do on which day so that it is uniform across the country. I hope this helps!

I'm also happy to help and have been CRB checked.

Wasn't the wrapped body parts the ice truck killer?! Breaking Bad sounds good, I might need to watch that to fill in the time waiting for season 6 after 5 finishes.

Watching season 5 as well - I love it! Does anyone know if there is a season 6 planned?

Sophiesofa, you are right, there is an old, old agreement that teachers are expected to report to their local school if they can't get to their own school. In reality I have never known this happen, partly because it has reached the status of urban myth and partly due to the number of safeguarding checks that would need to be done would make it a bureaucratic nightmare. I also made it from here to my school in another borough without too much hassle, but a number of our staff were coming in from Kent and found it too difficult. In fact I would say that travelling into central London from here was probably easier than from further out to zone 2. Schools are in a difficult position in snowy weather. They need to have certain staffing levels to function safely, they need to have the ability for pupils to move around the site safely, and they have a duty of care to their staff and pupils. There are contingency plans made for staff absences but one day we had five class teachers out, that meant 150 children with no-one to teach them - there are not enough spare teachers in any school to cope with that!

The whole block is for sale, so maybe it is squatters in there.

Ooh, I hadn't thought of adjusting the quality so can't help there - sorry!

I use iplayer grabber, sometimes stops working due to the BBC catching up with it, but it is currently working.

Louisiana, you are right, the law is that there should be a daily act of collective worship (where a deity must be referenced) and that at least 51% of these should be Christian in nature. These are generally referred to as assembly, but the story with a moral is not in itself collective worship and so doesn't count. It is the singing of praise, prayer or other act that counts. This is very difficult to do in a school where children have a variety of faiths or none, and is rarely inclusive. DJKQ, in my experience, times tables are still a very important part of primary school maths and the calculators are often brought out so rarely that the children never get over the novelty of using them to write words upsidedown rather than seeing them as a tool ;) Not sure about secondary schools though. One of the key problems for not pretending that all children can achieve the same is that it institutionalizes unequal expectations which mean that there is not equality of opportunity. It also allows the potential for sloppy stereotypes to be applied to children therefore limiting their life chances even if they do have the potential. There was some work done in the 70's about the basic inequality within education and that, rather than being the socially transformative tool that universal education was supposed to be, supported and sustained the status quo. If vocatonal education is not valued as much as academic excellence then we will continue to force young people through lessons that bore them rigid and give them numerous opportunities to fail by the time they leave school. The Diploma Disease (as it was called) was revisited more recently. The Diploma Disease Revisited Apologies if this is way off topic and not relevant!

The Polka Theatre usually has something fantastic on for Christmas. Not ED or central London but well worth the trip.

Hi This looks lovely, what is the rate for that week please?

Oh wow that is excellent news!!!

They may have changed the rules now, but I signed on for jobseekers allowance. I was given income support because I hadn't paid enough National Insurance to be on jobseekers. This was many years ago so may have changed, but they will be able to tell you at the job centre. I seem to remember going there first and filling in the form.

Bizarrely, suspending a small plastic bag full of water above the open window works. Have no idea why or how!

expat Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Hi espelli, > > Yes we got a blue one but the one from the > ex-mayor was white. Big difference 8-) Must get my eyes tested it looked vaguely lilac!

We got a blue one today. I also got a similar purpley one from an ex Mayor of Southwark and Lib Dem councillor last week and it is anti Lib Dem and pro Labour. Has anyone else had one of those?

James, my experience of Ofsted and their tick boxes is that much of what is mentioned in the reports comes from what staff, governors and parents have told them. My reading of this quote from a recent monitoring visit at GG is that the school had previously talked about implementing a software package but have not yet done it due to disagreements over whether it was suitable. This does not mean that a school needs a software package to assess children's attainment well, it means that the school said something along the lines of: "we know we need to improve the tracking of children's attainment and we are going to introduce x system" and then have delayed doing it for whatever reason. The school?s analysis of the progress and attainment of pupils and groups remains limited and not fully accurate, and thus not leading sufficiently to further targeted improvement. It has taken too long for staff and governors to agree to purchase a new assessment software package, delaying progress in this area. All these factors are potential barriers to the school leaving an Ofsted category." Having a robust system for tracking attainment enables schools to see where there are gaps in attainment (classes or year groups) and which children are doing well or falling behind (vulnerable groups, ethnic groups, gender, socio-economic groupings etc.) This then backs up the assertion that teaching and learning is good or otherwise (Teaching is good because attainment and progress in all classes/subjects is good). In terms of the door to the outside from the Reception classes, it is considered good practice that children have the opportunity to do as much learning outside as inside. Having direct access to the outside enables that to happen much more readily and therefore enables the EYFS to be judged accordingly. Ofsted reports do not give the whole picture of a school, and the reports, particularly with a school in SM like GG need to be read in sequence to see what has been done to improve the school and what is still to do. Overall, the fact that in this case the issues do not appear to be teaching and learning means that these areas are now of an acceptable standard, and that is no small task. It sounds like they really have turned a corner and I hope they continue to do well. I can also vouch for how important parental support of a school is. Having parents engaged in and supportive of the work of the school makes such a difference.

Huguenot, I posted the link with Gary Taubes name, if you were so against him then why watch the video? Shame on me for attempting to make a contribution to this thread that you do not necessarily agree with??? Why be so hostile?

Well said Legalbeagle. This may go some way to explain your experience GG, I thought it was interesting. Gary Taubes