prickle

OP said: "The school does not follow the national curriculum. This does not mean the children don't leave school with a fully rounded and comnsidered education - by a mainstream or a Steiner definition, Steiner students do very well post-school." The students at Steiner academy in Hereford (the only state-funded Steiner school in the country) got 70% equivalent A*-C GCSE last year but no actual GCSE's. See table on the link. Presumably this was because the students were not entered for proper GCSE's at all. Was this because the Steiner education had not prepared them adequately for the rigors of GCSE or was it because Steiner educators do not support GCSE's? I don't think this is preparing the students well for post-school life. Perhaps the OP could comment on this. Results for Steiner academy

Saffron: "But the debate as to whether state-funded schools should teach religion is not the subject on which the OP began this thread, so it has questionable relevance at best to the original post, whether one agrees or disagrees with religion in state schools. " OP refers to free schools. As you may have gathered by now, I am totally against them on principle. One of my objections is that by definition they have to be backed by some sort of individual/group (religious, vanity, corporate, whatever). Something that has an USP. I believe in free at delivery, coed, secular, community (in the broadest sense of the word), local schools. Plain and simple - is that too much to ask? It's looking like it is.:'(

James, are the views expressed in your post yours, Lib Dems or Southwark's? Which ever way, it leaves me speechless. So you are effectively saying that we should accept any old free school proposal to plug the gap? Where do you draw the line? Obviously not at Steiner - so where? Faith schools? Vanity projects? Creationist? PS also like the way you slid in 'Labour'. This is your, the councils problem now and should be dealt with as such.

I would post this on the general discussions part - there are several knowlegeable people on there about ED history.

'As for letting it 'play out' before we can make a decision, once all the money available for state funded education has been poured into Steiner schools and Birbalsingh's vanity project, Creationist schools and Latin-speaking Academies, there will be no more money left for a decent local co-ed which caters for parents of mainstream belief who want a broad and balanced secular curriculum available to all. Either support it or object - letting it 'play out' is fence sitting.' totally agree, carbonara

hillbillie, there are already many children from the Champion Hill area at Charter, particularly in the older years. I think that with the Wanley ruling your child should have very, very good chance of getting in.

Afraid my eyeroll was intended. Think that the single jabs vs MMR debate should have been dead and buried long ago. Research after research says MMR is safe. You are jeopardising your child and other children in the community by not following advice and getting vaccinated. Andrew Wakefield has a lot to answer for!

And again ? another mmr thread

"Prickle, perhaps Kingsdale parents seem relatively unconcerned because day to day they just see the reality of a normal, well-functioning school." I'm sure that on a day to day basis everything is fine. But if I was a KD parent, in the light of all these allegations I would be keen find out more about what is really going on - on basis of no smoke without fire? After all secondary schools are quite different from primary as parents are unlikely to have day to day contact with the school. You have to rely on the scant info that your kids give you and the 'official' info from the school. You often don't even know many other parents as there is no school gate as such. Maybe that's just me ?

We had a similar situation to you a few years ago. We found that the school will not keep places open for you once you leave (unless for a month or two with special permission). We were told that the child will go back into the queue as if he/she had never been at the school. They told me its a question of fairness. This was all in discussion with the headteacher. After much angsting we decided not to go as the job was only for max 2 years. This fact being one of the many factor that fed into decision. Good luck, its a fantastic opportunity, feel free to pm me if you want any more info

Lol, can I be Starsky? But seriously, although I am a parent with a yr 5 child for whom I will be looking for a secondary school, my concern like Metallic is because I too live and work here and have done for a long time. In fact, I have known about and have been taking an interest in the school from the rebuild as my brother worked on the project. I am the last person to want the school to fail. I am thrilled that a previously disasterous school is now so fantastic - a real vindication for those doubters when the school was kickstarted through amazing architecture. However, I am also critical of the total silence from the school about its current problems and the way it tried to gag debate on this forum. It is a state-funded school and the society at large should be entitled to take an interest. I am suspicous also of the hype and media trickery and its downright confusing admissions policy of the school. What astonishes me is how unconcerned or defensive the parents at KD are. Not sure if you are in deep denial and hope that if you speak, hear or see no evil it will all go away.

Well, Gove would say that wouldn't he? Or am I being too cynical? ETA Also personally, I think all schools should be secular so would disagree with any system which would go against that.

"I mean, the real problem is that government needs to allocate more resources for schoola. Simply excluding free schools gives the council an 'easy out' from tackling the real problem, no?" Saffron, not sure what you mean by the council getting an 'easy out' but both academies and free schools (a type of academy) are not in the council's control at all. All their funding comes from the central govt and are run as independent from the local council. Here is a clear and impartial explanation from the BBC website (can't get more unbiased than the bbc ;-)) bbc website The reason I oppose the free school system is that it allows anybody with their own agenda be it Steiner, religious group, self-publicist (Toby Young or Katherine Babilsingh) to set up a school in their image. This is not the way to run a school system. For instance KB has moved her free school from Kennington to Tooting simply because she could not get the premises that she wanted. Its not about what school is needed in a community at all! (sorry the last bit may have been a bit biased).

"good teachers are allowed to do a good job" This is the key point isn't it? Allegations of cheating and ofsted section 8 inspections doesn't quite fit with that?

I am not opposed to Steiner schools per se, but strongly opposed to free schools.

The article is the usual life style piece you get more and more of these days. Quote one so called 'expert' and the rest is lazy, shallow journalism (if we can call it that) "My children don?t spend hours playing online, but they don?t get a lot of time to wind down. Imogen started ballet when she was three and now learns swimming, gymnastics and piano. Hugo is about to start football, which we?ll fit around music class. Even Oscar goes to baby yoga and sing-along drop-in." and "We have two trampolines so they don?t have to share, we go on foreign holidays twice a year and they have all the latest toys in their large, airy playroom." What's that got to do with anything? What she does not write about is what she is going to do to improve her children's behaviour. All we get is "Meanwhile, my husband and I are looking at ways to spend more quality time with the children. From now on, I?m going to use a little tough love and show my three that I?m firmly in control of the zoo." Tough love? Quality time? Do us a favour! What a load of twaddle!

The exact thing happened to us. We got an email from a work colleague who asked for help in exactly the same way. Turned out that someone had hijacked his gmail account. He was completely locked out and had to ditch it. Beware!

Appalling ? how can anyone live with themselves after doing that?

I remember we were worried about the water quality, especially in the pool. As we didn't want to spend ??? to go to a top notch resort, we wimped out and went for Florida.

Alice, I've read through the posts as you suggested and don't detect negativity or patronising pseudo political correctness. In fact I feel much better informed about the special needs provision in this area!

We went to the gulf coast of Florida (near Tampa) when our eldest was around that age. Lots of lovely beaches with lovely white sand.

"One thing that has occurred to me, is in the future, who picks up the tab when parents need extra care at home/nursing homes?" I am no saint but strongly feel that I want to do all I can to take care of my mother when she needs it. Luckily she owns her own house so money-wise we are not too worried but I would like to be there for her for her day to day needs - hosp visits, meals etc. I am trying to persuade her to sell up and move nearer to me while she is still well and active, but its not easy as she is fiercely independent!

Both my mum and FIL are in their 80's and enjoy good health and get by comfortably moneywise. The attitude in both families are that we should be treating them in their dotage than they treating us. For instance, my brother is paying for my mum to go to NY with him. I think family gatherings are lovely. They are the glue that keeps us together. I would like to think that our children will feel a connection and a bond with their extended family long after we are gone. Endlessly fascinating thread ?

Not totally sure what you mean by 'disability' but there are many children in mainstream schools with 'disabilities'.

> I do feel that the KD Admissions procedure is very > badly articulated and makes no sense if you try > and piece together the information on the website > and on the prospectus with regard to how they > achieve a 15% intake on scholarships if they have > no idea whether the scholarship awardees will even > get a place in the school. As I understand it, they pick the best amongst the scholarship applicants to fill the 15% quota. The rest are put with the others into the lottery. However, it said in the letter offering the scholarship (but crucially not a place) that if the child attends KD, then it will only be with a scholarship. What is not clear then is whether there is a separate scholarship waiting list or whether they could just be offered a normal lottery place. When it happened to my child, I spoke to the headteacher on the phone but his explanation was not clear. KD could not tell me where my child was on the waiting list. This was three years ago so it is shocking that the school has done nothing to make the process clearer and more transparent.