aprilfool

I can highly recommend Lena for cleaning, ironing, housekeeping. She has been with us over 2 years and she is extremely reliable, thorough, trustworthy and lovely. £20 per hour which reflects her high standards of work. If you want someone who will clean dust from every corner and surface of your house with fantastic attention to detail then you can contact her on 07519666343.

We are in Herne Hill just off Half Moon Lane and I'm looking for someone to supervise three boys aged 8, 11 and 13 from 3.30pm to 6.30pm Mon-Thurs. Involves collecting the 8 year old from Alleyns, drop offs/pick ups for after school activities some days (all very local), supervising homework and preparing a basic meal. Easy work as the boys are pretty self-sufficient, we just need someone present to keep track of them and to sort their dinner. A driver would be ideal but not essential. Please DM me if interested!

I feel compelled to tell all local new mums about a really great Pilates class I have found in Herne Hill. It's called the Training Station and is opposite the back door of Sainsbury's on Milkwood Road, next to the train station tunnel entrance. They've only been there a couple of months. The session lasts one hour and you can bring your baby and pop him/her down on a mat next to you. The first session is completely free. After that you can just drop in and pay each time or it gets cheaper the more sessions you buy. They have various Pilates sessions on throughout the week but the mum and baby one is on Tuesdays at 2pm. I felt guilty leaving such a good class last week not having paid anything so I promised to spread the word! The teacher is called Anne on 07963219205 if you need further info.

Thanks so much for your replies everyone, that's really helpful. Sorry to hear you've had a negative experience Minder - I appreciate you sharing your views as it's always helpful to hear both good and bad reports on a place.

Thanks so much for all your replies, really helpful. Think I need to set my sights on another school or move house!

that sentence is to be read in line with the second part of it Vesti - I am a regular church goer anyway and have been for years but I am going to have to be strategic about exactly which church to attend now that the school issue is in the frame. It would be foolish not to.

Thanks for your posts all. Good to know you're having the same problems LSB and I'm not the only one hearing contradictory information! That's exactly what DVI told me but I agree that it will really only be one bite of the cherry and therefore two years of attendance at St Bs will be in vain and at the cost of attending mass elsewhere where the chances of a place may be better. Futhermore, Southwark told me that I wouldn't 'fail' the criteria, i'd just be ranked lower than those without a closer school whereas DVI said that's wrong and if you have a closer faith school then you'd be canned (which also contradicts their two cherry bites advice. All very confusing!

Thanks for your help Fuschia, that's how I read it too but the school are telling me that it would still be worth applying for a foundation place as my application would then be looked at twice (because if it failed the foundation criteria it would go into the open allocation). I can't see how this would help because i'm sure to fail the foundation criteria. That's why I wanted to see if anyone had managed it despite having another church school closer.

Hi This pre-school seems unbelievably cheap compared to the other pre-schools in the area, even taking into account its obvious differences (e.g. size). The people seemed really nice and the children really happy so I am keen to get some views from those who have/know of experience of it. I've noticed that it doesn't come up on the discussion boards very often so I'm wondering why it's not more popular.. Many thanks

Hello I recently moved to the area with a view to getting our son into DVI as a foundation/faith applicant. I don't need to apply until next year but if we are going to go down this route of applicaation, we will need to start attending St Barnabas church immediately (we would ordinarily attend a different local church). I'm totally confused as the DVI policy states that the school has to be your nearest C of E school and for us it would not be (St Judes is 100m closer according to my map measurements as the crow flies). However, I have heard contradictory advice from others who say they know of people getting in who were in the same boat. Does anyone know people who have secured a foundation place when another C of E school was actually closer? I know this sounds like a silly question given that the policy is pretty black and white but I keep hearing so many different things and the council are not very helpful.. We are 730m away from the school so would be touch and go for an open place as I believe the furthest was 712m this year. Any views would be much appreciated! Many thanks