Coach Beth

I can recommend Puppa D and I know she lives near Bellenden Road.

I can only speak for our school but the Head at Goose Green - who is very well regarded and is now a national leader for education which means she goes into struggling schools to support and advise headteachers at those schools seems to get the balance right between the focus on management/leadership in the school and being accessible to parents and prospective parents. She leads the school tours for prospective parents, she speaks to parents and answers questions at monthly PTA coffee mornings and she is at the school gates at drop off and pick up three days a week where she can be seen having informal chats with parents.

And you can add yourself to the waiting lists of schools that weren't on your orginial 6 list as well.

And, if you have ever fancied singing in a choir, why not try out the Goose Green Community Choir? We meet at the school on Tuesdays from 6:30pm - 8pm. Orginally, we were just for parents and staff at the school but we have now opened up our membership to any adult in our local community. Currently, we are about 50%/50% parents/staff and local community members. We sing at school events - including the carnival/fair mentioned above and this year, we have sung at other events including just recently at the Southbank Centre as part of their Chorus weekend! Go to our website to find out more: http://www.goosegreenchoir.com If you are a parent about to join our school community, this will be a lovely way to get to know established parents at the school! Our new term starts next Tuesday 22nd April and we will be starting a range of new songs so this is a perfect time to join us. Also, school has a relatively new website with lots of info and current news. You can find it here: http://www.goosegreenprimaryschool.org/

Wow! What am amazing performance! Superb singing and acting from all involved! If you want to check it out there are only a few tickets left for tomorrow nights performance but there are more for tomorrow afternoon at 2:15pm so if you are free in the afternoon, get online and book your tickets!

Oh yes, I just had a proper look at the display - it is fab! I was so impressed I took a photo of it! It's attached here! There are still tickets spare but the two evening performances only have about 30 tickets spare each night - which means that we are already running at about 85% capacity for the evening performances! Tickets available here: http://www.goosegreenprimaryschool.org/box-office

Hello - just an update to say that you can now book all three performances of Alice in Wonderland at the school website http://www.goosegreenprimaryschool.org

Just remembered this thread from last year and was curious whether the original poster had any success convincing the school in question to revive whole school performances? Maybe you could suggest they visit another primary school in the area which does do school performances? The public is welcome to one of the Year 3 & 4 performances of Alice in Wonderland at the school happening on Wednesday 2nd April and Thursday 3rd April. Tickets are just ?2.00 and members of the local community are more than welcome! The school is trialling a new box office system so you can book on line via the school website. Go to the website at http://www.goosegreenprimaryschool.org for more information and to book tickets. This is going to be a fab event which could win over skeptics questioning the value of performances at primary school level - I can attest to the high production values and quality of the acting/singing

The irony of this is that I am a Quaker and would love my child to go to a Quaker school! But I have no desire to a) impose my beliefs on anyone else and b)send my kid to a school where he is surrounded by others just like him. I want him to go a good, diverse local school where he will get a broad comprehensive education.

So sorry to be concerned about the education of my child and his classmates at his inner city state school. I suppose we could have a two year long consultation and then a research study to find out that most parents want a good, coed non faith school delivering a comprehensive education. While we do that, those who can will continue to buy or rent a house near Charter or move to Orpington or send their children to private school. Oh yes, that is the non selfish action for sure. Anyway, this is becoming an ideological argument that is not benefitting anyone.

For at least 4 years now, bulge classes have been put on at primary schools in Southwark. They are building a new primary in East Dulwich and a new primary school at Bellenden Road and a new primary school at Peckham Academy. Plus the expansion plans at Ivydale as have been mentioned. And then, all the schools in neighboring boroughs like lewisham whose primary schools are bursting at the seams. SO the worry of parents of children in year 4 and under is WHERE ARE ALL THOSE CHILDREN GOING TO GO TO SECONDARY SCHOOL? Yes, I would be very happy with Deptford Green or Bacon's College but in two years I imagine the catchments for those schools will have shrunk dramatically - already I think Deptford Green isn't a viable option as it's improved results and new building have led to more applicants. I also do think there is something lovely about walking to school and going to friends houses after schoool. I can imagine that lots of my boy's friends (a very diverse bunch of kids) from Goose Green school would go to the new school and what's wrong with wanting continuity from primary to secondary - particularly when you think diverse the children in his year group are, it's crazy to think this will only benefit a certain section of the community. The reality is that at Goose Green School, where my son is in year 4, there is no spare capacity in years reception to year 4 - there are 30 children in each class. Whereas the upper years, there are less children - more spare capacity as there were less primary children in the area. The situation is very different now, schools are bursting at the seams and as one poster who was recently looking to move to the area, it's nigh impoosible to find a school with spare spaces in year 4 and below and I don't think will change. I was talking to another parent at the school who is a midwife and apparently, East Dulwich has one of the highest birthrates in Europe!!! As London schools have improved, so have the desire of many people to stay in London and send their children to secondary school. I have no desire to leave London. I just want to know my child will be able to go to school at a decent, good secondary school within 30 minutes travel - foot or by bus.

I would be happy for my son to go to Harris Boys - although I would prefer co-ed - but that is rapidly gaining in popularity and my son's year was the first one to have bulge classes at primary school so I can foresee that there is a good chance he might not get in there in a couple years. So personally, although I agree that a strategic approach would be far, far best, the reality is that new schools cannot open unless they are free schools or academies. We are fairly happy (if abit squashed) in our 2 bed flat in East Dulwich so I don't know even if we could afford to buy a place near Charter, we would even do that. Sadly, if you aren't in the niche of being able to buy or rent within 5 minutes of Charter, you have no chance of getting in. Those of us with children in year 4 and younger had to deal with bulge classes every year - I think this year there were about 5 bulge classes at local ED primary schools? That is 150 extra children (a conservative estimate) a year that will need secondary school places in two years. And that's just in East Dulwich - nevermind other areas of Southwark. There will be a big strain on secondary school places starting in 2016 and it's great something is being done now.

I think websites like Airbnb provide a useful alternative to traditional BnB's - this link takes you to east dulwich listings - I will use one of these places if my mother was to come to stay. https://m.airbnb.co.uk/s/East-dulwich

Yes, in an ideal world we would not have free schools and the system would be managed by the local authority who would provide good, co-ed, non-faith secondary education for all. But that is not the world we live in. And the worries about what would happen when our current year 4 children (who were the first year to experience buldge classes) got to secondary school has been relieved somewhat. I think most of us just want a good, all round local comprehensive secondary school that our children can walk or bike to.

Yes Mrs lotte I think we have it particularly hard - I have decided I'm heading off to the Globe this weekend to see what Shakespeare garb I can purchase for the boy.

I think that it is important to remember that a new secondary school should help to increase the availability of places at other secondary schools like Charter, Harris Boys and also at schools like haberdashers hilly fields where east dulwich & nunhead children can go (music scholarship places more likely than on distance) increase of secondary school places will have a knock on effect on admissions to other schools.

Nova Scotia - if you love the outdoors, this is a beautiful place to live. Halifax is a lively, arty city with great harbour front and plenty to do with the whole family. Very easy to get out of the city into the countryside. Some of the best universities and medical insitutions are here including Dalhousie and IWK Children's Hospital. Downside - very cold and snowy in winter. However, if you like winter sports, you will not mind it so much! don't relocate to one of the more rural areas as it can be rather isolating and red-neck (I speak from experience!) but Halifax or one of the university towns like Wolfville would be great for a year out.

Just a reminder that new members are welcome tonight! We will be working on an arrangement of Gabriella's song Rise - if you are interested, drop me a message! Our website is http://www.goosegreenchoir.com

The Goose Green School Community Choir is open to members from the local community. You don't need to have a child at the school - just be interested in joining a choir and able to come to our practice sessions on Tuesday evenings. We are a friendly choir with bags of enthusaisam - not many of us have musical or singing experience so if you are interested in joining but you haven't sung much before don't worry! You'll fit right in! We meet on Tuesday evenings at Goose Green School from 6:30-7:55 pm. We sing a mix of folk, pop arrangements and world music. We have a musical director - Dan Maitland - who leads us. Fees: Sliding Scale - ?30 (waged) or ?15 (low income/unwaged) per half-term We perform at events like the Goose Green summer carnival/fair and the Christmas carol service. We have alot of fun singing and although many of us started off feeling self-conscious, we soon got over that as the group is very supportive and friendly. If you are interested, send me a private message and I'll give you the details of where in the school we meet etc. etc.

The website is now up and running! You can find out more about the drama and the music programme's here! http://www.eastdulwichacademy.org/

Thanks everyone who came - we had over 70 people gathered round the Christmas Tree, singing away with a fantastic brass band accompanying us! I also wanted to mention that the website for the new Saturday Music and Drama School (sponsored by Goose Green School) is now up and running! Check it out at: http://www.eastdulwichacademy.org/

Please remember to bring a torch if you are coming tomorrow night so you can read the carol song sheets!!

Just a reminder that this is coming up next week - am enjoying practicing my favorite carols!

Yes, Goose Green is tomorrow (Tuesday) at 9:15am and also on January 7th, 9:15am. Tour followed by chat with existing parents at the school.

Oh, I forgot to mention that we are hoping to have a brass band as well to accompany us but I'll confirm this soon. And the children will be bringing laterns they designed with the school's art teacher but it might be a good idea to bring a torch so you can see the song sheets.