newboots

"Also, one would imagine the rights being trampled were the relatively affluent people already in the school's catchment, no?" Well ... no! London being London there's usually a wide mix of family incomes/types of housing within the catchment of most schools. Or there is until the magic word "Outstanding" applies, and then there is an undignified scrabble and an awful lot of flats going up for rent on the doorstep.

I absolutely can knock people for temporarily moving to the catchment of a good school and then moving out again. How cynical is that? How can them "only doing what is best for their children" be justifiable if they trample over those who could never afford to move to, for example, a private rental in the Heber catchment for ?2000 a month, even if it was for just 12 months? If they live in a council flat or a Housing Association flat or just don't have the means to double or triple their rent out of thin air. Its a perverse argument to say that its ok if you're only a little bit middle class and only doing it for 6 or 12 months. Really.

I'm always surprised at the number of cars on the Goodrich school run when the catchment is so small.

I don't think it is ridiculous. I think some councils are trying to tackle the problem of families moving temporarily to the catchment of a popular school to secure a place for the oldest sibling and then moving a couple of miles away to a cheaper area/larger property after a year or so and sending the rest of their children to that school. It happens all the time. Why should the needs of those children trump the needs of children living near a school but having to travel for miles in the opposite direction to the next school that has places? And its a farce that siblings still get such high priority at secondary school, especially when so many of our local secondaries are single sex, and one offers places by lottery. Lottery unless you have a sibling? What sort of an admissions policy is that?

Charming! OhmyED Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Like we needed another coffee shop with no buggy > space..I give it 3 months.

The police were there for about an hour.

It woke me up and I watched it all as there was no way I could get back to sleep. It went on for about an hour. Two police cars and an ambulance and a screaming individual eventually carted off. The 6 or so police officers didn't seem all that concerned with persuading people to keep the noise down considering it was 3 in the bloody morning.

Thank you for editing.

That's a really sad story. Is it really necessary to copy the Daily Mail's cheap & nasty sensationalist style of journalism with your DEAD BODY though? The dead body belonged to someone who died alone. It seems disrespectful to talk about it in a horrified way.

"I'm saying that some private schools locally are more socioeconomically diverse than some state schools locally." Really and truly?

"I guess anyone would pay for private education if they could afford it" what an amazingly ignorant thing to say!

I understood that the number of 100% bursaries from Alleyns is very small now in comparison to the number available in 1960s and 70s?

I'm intrigued as to who might be interested in such a job.

My children are older now and this is not a relevant topic for me. But I find it truly awful that nurseries can charge admin fees like this and doing precisely nothing to earn it. And its really not good enough to say "well its only ?30 guess we just have to suck it up". What about the many families who can't casually wave goodbye to ?30? And what if they have to put their child down on multiple waiting lists, too, because they want to secure a place asap? That soon mounts up to ?120 or so that a hard up family may never see again! I'm really appalled. I'd be very interested to see some nursery owners defending this practice.

Getting 7 hours uninterrupted sleep makes me positively ecstatic.

Charter is an excellent school, but not if the op wants a girls school.

Ah, I think if your plan C is going private then you probably won't feel Sydenham Girls school is for you! I know nothing about Sydenham High or any of the independent schools, I'm afraid. It was the fact that you asked about state schools which prompted me to reply.

Will you actually be living in Dulwich Sol? Most state schools admit their pupils based on how far away they live from the school, so state schools in Bromley and Beckenham are unlikely to admit children living as far away as Dulwich - all of their places will be taken up by pupils living closer to the school. My daughter goes to Sydenham School and is doing well there. It is a very large school and has a huge catchment area (so most of Dulwich/East Dulwich seems to qualify), fully comprehensive (takes all abilities), has an inspiring Head Teacher and has just had a huge amount of money spent on new buildings, including brand new IT, sports and drama facilities.

Actually, I've been back and looked at last year's results and there are some big variations.

That is a really impressive-looking set of results!

Omg tacky posts on this thread! Milfs, and now nudge nudge jokes about 11 year old girls. Horrible.

I do understand venting, up to a point, but why not go over and ask your neighbours to be reasonable?

Please no one post the address of a refuge if you happen to know one!

You need Steve The Spin Doctor, see this thread: http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?30,1267036,1355757#msg-1355757

Don't you mean Fargo?