West London chat into Spring

[sfxmum]

thought I would start a new one

not weird one is nearer and more easily dealt with so anxiety piles there, that is my considerate analysis

we have ours too I am counting on them running a crèche like last year

Kew - sorry to hear about grandmother. Do you know if the operation went well?

No parents' evening here. Last day of school tomorrow. Yeah! Now awaiting dinner to arrive.

Hope everyone enjoying the weather. Our park has just had new play equipment. It has never been so busy before!

so far no operation apparently she has an aneurism which is too bad to risk it. But you can't leave a broken pelvis so they are a bit stumped I think. Case conference happening today but haven't heard yet what the outcome is.

Kew, hope you get some news soon about your grandmother

Vbus, thanks so much for last night, hope you made it back ok

Last day of school here as well, finishing at 1.30pm so everyone's heading to the park afterwards

I've kept DS2 at home. He had a temperature this morning and looked generally exhausted... So his birthday party bags all went in to school without him!

Now to work before he gets restless!

hello lovely day stuck indoors for now

copper do they allow birthday celebrations at school? sorry he missed it and hope he feels better now

tilly wish ours did that, gorgeous out we could be at Kew

parents evening last night with only 10 min delay everyone in jolly mood, I am sure weather influenced
dd seems to be doing fine
next term she will be going to 3 after school clubs/activities oh well should keep her busy

sfx - they are happy to hand out cakes and party bags for kids to take home. Not for eating in school. We've kept two bags. I think he's just exhausted. He hasn't been off school at all since he started!

that is interesting copper, ours have been allowing fruit and did not reject the cupcakes a parent took along, they handed them out at home time. must find excuses to be outdoors but really need to finish stuff indoors

planning on baking some beetroot chocolate brownies to use up the beets

DS2 asleep in his sunny yellow room.

hello all

Tilly - no worries

Sfx - thanks for programme will have a look for some ideas. Brownies sound nice

KC - do you know outcome yet? Must be worrying, hope all goes well

Copper - hope DS2 perks up soon and enjoyed birthday despite being ill

Been a busy week, Ds1 finishes at 2.25pm we may head over to Kew for a bit. They're having royal wedding celebrations and fancy dress today at school! Book club was excellent, v. insightful having author present.
The only bad part of this week is having to engage in warfare with neighbour, she has turned v. hostile The other thing I just found out is that our school is adding a reception class in Sept Not sure how they'll accomodate an extra 30 kids, plus part of me is as the reason I like the school is because it's small and personable, it would be a shame if they lost that appeal

vbus how awful re neighbour was it out of the blue?
school in West London are really feeling the pressure, I know what you mean about liking to have a small school it has a particular kind of character

brownies are lovely

have spent the afternoon listening to 6 music, from Laren Laverne to Mark Radcliffe and S Maconie to Lamacq I am middle age they play lovely tunes

They tried to double our school last year - 45 to 90 per year! After a lot of arguing we are expanding 45 to 60. It's a small site so not sure how they thought they were going to fit 600+ kids in. I don't have any strong opinion about big or small school as long as they are able to accommodate and cater to that number.

On an even less palatable note: how many times going to the loo counts as diarrhea?

I did the Abel and Cole beetroot cake before. It was very nice. But now that I've banned beetroot from my veg box I don't have to think of creative ways to get rid of it any more!

beetroot were from neighbour who hates them but seems happy with brownies, still have a couple left which I hope to eat raw in salad
thanks for link has good ideas

vbus, how awful re neighbour , hope you can sort things out

Agree re school, am hoping ours doesn't increase its numbers, but again they don't really have any space to expand

Copper, don't know, but hope ds2 is ok

Boys are shattered tonight, spent the afternoon in the park after ds1 finished school, actually had a really nice time!

the discussion on Catholic secondary school in the borough is starting to annoy me, it does feel genuine that people want to carry on the faith more like that these days they can't really afford private and want some sort of selection to separate from the masses
I dearly wish most parents just fought for a good education for all regardless of faith, the whole idea of segregation feels wrong to me

anyway a few more years until I have to really deal with it

also amused at the discussion on Portugal's troubles, 'write to your MP not to bail out the siesta country as other siesta countries are sure to follow'

I meant it does not feel genuine

the poo business I would say more than 2 soft stool in a row sort of qualifies especially if quite sudden/urgent need for toilet

sfx, I'm on the fence with faith schools. We're Catholic & ds1 attends a Catholic school, hopefully will do so for secondary as well. We've chosen that option because it fits with us, the fact that they're good schools is a bonus!! But I do think that every child should be able to get a good education, regardless of faith, or how well their parents can play the system.

tilly that is the point, I often don't feel it is genuine, some people really are which is fine but I have seen quite a few threads where parents go on about 'what do I do at mass, when do I stand and sit' and baptising to get a place at the school, it is insane and hypocritical
there is a lack of secondary school in the borough but why give priority to a Catholic one, when it is not even the majority religion? seems odd, the secular primaries do just fine why not capitalise on that and let other groups do what they will?

Luckily all our secondary schools nearby, secular or Catholic, have equally bad reputation. Though I don't believe in reputation. DSs' primary school has no reputation but is a good school. "Outstanding", even, whatever that means.

So now we are not sure if DS2's birthday party should still go on on Sunday ...

at siesta country. I wish this is a siesta country.

sfx, yes you're right, there needs to be more options available. If there is a religious school nearby, then there also needs to be secular schools to balance it.

The reputation thing I find interesting. In Yorkshire there was a school that had had a consistently bad reputation. They got a new headteacher and it started to get very good Ofsted reports, parents whose children were there were happy and yet it was the bad reputation that stuck

Kew - really sorry to hear about your grandmother, thinking of you while you wait for news. Hope parent's evening went well too.

Copper - bananas are great for stemming poo unpleasantness. Fingers crossed for a swift recovery in time for birthday party...

Hope everyone can relax a bit after end of term. I took DDs out to playground today as I had a surprise day off and weather was glorious, so hopefully it will continue. Brownies sound good, almost inspired to bake, but off to parents-in-law this weekend, so looking forward to being fed to the gills...

On schools, I've always thought children should have access to a good school regardless of faith, particularly when publicly funded, even though I can understand the draw of a faith school where that's important to individual families. My main problem with the new local faith secondary proposal is that if you've got a pot of money to improve secondaries across the borough, it seems obvious that the council should set up a new community school or put lots more effort into improving existing ones so that the benefit can be spread most broadly. It might be different if all the existing secondaries were great, and there was simply a gap in "faith" education, but that's not the case. There's a problem about a lack of "good" education. Albeit that I hope it's improving...

Is there going to be a catholic secondary school in Richmond? 'Tis the only borough in London without one