Blimey eventful few days. Vbus, very sorry to hear about SIL, close friend of mine had similar experience last year, v 
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KewC, glad you escaped dramatic tree falls - and well done on your brilliant postings on the secondary school thread. Hope some difference will be made after the debate, even if for the academy front.
Sfx, hope your DD is feeling a bit better. Every time I see her she is so lovely, whatever happens at school she is clearly thriving on so many levels.
On the subject of which.... We had teacher home visit today. All fine more or less, although new teacher obviously very reliant on TA, she kept asking her for answers to my questions about day to day classroom organisation stuff. Didn't fill me with confidence 
Also didn't like it when she remarked that she liked the fact DD1 seemed to be of the type to tell others to behave, which was "useful in the classroom". I tried to tell her that although DD1 behaves quite well (most of the time, definitely not all!), she might get a bit distracted if others don't or even upset if she felt she can't be heard. It's fine to have good influences, but it's not down to my four year-old to keep order in the classroom! Oh dear, I'm sure she didn't mean it that way, but recently I saw a documentary on how some teachers deliberately sit the studious ones next to the more challenging ones, which didn't always seem to be implemented that well - making life a bit of a misery for the children shown in the programme! But who knows how they edited it. Must try to remain open-minded til I see what happens in reality. I liked the TA more, although both seemed very positive and into what they were doing. DD1 seems to like them which is the main thing!
Copper, today I made spanish omelette with rice instead of potatoes, as we had leftovers. It was edible but I'm glad there wasn't a meal diary in operation...