*Moving to Saffron Walden, Essex , in August - does anyone live nearby?*

[SaffyCat]

I am moving from Surrey to Saffron Walden in mid-August with my husband, 7yr old son and 1yr old daughter. We don't know anyone in the area yet and I would love to meet other local mums (am happy to drive a few miles) and also to find out about toddler groups/recomended family activities.

[Millarkie]

Laurasmiles - Hi, nice to meet you

Englishspringer - Thanks for all your tips re: schools. KS is out of our 'catchment' too - but they have spaces and are happy to take ds. We have been looking at independent schools too but the ones with space don't want to take dd into nursery full-time which would mean school fees plus a nanny salary so we are looking at KS first.
Hope you're enjoying your countdown to April 4th

I'm driving up to SW tomorrow night and will be staring at strangers with buggies on Friday trying to work out if they're a mumsnetter

[SusieHughsie]

Thanks to all who replied to my message re my dilemna in choosing between schools. It was a great help!

USAUKMUM - Re The Potteries Swim School, do you have any contact details for them, really interested in enrolling my DD and DS.

[USAUKMum]

The Potteries number is 01799 541591 I believe they aren't listed anymore as they are popular. Don't know what the waiting list is like at the mo. But Mother & Baby are the easiest to get into, next the Over 3 class, finally after school places are the hardest. But once you get one child in, preference is given to siblings.

[2boysmacca]

about a 12 month waiting list!

[USAUKMum]

I checked this morning when I took DS to his swim class (only one more term of going in the pool myself!!!!!) and the waiting list is currently closed, but they are going to be accepting new students after 2 July.

[englishspringer]

Yippee i've finished work - my mum and dad had DS last night my DH left for work at 6.30 and i thought i'd get a lie in - no chance. However, i have mopped all the floors, cleaned the bathrooms, hoovered and dusted, stripped the beds and am on a mission, the cleaner only came on Thursday but just felft compelled. I might take up a part time cleaning job whilst i'm on mat leave :0

i rang the potteries about swimming and they say that there is no chance of No 1 DS getting in but that we can register DS2 when he is born.

It's my little boy's birthday party tomorrow - we have 24 children coming to a play barn (it's in Epping)- today i have to collect the cake, get the helium balloons etc. was going to go to the NCT sale but probably going to give it a miss as i have to walk the dogs as well.

Millarkie - what did you think of the schools?

[nearlythree]

I am lucky in that dd1 is in the best school in the area, people fight like mad to get in here but only 14 places in Reception - we just happen to be in catchment. RAB has a reputation for being too pushy with tinies. I have a friend whose dd is in KS and I think she likes it but the class sizes are getting large.

SWCH sucks and I would rather live on gruel and pay independent school fees than send my dcs there - esp. at 6th form level, where they throw out any student with grades less than B at AS level to keep up their league table position, regardless of how hard that person has worked. Also has no grip on the bullying which is rife in the school.

[Millarkie]

We've just got home.
Hmm..Englishspringer - sounds like 'nesting' - that baby's not trying to come early is it? (But if you want a cleaning job I can offer you one )

Interesting about SWCH nearlythree - sounds like a lot of the grammar schools I grew up near!

Well, we looked around 2 schools - 1 had all the children in years R to 2 sitting at tables with worksheets. R were copying over handwriting examples. 1 were copying letters and 2 were writing beneath examples...I have to say, that it seemed like a SAT factory compared to the (very good) school that ds goes to at the moment. There were no incorrectly spelt words on the displays (ds has learnt to try to spell a word by thinking about the sounds so his work is full of 'interesting' spelling). Ds behaved himself very well, was quiet and polite and sat down when we saw the library and read a book, but at the end he said he didn't like the school, neither did dh, and I have my reservations.
The second one had invited ds to spend the afternoon there - the methods of learning were similar to those which ds is used to, there were less 'singing and dancing' resources but more evidence of children working things out for themselves. Ds stayed and loved it (although since it was Fri pm he had golden time and gymnastics so what's not to love )
However, our fav. at the moment is a small and probably not very popular independant school. It's undersubscribed so I guess it's got a poor local reputation (or it may be that the local state schools are so good, people don't use independents but the other one we saw was full up).

[Millarkie]

Oh, and Mole Hall was closed due to flooding so we met up with one potential nanny at Wimpole instead - kids loved the farm, but they were too shy to talk to the nanny
Second nanny has just found out she's expecting another baby so doesn't want to change job right now.
Oh and we drove round and sat outside our 'new' house to listen to the M11 - dh is developing a minor obsession about how close it is.

ES - Whereabouts is the playing field in WA? I think I saw some play equipment up by ( I think ) the village hall. We 're coming up again next Sat to 'measure for curtains' etc so am thinking of walking the kids round there to burn some energy off.

[2boysmacca]

Good to hear your day went well. If you're heading to SW take a look at Bridge End Gardens. The gardens are lovely to run around and also there is a lovely park there too, (behind the gardens).

Would you dare name schools? Which did you like, which didn't you? Which Independant?

[Millarkie]

2boysmacca - I didn't want to upset any SW mums by naming the schools (but I have previously mentioned which 2 state schools we were visiting so it's pretty obvious I guess) - S'only our humble opinion guv'nor.

The independent is Friends, which is a Quaker founded school. Dh's family are not member of any organised faith but are vegatarian pacifist (hippy ) types and the ethos of the school really fits our family beliefs. It's also very quiet with small class sizes and since ds has hearing problems (if you scroll down this thread you'll see I changed my chat name recently - I'm BB). he has problems hearing if the background noise is high, and also problems concentrating and is very very shy. We think the small class size and the 'family' feel of the school will raise his confidence.
We had previously been told that dd would not be able to stay in the school nursery past 3.20pm but this has turned out to be erroneous and the school have said that they will accept her into late stay twice a week so we wouldn't have to have a nanny termtime - we think (am doing frenzied calculations involving train timetables).
So if any of the locals want to tell me why Friends has places whilst t'other (forgotten it's name) has a waiting list I'm listening

[Millarkie]

Oh and thanks for the Bridge end gardens tip - my list of places to go just keeps getting longer!

[2boysmacca]

Ah yes! Friends is just a few yards down the road from us. We looked into sending ds there but the fees are rather high for us. No idea why it's undersubscribed, I hear a lot of good things about it. However, I do know that us locals are up in arms that they are selling off land to developers to build a huge amount of housing and flats

[Millarkie]

Yes, we read about the sell-off on their website - it's a big shame.
Seems like a lovely area of town, I am of you. Didn't see any houses for sale about there when we were looking.
(Compared to a nanny's salary the fees seem reasonable - it's the long term cost that's making dh shake )

[Millarkie]

Oh and we even found time for a coffee in Cafe cou cou

Didn't see Gluttons anywhere, did walk past the new Starbucks though.

[nearlythree]

Dd1's school is so small and so good we don't need to consider independent atm, but Friends is our choice for secondary school if we haven't relocated. It did have a bad academic record until recently but has new staff inc. the former head of RAB I believe.

The fees have shot up since we've been here though and that, the land sell-off and a high percentage of students from abroad suggests they aren't very good at managing their finances.

Gluttons is at the back of Boots. Solely for Children is there also - the best childrens' shoe shop, they are wonderful at measuring feet and tell you if your dcs aren't ready for shoes or have plenty of growth in their old ones.

[2boysmacca]

Ditto Solely for children. Also love the little jewellels there, he's very helpful and friendly for any works undertaken.

Coffee in coucou....Nooooo hot chocolate

We like it up this end of town, but would prefer to be nearer. If I won the lottery I would be living on West Road

[Millarkie]

Thanks Nearlythree - sounds promising. We did realise that their academic level was v. poor for an independant but tbh that's not a priority for us. A happy confident ds is our goal.
As for financial managment - at a guess, the type of work that they want to carry out is usually funded by rich alumni, so if they are short of those it's no wonder that things have got a bit run-down. The fees are less than those of the other indie in town ( and more than half the cost of even un-popular indies in our area of London - my London friends are amazed!) I was reading an article t'other day about how private school fees have increased out of all proportion in the last few years.

[Millarkie]

I'm talking myself into this aren't I

[2boysmacca]

The move or the schools

[nearlythree]

Millarkie, I agree, SWCH has a much better academic reputation but Friends is supposed to have more concern for the child as an individual, not an exam statistic.

But, did hear Friends had a big drugs problem a few years' ago...

[Millarkie]

S'alright - once we pay the school fees our kids won't have enough money to buy drugs

Already talked into the move BTW, am now talking myself into working almost solely to pay school fees rather than working almost solely to pay a nanny Difference is that, if I decided to become a SAHM (really can't see this happening but..) childcare can be changed easier than a school...And in 2 or 3 years time was hoping to down-grade nanny to au pair and have money for holidays again...but I want ds to be a happy chap.

[nearlythree]

Millarkie, is ds reception or yr 1?

[Millarkie]

Yr 1

[nearlythree]

I know there's a space at dd1's school in Reception but not sure about Yr 1. I know you haven't expressed an interest but it's a good school - about 20 mins from SW.