*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.

I probably just don't know it exists - I searched for our catchment school (RAB) and rang the LEA when they didn't have a place and they offered one at KS. I've seen StM and TM in town, and heard about Grt C'ford (my friend who lives in Braintree rang me to rave about the lovely mums she's met from Grt C'ford school ) - I know nothing about other village schools. I am an ignoramus

Could you email me on bluebeartwobears at yahoo dot co dot uk with the school name and I'll give them a ring! Thank you.

Okay, will do, some bloke called Steve will be appearing to mail you but it's me - I use an old addy of dh's!

hi all
just checking in really, as haven't posted since my anti starbucks rant! interesting talk of schools - all early for us as it will be years before it starts school.
just wanted to stay in touch really and say let me know if you arrange a meet up.
s

Quite a few children in SW go to independent prep schools in Cambridge (St Faiths, St John's King's, Perse etc) and there is a coach service in mornings. Probably better for the older child as it makes the day very long (the coach leaves the Common at around 7.30 am.

Hi

Sounds like i've missed a good old chat whilst i've been away.

with regards to schools from a teacher's persepctive, i think Friends is good and we considered sendign DS there, however, he is very accademic and opted for Dame B's - we only opted out of State because all of the schools we looked at could not provide facilites that he needs - it is a nightmare being a parent of a gifted and talented child and hope no2 is 'normal.

Frienda has excellent pastoral care good facilities and i went for a job interview there when i first qualified so have seen behind the scenes.

The park is right by Duck Street - it has football posts, climbing frames and a shed full of plastic toys, a sand pit etc. My DS goes there every day with the au pair and loves it - i walk the Wendens Ambo loop everyday with the dogs so they run across the field as well.

With regards to the M11 - you can only hear it when the wind blows in a certain direction and in the summer all the trees and stuff are out so they block the noise. We are lucky because where we are in the village we can't hear any noise, however twice a day (6.30 to 7.30 & 5.30 to 7) we get the cars from the station for a 5 mins period when the train comes in but unless you ahve your windows open you can't hear it.

So much for my not buying anything at the NCT sale - i bought loads.

I truly hope that it is not nesting we are currently living in the living room, double bed, DS bed, wardrobe you name it - the builders are knocking through upstairs and are not finishing until April upstairs - then when they've finished upstairs they start downstairs - can cope with that bit with a new baby but not right now- i had an urge to clean the cars yesterday - i haven't ever cleaned a car in my life - absolutely wrecked after doing it but very satisfying. I am having amjor Braxton Hicks pains and he feels like he is going to fall out of me he is so low - my ribs have re-appeared as he has dropped - i am looking for at least 2 more weeks peace and quiet.

Thanks ES!

but...How was the Birthday Party???

My ds is not G+T, he is above-average at school at the moment but has major confidence issues so his teacher thinks that he is not performing up to his capabilities..hence our search for a supportive atmosphere rather than 'stretching'.

We drove past a house that appeared to have no roof so I was hoping that it wasn't yours When dd was born we had the downstairs of our house stripped out, no kitchen, sofa cushions on floor with tv/toys in a bedroom, no carpets, plaster off walls, had to fill kettle from utility room sink and walk back to plug it into corner of building site, so completely know what you are going through. The midwives that visited weren't shocked by the state but were shocked by me saying that it would be another 6 months before we would have a proper kitchen again.
Ta for info on M11 - dh is worried about re-sale value but I have pointed out that it is still quieter than most of the roads that we looked at in SW. He's just noticed that there's a house for sale on West Rd so he's wobbling right now .
Will search out the field this weekend - we'll be the short round woman with the children with unfeasible names

The party was good - we had it in Epping which is close to where we used to live and invited all his friends from the nursery he goes to in Loughton. we are going to have a Saffron Walden party in the summer when we can go out in the garden - there is a place called Jump in Great Chishill that has a big back garden with climbing frames, trampolines etc and you can hire it.

We had another party this afternoon - very strange - they had food before the party and it was sit down and watch the man party - the children were filled up with cake etc adn hitting him, jumping up, shouting out - i always think it is best to fill them with sugar at the end at least then they go home and you don't have to deal with it.

There is never a re-sale problem in WA - very sought after area - anyway most of the villages etc. are sandwiched between the railway and M11.

I don't even want to think about the midwife coming round here - it is seriously a nightmare - in fact when we agreed they could start in Dec i didn't really think about the baby - joy oh joy.

Our house does have a roof - they put it on last week - however, it also has scaffolding all around it, patched up windows, skips on the drivway and two great big builders signs out the front - can i just say I HATE BUILDERS!

I can feel the sugar frenzy from here

Dh mainly worried because the house we are buying was on the market for a few months before we offered (although, supposedly someone else had offered in the same week) and he is used to the London market -we sold our house to the first viewer, and our last place was sold within 2 hours of us signing the estate agent contract.
I've told him your info and he's cheered up now

You may hate builders but I can tell you something (slightly) worse - dh got rid of our builders v early on in the renovations because they weren't 'precise' enough, and then he re-plumbed, re-wired, fitted the kitchen and utility, put in a new doorway, all in weekends, so I've been looking after the children sole parent for the last few years.
Now we are trying to sell the place the only problem we have is with the work which the builder did - all dh's stuff has proper authority clearance /safety checks/certificate..blooming builder has changed a couple of windows and hasn't ensured that they are building control compliant or FENSAed .
I've just had a nasty shock - looked down this thread and saw that i first posted on it last July!..can't believe it's been so long and we still aren't there.

ES - sounds like you;ve had a v hectic but fun weekend with G's birthday!! And congratulations on starting your maternity leave!! Enjoy!! Hope you have a few good weeks of rest - although sounds like you're a bit like me and don't know the meaning of the word!

My weekend basically involved spending lots of time with my 5 week old niece - getting in lots of practice before my baby arrives. Its so nice getting in a bit of practice.

Me and my husband are off to France this weekend - my parents live over there and we want a final break just the two of us before we are taken over by parenthood. It probably won;t be as relaxing a break as we'd like as we're actually going to be househunting for a holiday home over there. Its quite exciting and just hope we see something we like as we won't have many other opportunities for a while!

Anyway hope everyone's well.

EnglsihSpringer, I know what you mean about talented and gifted, but ds1 is talented, gifted and good looking. I mean, what are the chances of that

2boysmacca - glad that someone else has a child that is G+T - i tell you it is a nightmare - he attends a special pre-school on a Friday in London and is on a programme with Dr. Robert Winston - it is so hard to entertain him and he is just like a little adult - he has been reading and writing for over a year, has an IQ of over 150 and DH and I just want him to be a normal little boy - we have never pushed him but he just started asking and questioning from such an early age - we would read books to him and he would say what does that say mummy and what does that begin with and then he would say rhyming words and talk about things that little children just shouldn't know - we tried to ignore it and just focus on having fun reading and not worrying about words and things but then we were advised to seek professional help etc.

We then took him out of nursery full time and got him a French au pair so that he could learn another language - the funny thing is they speak French all day yet he won't speak a word of it to anyone else. Anwyay i could rant on for ages about how hard it is but i won't i'll save it for a coffee.

Just one thing - which school does he go to that can accomodate his needs? we asked everyone and none of them could do it. I used to teach so i did think about giving up work and doing it at home, i already tutor 3 children.

Milarkie - i feel for you with the building work - we are having a nightmare with our builders they are just so rude and ooohhh..... we have had some extra plans drawn up for a lounge extension which we were thinking about doing as well - the trouble is the plans have not been passed yet because of the amount of work we have already done yet the builders have taken it upon their own back to start building it and assumed that they could go ahead with it. We told the man who is managing the project for us that firstly we don't have planning permission and secondly we haven't actually told them that their quote is OK - to be honest they are ripping us off on this extra work and they just think that because they are on sit ethat we will agree to that price!

Stump - very jealous that you are going to France - we go there every year on holiday - we have just come back from the Val D'Isere (well end of Jan - i obviously can't ski anymore) went to Eurodisney a fair old few times last year (we somehow ended up with annual passes so felt obliged to use them) - we then went to one of our favourite spots The Vendee - this year we are have decided that we will give France a break (first time in 7 years) and are heading to Italy and Florida instead - i kinda think that i am going to miss all that good cheese, red wine and markets.

Oh i so need a holiday - especially just an adult one.

englishspringer - are you sure about Dame B's for your G&T - he does sound super G&T. There are bright children there, but you should know that lots of them go off to Cambridge schools at Yr3 because parents don't think they're getting enough. Lovely school though - we used to go there - and very open-armed and properly non-selective, quite a special place but NOT a particularly, exclusively academic school imo. Though, jolly nice for it!

HI

Thanks for the advice - the trouble is we only moved into the area a few months ago old little man wasn't registered anywhere but Dame B's so we are kind of stuck.

Hoping he will get a scholarship somewhere at 7!

And it's really not a bad place to be stuck either! Some very good teachers and a lovely atmosphere - really engaging and happy children too. Also depends what you want for him doesn't it? We'd have stayed there - but we moved area - because it would have done its best by all three of mine, but I can see that my DS1 (also frighteningly G&T) is happier now at a more academic, selective school. I did go and look at the Perse when he was in Yr 1(and behaving badly, which is not something Dame B's children do as a rule!) and thought I'd rather he stayed where he was! Too grim and dour for me.
Am sure he'll have a good time. Is he going to nursery there? The nursery teacher is absolutely fab, and got my DS1 immediately and did masses of wonderful things with him. Quite my favourite teacher of all time.

Daft question alert!!
Is there a map of the catchment areas for the local schools anywhere? And do any of them have nursery classes? Sorry for being lazy and asking all of you instead of doing my homework! (blush)
As my children are just two and six months, awful decisions like which shool to send them off to, seem too far away. (yes, I can feel the (hmm) faces )
I'm not a fan of any school personally, I wish they could run about in the fields idylically all day and still come out well rounded.lol.

Definitely feel for those families blessed with G&T children. At least their needs are becoming more recognised.

Good luck to all those with the builders in - I live with one and they're not all bad (wink).

Laura

Which part of town have you moved to? It's hard to even get the schools to give you the catchment areas!

I didn't find a map when I was looking for school info - I think I found some information on the Essex LEA website - had to click on each school individually and look though.
upmystreet.com has a search by postcode bit, where you can get a list of local schools and how far away they are (but your catchment school might not be your closest - ours isn't).

ES _ can I be cheeky and ask if you used an architect and if so were they any good? - We're going to need one once we move so would welcome recommendations

I haven't moved yet - six month's in the waiting! But we should be there in the next month (she lives in hope!).
We'll be moving to the bizarrely American sounding P. Valley part of Debden Road. :-)

v near me!

As for schools, you're in the catchment for KS. If you'd have moved 2 years ago you'd have been RAB!

2boysmacca - thanks for that info. Not a huge choice then, heh? Glad to know I've got a friendly neighbour nearby! Would be great to meet up with you and many more on here very soon. How do you find the walk into town??

Millarkie - UPmystreet was very interesting although the neighbourhood profile was a bit wierd! i don't think any of us on here fit in. lol

Walk into town not a problem, walk back up from town....well I hope you have good leg muscles!!! I'm intrigued, now who have you bought through (not a problem if you want to remain anonymous).

There's a catholic school and a CofE school in town too, if you are a churchgoer.

I hadn't looked at the profile - does it say that we should be elderly and retired? I'm off to look.

I think if I remember correctly we are educated to a low standard

Hmm..profile for W A is 'Often, many of the people who live in this sort of postcode will be wealthy mature professionals living in large houses'. I'm not liking the 'mature' bit, and I feel a bit like a poor interloper.