MN Little Italy 13

[Rosa]

E primavera ...Buona Pasqua Tutti .......

I meant .

Damon, someone on my PN thread was talking about a site that helps you appeal the school choice, she appealed sucessfully and so did someone else on the thread, so maybe worth a try. I'll put the word out for her.

Gutted for you as well Damon!Hopefully it'll work out for us both. Also feel as if failed ds. Was so laid back and convinced we would get a place after we were told noone got turned away last year! So feel didnt do enough as back up (eg didnt apply for statale as well as the commune one). Might have to look at private option Brange I guess although don't know where to start looking! May give ds's pediatrician a bell and see if she has any advice. But I really really want ds to go to this school. Its a 2 minute walk from our house and I really want him to go to a local school and develop a local network of friends who live close.

Damon, it's schoolsappeal.com
Good luck.

gio everything you said it's me! I cannot think of nothing else. why am i so laid back. i should have lied and go to church and sell a kidney! if we both get it in the end i'll come visit you in rome and we go for a deserved drink. promise. through her teeth!

going out. speak later.

Pippi you need to find out how far down the waiting list she is. i am pretty certain seh'll get a place somewhere. if where you are is a bit like here, good schools tend to get lots of spaces freed up at the end because parents choose to go private. unfortunaltey it may take a while before you find out.

also i would give the rc you originally excluded and see if you can still put her on the waiting list there.

i am sure things will work out ok.

hugs!

definitely Pippi! A celebratory bottle of prosecco!
I have been a miserable cow all day! dp has spent all day asking whats wrong (mmm secondo te?????)but didnt help by getting up at 11.30! And then PITA FIL called and stated he would be round to visit ds in 15 mins which meant my plans of going then to market and swings with ds were buggered up. DP as usual didnt check if I had plans, just said yeah fine.

Poor you girls, don't feel guilty and don't feel like a failure, just explore all avenues.

For you damon, in my borough i know that you don't really stand a chance of getting a church school place unless you have a vicar's letter, fake or not fake.

Even if you are at the top of your cofe school's waiting list, and decide to put that as your first choice, beware that any newcomer who has a vicar's letter will get your place, so i would only put that as your first choice if you were: at the top of the waiting list and started going to church.

I suspect in your borough there might not be so much movement of families like in my borough, and not even sure it is really private school land, after all people move to your borough for the good state schools, not sure people there are wealthy enough to afford private schools.

So I would put as my first choice a school where she can realistically get a place, and then do what it takes to improve situation (ie sell a kidney, church, or whatever ).

The worse case scenario is that she gets a place at a shit school, she might have to go there for a term or so, till you can move her. At her age as long as you stay positive, she will not know it's a shit school, she will make friends, etc. Lots of people i know have gone through this in my borough. Priority is not to stress dd.

Do you also have a RC option? Definetely worth pursuing though, forse una visita alla Chiesa Italiana?

pippi, I second what mccloud said. I still have DS on the RC school waiting list, even though I'm not sure I want him to go there because of the bigotry and nastiness met during our visits, though on paper it was the best option (especially after his spell of not pronouncing his Ts - I know, I'm a snob). still have to get priest's letter, but at least I registered at the church.... all this business is one more reason to make us want to move out in the countryside....

McC what you say is true. This borough is not private school land. Not were I am. As for mobility possibly less than you but still ok as people move from here to further out to bigger houses and/or better schools so that's the best possibility.

Getting a place at the CofE here is not so impossible actually. lots of them have especially from my road due to distance but after 1st or second refusal so I must persevere. Going to church at this point is surely taking the piss no?

There's nothing else for me to do than wait till monday and find out were I am on the lists and ask them to keep us in it. In the meantime yes I probably have to choose another school. It's not so much the shittiness which in reception year won;t matter but more because I saw dd going to a local school.
anyway I guess in the big scheme of things it's not so important so I'll try to keep some perspective.

hard though...

I know a few parents who started going to church when their applications were rejected, you can always say you have recently moved from Italy, no? The vicars don't mind from what i see. E padre Carmelo della Chiesa Italiana e' super cool e se vai un paio di volte di sicuro di da una letterina. I was going to go for the RC option, but when i heard i had to buy a rosary for ds, I decided to go for a softer option/ Having said that if i had zero option, RC would have been my choice.

ARe you sure you can get a place a CofE place without church attendance? Make sure you check that out, ask more than 1 person at the school, as it is so easy to be given the wrong answer. Here in my borough each school publishes the figures that explain how many kids were given places for church attendance, vicinity, etc.

There might also be less mobility because of the recession, so keep that in mind.

From my posts I seem to be a great supporter of Church attendance, I swear I am an atheist if ever there was one, what I like about Church schools (cofe)is that they are more democratic than other schools, in as much as everybody can go to church, middle, working class, so the school intake is more mixed than you would get at a private school or at a very good primary (whose neighbouring houses are very expensive, so only wealthy people can send their kids there).

Pippi- McCloud talks sense.

keep us posted...

this one is for you McCleod:

www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/apr/19/viggo-mortensen-film-good

oh, lala, he doesn't half take himself seriously our Viggo. I knew immediately the piece had been written by a woman, lol.

i saw you on the private school thread, bs. was going to post, but then i thought no, don't bother. pmsl though, at idea that you meet such a social mix at private schools. wtf?

Ciao a tutte, sorry I haven't been around, my torcicollo was so bad that I spent most of the weekend lying in bed

Pippi and Gio so gutted for you . I cannot believe dd didn't get a place in 3 schools. wtf? And do you really need a leter of the vicar to get into CofE primary in London? Ds was in a CofE school in exeter (our local school) and we didn't have to provide anything specific about our religion (or lack of in our case). I really hope you find a good alternative for dd, I'm sure you will. Do appeal, and stress that you want her to go to local school (use ecoligical sound reasons as well )

Gio, bombard your materna with phonecalls, here in milan comunali have a second intake in october. see if it's the same in rome.

My neck is still very bad.

Mr Big, I loved him and hated him. Agree with BS about empowering etc.

Pippi: Tripp Trapp. Sorry to all the owners , but I cannot stand it ideologically. And most of all I always end up Tripping (is this why it's been called tripp trapp?) into it's sodding gambe. And it's scomodo!

Gio so lovely about your parents garden

I am taking notes on this school stuff for the future - I hope that you both get it sorted out for your dcs Franca so sorry about your torcicollo you have been sitting is a draught haven't you ???
We went to mare yesterday to see if we could see any cartelli for flats to rent for JUne ..NO joy all agencies and caro as well so now having a re think. Minirosa is beinga rompe so we have paid for my mum to come over and fly back with me in July so we are going to try and have a few days inthe mountains before hand with her .
Gio so glad that the garden surprise went well I hope that your sister got it videoed as well !

Sorry to hear about your torcicollo Franca, I've been having problems with my shoulder and they gave me some muscle relaxing creme in the pharmacy, called muscoril I think, anyway it's quite good.

We have 2 tripp trapps, I love them

Damon, just realised the website I posted yesterday doesn't work. But if you google school appeal some interesting stuff comes up, eg some interesting articles here, and here. It does seem totally unfair you can't get into a school locally.

I know . I don't think there are many joining me in my antipatia towards tripp trapp ! Perhaps I should start a thread and see if there's any other deviant mnetter...

I think you can appeal directly to your LEA, can't you?

Ah muscoril! I think I had in injection of it in the past. I'm on aulin at the mo, but not much improvement. I booked an apt with physio.

actually a friend disliked the tripp trapp too and ended up in the garage. I can give you that it is a trip hazard but luckily for us it stays in a place where you cannot walk behind it.

anyway re schools: after a terrible weekend and a nightmere filled sleep things seems to brighten up. Counncil says I CAN now apply fir the community school next to me and that also a lot of pleaces will free up withon the next couple of weeks as lots of people apply to private/selective and out of borough schools. So I am a bit more cheerful after bursting into tears at the nursery to the first person who asked me about schools.

Gio how was your weekend? Have you grabbed the phone first thing in the morning too?
Let's start organize this chamagne drinking celebration asap .

Pippi, glad to hear things are looking up in the school dept. What a nightmare !
I can make you and gio huge glasses of g&T, if you like

i am sure things will work themselves out Pippi. stai su.

torcicollo sucks, i have spent the weekend with a blinding headache, and now still feel hungover from it....