Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Style and beauty

Looking for style advice? Chat all about it here. For the latest discounts on fashion and beauty, sign up for Mumsnet Moneysaver emails.

Original poster

The CrepeVine

995 replies

MrsSchadenfreude · 13/04/2013 14:03

Grin

How did we finish the other thread so fast...? Less than a month.

OP posts:
Blackduck · 17/04/2013 21:55

Stay here smile at this

rubyrubyruby · 17/04/2013 21:57

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

QueenQueenie · 17/04/2013 22:06

Ta v much BD (although that giant flowery scary puppy gave me a fright!). If it moves closer to reality from complete fantasy I'll pick your brains.

Ruby, how is the revision going? Are you Is your dc feeling OK?

rubyrubyruby · 17/04/2013 22:19

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

CointreauVersial · 17/04/2013 22:24

15 minute walk? The three schools my DCs have attended are between 4 and 10 miles away. I'm very Envy of folk who can walk to school.

My friend's DD didn't get either of the two schools she wanted; unfortunately she lives in a rural location and isn't in any clear catchments. But as I said to her, there is so much time before September for things to shake out. Herbs, go and see your school again, you may be reassured.

herbaceous · 17/04/2013 22:31

TBH, I never even visited this one. Once I do, I may love it.

As for walking time, it's so dense round here we've got about 10 schools within a 20-minute walk. But you can't really drive to any of them - no parking - meaning a long round trip.

QueenQueenie · 17/04/2013 22:57

A scooter may be what you need!

bigTillyMint · 18/04/2013 06:44

Herbs, caring and inclusive is really important! And a Good Ofsted is also good, particuarly in the current climate. How long ago was it? And who says that it isn't good for the more able? Ofsted? If so, they will be addressing this now, if it ever needed addressing anyway

bigTillyMint · 18/04/2013 07:03

Like your poet, Cremo - you#ve got your finger on the pulse!

Stropperella · 18/04/2013 09:50

Herbs, I can see the 15-minute walk would be majorly annoying if you have to pass your first, second and third choice schools on the way. Bummer. But I would agree with others who have said "caring and inclusive" is pretty important. After all, "inclusive" must also mean taking into account the needs of the more able, I would say. Is also very true that the split site is good in terms of making things less overwhelming.
The school should identify the exceptionally able at an early stage and they have to have some measures in place for dealing with them, but you can definitely top up at home with things such as music lessons, language learning, chess, drama etc, as in the early years maybe "extending sideways" is more beneficial than just pushing them faster through the curriculum.

bigTillyMint · 18/04/2013 10:00

So true Stropps!

herbaceous · 18/04/2013 10:51

Looking at Google Maps, it's more like a 25-minute walk. Grr...

But Stropps, and all, you are of course right. He will be fine. It's just so confusing and stressful. While Ofsted reports are of course flawed, they're the only things we have to judge the school on. Even visiting doesn't necessarily help, as I don't know what to look for, other than a 'nice feeling' which doesn't mean much.

School choice 1 is the closest, but is the Ofsted Outstanding school all the middle-class parents want, and where people rent houses on the roads nearby to get into. Two Choirs! Most of his nursery friends will be going there, and lots of my friends' children.

School choice 2 was what I was expecting. Brand new building, wonderful head, separate reception building to the rest of the school.

Number 3 was in the opposite direction, but a good school.

The one we got is just an unknown quantity, and takes me right out of my comfort zone. The main building is in Walthamstow Town Centre, and looks a bit, well, rough. All busy roads, lorries, bustle, etc. And 25 minutes away!

Stropperella · 18/04/2013 11:06

Much sympathy from here, Herbs. I can completely see that it must be a real blow if most of his nursery friends are off to choice 1. However, as everyone else has said, do stick on the waiting lists. There will be moving before Sept. Also, movement AFTER September, I'd imagine. I know plenty of people who have moved children around schools in the early years with no ill-effects. I think moving school becomes a tougher prospect once they get to secondary age. This is another reason why keeping some extra-curricular activities going is important - your child meets children from other schools which may be very helpful if they have to move school at any point. Hopefully, your ds won't have to, but it's maybe worth bearing in mind.

bigTillyMint · 18/04/2013 11:12

Herbs{{{hugs}} It is a real worry - of course you want your DS to go to a school nearby and good - who wouldn't. Very frustrating for you. However, go and visit the one you've got and look for the good points (when we were looking at secondary schools, I had gut-feelings about schools and chose the ones which I felt I would like to go to if I was a child) and make sure you are on the waiting lists for all the others!

One of my friends didn't get anything at all for her DD2 - the local authority appear to have cancelled the application for some unknown reasonAngry

herbaceous · 18/04/2013 11:19

I'm not even sure how to get on the waiting lists. There was no info from the admissions people about it. I woke up at 3 this morning, panicking, and emailed the admissions office, and schools 1 and 2, in a scattergun approach!

motherinferior · 18/04/2013 11:55

Darling, ring the schools directly and ask them.

I would also say, on my experience of (a) waiting lists and (b) first terms at school, that even if a place at a school you prefer doesn't come up till during the first term, you could consider switching then.

herbaceous · 18/04/2013 12:03

I emailed one school to go on the waiting list, and they told me to ask the admissions people. I got an automated 'yeah, thanks for your email. Whatevs'.

I may have to phone people up, but today is going to be a mare, with every local parent on the phone, meaning taking ages to get through to the usual slack-jawed halfwits at the council.

bigTillyMint · 18/04/2013 12:07

I think you are automatically on their waiting lists, but keep ringing!

Blackduck · 18/04/2013 14:08

Think BTM is right - ds was on a waiting list for a school I put first, they just regularly wrote to me asking if I wanted to stay on the list.
Sorry to hear its so fraught but lots of good advice here! Ds's current school is outstanding (or whatever the Ofsted jargon is), but tbh if he had hated it/not settled I'd have moved him like a shot because being happy is more important!

herbaceous · 18/04/2013 14:17

The letter has just arrived, complete with form to tick if we want to be on the waiting lists. So, that's alright then!

I've started a thread on Facebook, asking for opinions on the school, and so far the feedback has been v positive. Because it's on a new site, but an old building, it's going to start off small, which is probably a good thing. And apparently it's very creative. So, looking up.

School number 1 had 59 siblings, and only 57 other places, and a distance cut-off of .28 miles. So, no surprise we didn't get in really.

Right. I'll shut up soon. In fitness news, I did one of those run/walk/run things back from nursery in preparation for route march to/from new school. But have now been put off by reading the 'poohing while running' thread.

motherinferior · 18/04/2013 14:29

Herbs, we've all been through it. Believe me Grin and just wait till it's secondaries

herbaceous · 18/04/2013 14:53

I cannot bear the idea of doing this all again for secondaries, when it will be a gazillion times worse as it actually matters. I even had a conversation with a fellow nursery mother about tutoring for entrance exams this morning!

motherinferior · 18/04/2013 15:01

Herbs, do not listen to her. Just focus on the next step. FWIW secondaries may not be a gazillion times worse - we went, in the end (yy after mucho angsting ignores everyone who had to put up with her at the time ) for the local option which DD1 was absolutely bound to get into.

Blackduck · 18/04/2013 15:01

please dont mention secodaries - I have my fingers in my ears and am whistling, can't hear you, la la.....

Actually it is fairly easy here - choise of two (at a push three), or pay.....

Blackduck · 18/04/2013 15:03

I need to make the decision this year - although ds would appear to have already decided (despite not having seen either of them)