Nice people thread part 4 - sugar and spice and all things

michaels

Interesting conversation re schools - it is sad (imho) that those children with parents motivated and knowledgeable of the system can make it work in their favour whereas those without the same advantages end up at the local sink schools 'with their mates'.

My children's school there is a huge imbalance between girls and botys after year 2 - reason beign that there is a very good girls catholic school that the parents who care know they can get their daughters in to (because being a Catholic is enough) whereas there is no equivalent boys school (there is a catholic mixed school but it is only OK rather than outstanding). So at 8 the boys go to the Catholic prep school. Last year the year 6 class had 25 girls and only 5 boys!

Davesnave

lostinrates wrote: »

will I look back at A/W 2011/12 with embarrasment if I spend it in culottes?

Depends what else you pair with them I suppose. The boots are not sufficient in themselves, I fear.

lemonjelly

lostinrates wrote: »

I'm picturing them in my mind with knee high brown leather boots (which I do not have) and me riding in them...

Davesnave

michaels wrote: »

Interesting conversation re schools - it is sad (imho) that those children with parents motivated and knowledgeable of the system can make it work in their favour whereas those without the same advantages end up at the local sink schools 'with their mates'

Those most interested will always go the extra mile, but I agree that the tacit acceptance of sink schools isn't good enough.

In our city there were no real sink schools and 'going with their mates' was therefore not a problem. Like silvercar, we would have stepped in if we'd felt DD was making a big mistake, but we supported her choice.

DD had some inside knowledge. From an early age, she'd accompany me on trips to secondary schools etc, if I was looking after her at the end of the school day. It was then that she learned there were 'no girls' in some of them, and 'no boys' in others!:eek:

Wheezy_2

lemonjelly wrote: »

:D:D

[FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif]Glen Quagmire: Hello, 911? It's Quagmire. Yeah, it's caught in the window this time.[/FONT]

lostinrates

lemonjelly wrote: »

You don't think the nature of the culottes is enough to remove any sex appeal from the boots?

I might have a look for some boots this winter though anyway.


One of the things about weekly commute was it meant we could have some ''safety'' to our limited social life....and yet this afternoon I realise I have three accepted invites I have to decline. One is a bit of a PITA as I was looking forward to it...its a bog standard invite to ''the big house'' to all farmers in this hunt country. I didn't go last year either, but really want to this year, but don't feel up to going ''sans homme''. Then there is local harvest festival...where they particularly said they want us at ''the top table'' as the newest ''farmers'' here. I think I can face that alone, or go with my neighbours who are adorable (the plan was we were to go with them, but I'll just tell them its just me.).

I could really do with a local single or gay male friend to go to stuff with...a spare plus one.

SingleSue

We didn't really look around for eldest, he just went to the next natural high school to his primary school and in our catchment, although I would have loved for him to have gone to the same high school I went to.

For middle and youngest, the education authority plus the specialists involved in his care thought it would be better all round if he went to the other high school (my high school but out of catchment), because those he went to primary school with before he was permanently excluded, would know exactly which buttons to press to get an explosion from him. It was also the school more likely to be able to cope with his needs and the natural progression high school to the school he started at in year 6 after spending time out of the usual education system.

For youngest, myself and his specialist autism outreach teacher, visited both high schools and weighed up the pros and cons of the layout of the buildings, their special needs provision (and department) and if youngest would be able to cope in each setting. We could of course, have chosen to take him completely out of the area for high school but this was pretty much discounted due to the speed of me being able to get there to assist the school in any problem, plus of course, the difficulty of the school run with having 3 children at 3 completely different schools and areas..

In the end, we chose the same high school as middle son as the possibility of him escaping onto a busy road was lower, we had seen how well the school had coped with middle son, the room sizes, higher ceilings and the near absence of little nooks and crannies where he could become stuck/go and hide in when the corridors were busy. They were also willing to take on youngest with his very high needs, something the other high school was rather dubious about, in fact, they were pretty much not wanting him there, plus they had a proper SENCO who had the last say on her department rather than just a glorified teaching assistant with no say in how her department was run (more school politics than anything else).

sss555s

lostinrates wrote: »

You don't think the nature of the culottes is enough to remove any sex appeal from the boots?

I agree! Unless your ABBA of course

silvercar

michaels wrote:

Interesting conversation re schools - it is sad (imho) that those children with parents motivated and knowledgeable of the system can make it work in their favour whereas those without the same advantages end up at the local sink schools 'with their mates'.

Is it the unmotivated parents that contribute to the school being a sink school?

Dave wrote:

DD had some inside knowledge. From an early age, she'd accompany me on trips to secondary schools etc, if I was looking after her at the end of the school day. It was then that she learned there were 'no girls' in some of them, and 'no boys' in others!

It was at the age of 14 that DS1 turned to me and asked why I hadn't realised that he wouldn't be bothered that there were no girls at 11, but I should have known he would have changed his mind by the age of 14.

Weirdly, the girls equivalent of his boys school was not a grammar school, the only girls grammar school being a few miles away. The girls from the matching school (in name and location alone) would often congregate around his school gates to attract the boys and the girls school was often upset that the boys grammar school would organise joint social events with the girls grammar miles away rather than themselves.

PasturesNew

First call of the morning .... "come and get your old, they hate it here"....
Convinced them to stay, but now having to find alternatives.
But there are no alternatives.
I'm in despair.
Been on the phone but it's too big a job to try to solve on a Friday, now a Friday afternoon ....

Old doesn't like it because the others are old and ga-ga.
Old needs support, but not here as house is unsuitable/to be sold ... so I need to get them into somewhere else (sheltered type). Really what they call 'extra care', except there's only one in the whole county, it's newly opened, and to get there you have to be on the housing list (applied 2-3 weeks ago, but it takes 28 days to get onto the list), then you have to bid and wait... and it's not even ideal as it's 40 miles away. I figure it might take 1-2 years before the old could even get an offer to go there. I've already had a breakdown today myself, so waiting isn't an option.

A weekend of despair ahead.