Nice People Thread No. 15, a Cyber Summer

PasturesNew

Might be onto my first murder.

No idea who she is yet, but it's a tiny village and the same surname as my GGGG-grandmother ... so she MUST be related in some way to her.
It was during my GGGG-gm's lifetime too, when she'd have been 35.

So, my 35 year old GGGG-gm was living in a tiny village when one of her relations was murdered.

Looking at the "pencilled in, possible family" at the time it's either a cousin, or her half-sister - I'm thinking "half sister".

It was sitting on the parish register: "murdered on Sunday 8th".

It's "in the family", but not a direct line to me.

But, to take it forward I need to check for murder reports .... and also double check marriages in case a brother/cousin married a person of the same first name. So, it's not a simple lookup unless I discover a full transcription of the murder and every relation/ship listed

EDIT: Quite a bit in the news. "found dead on the hills", "inhumanly murdered", "a poor harmless woman", "found with her throat cut, and a young man is in custody".
So, will be able to find out something without visiting the archives.

EDIT: Highly annoying. I've got the name of the man accused and that he was sent to the Spring Assizes, but I can't find any more. Google has nothing, so he wasn't hanged/transported... but I'd also like more details/description of who she was, where it happened, etc. 200 years... I'm probably not going to be very lucky.

EDIT: Looks like I have to see what the Archives have got. But, if it's who I think it is that was murdered - relations had come to her house that day for a visit; she'd been persuaded to walk the 2 miles towards their house with them. After 2 miles she turned to go home again and the relations returned to their home (a further 6 miles).

It looks like it is the person I think as she didn't have a husband/children, her brother went looking for her after her friends had become concerned the following day when she'd not returned home; they'd assumed she'd ended up going the whole way and staying overnight at the relatives' house.

Her father had been buried just 11 days before, so it's possible that it's a time when family would've been dropping in to see her etc, even though it was the first week of January and you'd have thought "wouldn't want to be walking along the clifftops in early January!"

So, I am sure that any documents held about her murder might include the only written evidence that will positively link her to my GGGG-grandmother and maybe all the family names might exist if the inquest details are in a file.

Archives are .... a long way away

I'll put it on the list.

Doozergirl

michaels wrote: »

But any form of selection is about 'I have won means someone else has lost' plus rather than being at school with the whole of society you only mix with 'people like us'

I'm sure you don't choose to live where you do because of the house prices.

Both of my kids are at (or will be at) schools with a huge variety of children. Far wider than at most of the local schools. There are many more flavours of people than rich and poor. What we must teach our children is love and tolerance above everything.

The school that DD is leaving is a wonderful school where every child counts. They have been given the reputation by other local schools that they are good with 'SEN' children, to a point where 20% of kids have some kind of need yet they are now producing the best SATs results against those schools with 1% SEN. I've just become a co-opted governor to support that great work and learn.

It's the second closest state Middle after the disaster that DS went to for a year. I cannot let my children down and send them there just based on my political ideals.

If not being selected really did mean losing, then we'd nearly all be miserable. You can't engineer competition out, but you can give children a mindset that believes in their own abilities and encourages them to learn a wide variety of skills.

Even you suggested streaming classes when evidence is clear that the 'winners' in those situations are the kids in top and bottom sets. Kids take those on as part of their identity growing up. There shouldn't really be any streaming at all if we're living in an ideal world, but it won't happen while we don't teach children to believe in themselves. How do we teach that when most people don't believe in themselves?

LydiaJ

silvercar wrote: »

Doesn't happen at the super-selective near here. You need to wait until school allocation day to find out if your score was high enough to be given a place straight away or are placed on the fast moving waiting list.

That's odd. The (legally binding) school admissions code says admission authorities must "take all reasonable steps to inform parents of the outcome of selection tests before the closing date for secondary applications on 31 October so as to allow parents time to make an informed choice of school - while making clear that this does not equate to a guarantee of a selective place". Round here the schools send out three kinds of results letter:
a) We have 120 places. Your child is in the top 120. If you put us on your CAF you can have a place.
b) We have 120 places. Your child is ranked 184 (or whatever). In the last 4 years we have allocated places down to rank w, x, y and z.
c) Your child has not qualified.
Most children down here apply to all 4 relevant grammar schools, but can obviously only take a place at one, so w, x, y and z can be quite big numbers - over 400 sometimes for the less popular schools, or as low as 130 for the most popular. A (b) letter is referred to on the 11+ discussion forums as "twilight zone". You put the school on your CAF and have to wait to see whether enough children ranked above you decided to go elsewhere for you to get a place, altough depending on your child's rank you may have a pretty good idea of your chances. Meanwhile, the (a) and (c) children know how things stand before they send their CAF in.

ivyleaf wrote: »

Our CAF has room to put up to six schools, and parents are urged to put down as many as possible. I remember reading a forum post last year from a mother in our borough whose child had been confidently expected to pass, but somehow didn't, and she was sitting with the CAF in front of her and said (or rather, typed) despairingly "I'm supposed to put six schools on this form, and I don't want him to go to b****y any of them!"

Poor mother. Poor child.
I think having 6 spaces on the CAF is more common in densely populated areas where there may be many schools within a reasonable commuting distance.

ivyleaf wrote: »

DGS's cousin is extremely clever and is doing the test for a boys' super-selective in the next-door borough. Their entrance test is in two parts; everyone takes the first part, then they have to be "invited" to take the second part, and the CAF has to be in before the result is out IYSWIM.

Again, I wonder how they square that with the admissions code.

michaels wrote: »

But any form of selection is about 'I have won means someone else has lost' plus rather than being at school with the whole of society you only mix with 'people like us'

But you have to select somehow because not all children can go to the same school. Using catchment areas is selection by parental ability to pay for housing in the right area, and results in children being educated with "people like us" and children from well off families going to better schools than poor children even more than selection by exam. DD's grammar school is far more socially (and ethnically) mixed than DS's comp.

How does Mrs s feel about it? Your children do all sorts of paid for clubs and classes out of school, don't they? So the s family is clearly not averse to some forms of paying to get their children ahead???

X-posted with DoozerGirl

PasturesNew

I watch house buying programmes on the telly - a lot want to move to Cornwall and say stuff like "good local schools for the children" ... and the presenter of their "dream home/move" tells them the local school is excellent...

What they assume is that "a school close by" will be the school their child goes to.

About 5 years ago I heard a woman on the radio moaning that she'd moved into the county and the only schools that had a space for her kids were 20 miles from her house - both in opposite directions.

silvercar

michaels wrote: »

But any form of selection is about 'I have won means someone else has lost' plus rather than being at school with the whole of society you only mix with 'people like us'

The 'people like us' I want are the people that value education and want to encourage their children. Above that I would like as much diversity as possible.

DS1's school had a high ethnic mix that does not reflect the local area at all. Could best be described as people prepared to let their kids commute to have a decent free education.

silvercar

PasturesNew wrote: »

I watch house buying programmes on the telly - a lot want to move to Cornwall and say stuff like "good local schools for the children" ... and the presenter of their "dream home/move" tells them the local school is excellent...

What they assume is that "a school close by" will be the school their child goes to.

About 5 years ago I heard a woman on the radio moaning that she'd moved into the county and the only schools that had a space for her kids were 20 miles from her house - both in opposite directions.

That is the state of play in a lot of large cities. The difference is that the school journey will be paid for by the local authority. The commuting time will probably be less than travelling 2 miles in London!

LydiaJ

silvercar wrote: »

That is the state of play in a lot of large cities. The difference is that the school journey will be paid for by the local authority. The commuting time will probably be less than travelling 2 miles in London!

Getting the local authority to pay is harder than it used to be. If it's your *nearest* school (or the nearest school that your authority has designated to serve your address, and the shortest safe *walking* route is longer than *3 miles*, then you should get help with transport. If you qualify on low income grounds, then this is a bit more flexible - it can be any one of your nearest three schools, and the walking distance only has to be further than 2 miles. There is nothing in the policy about what happens if your nearest school is full, and the school that has a space for you is far enough away to qualify for assistance. At least, that's the policy here. Other counties may differ.

Presumably if the policy thinks it's OK for children to walk 2.9 miles to school (if the parents can't affor to pay for transport) then it should take them about the same amount of time to walk 2.9 miles in the country as in a town? I wonder how many children actually do walk 2.9 miles to school these days? It would be interesting to find some statistics.

DD obviously does not qualify, which is fine, because it was our choice for her to go to a school further away, and we knew how much the bus would cost when we chose it. The fastest driving route to her school is about 11 miles, and takes 20 minutes if there's no traffic or more like 30-35 minutes in rush hour. She goes on a school bus that only runs once in each direction at the beginning and end of the school day, in term time only. Registration is at 8:30. She catches a bus at 7:34 that goes round our area picking up before driving to the town where her school is, where it drops children at one other school before it goes to hers. It gets her to school for 8:15 on a good day, and just in time for registration if the traffic is bad.

The school bus is much more expensive than an ordinary bus, and if she has after school activities then I have to go and pick her up. Yesterday, out of interest, I looked up how early she would have to leave to get to school by public transport if the school bus was not available. The shortest route would involve 2 buses with a 20 minute wait between them and a 10 minute walk at the school end, and she would have to leave at 6:45 and get there at 8:10. However, she could catch a later bus, at 6:55, and do a *30 mile* journey via a town a lot further away, and get there at 8:22. I think we'll stick with the school bus!

silvercar

Getting the local authority to pay is harder than it used to be. If it's your *nearest* school (or the nearest school that your authority has designated to serve your address, and the shortest safe *walking* route is longer than *3 miles*, then you should get help with transport. If you qualify on low income grounds, then this is a bit more flexible - it can be any one of your nearest three schools, and the walking distance only has to be further than 2 miles. There is nothing in the policy about what happens if your nearest school is full, and the school that has a space for you is far enough away to qualify for assistance. At least, that's the policy here. Other counties may differ.

Same here, except that if the local authority do assign a school that isn't the nearest and you had included the nearest on your list, then you are entitled to transport.

Presumably if the policy thinks it's OK for children to walk 2.9 miles to school (if the parents can't affor to pay for transport) then it should take them about the same amount of time to walk 2.9 miles in the country as in a town? I wonder how many children actually do walk 2.9 miles to school these days? It would be interesting to find some statistics.

Except that safe walking routes need pavements and I would imagine less country roads have pavements. I imagine that in rural areas, schools are further apart, so you may cross the 3 mile limit by going to your 2nd or 3rd nearest school in the country.

DS1 had only public buses to school. They were meant to be every 15 minutes, but were often late or full. I used to drive him to school and he catch the bus home.

DS2 had a school bus that left at 7.50 and arrived at school about 8.15. If we drove we could leave at 8.05 and arrive at 8.20. Once DS1 was driving himself to school, I would drive DS2. One of the many little joys of DS2's school was that there were school buses home at normal finishing time and late buses to encourage participation in after school activities.

LydiaJ

silvercar wrote: »

Same here, except that if the local authority do assign a school that isn't the nearest and you had included the nearest on your list, then you are entitled to transport.

Seems very fair.

silvercar wrote: »

Except that safe walking routes need pavements and I would imagine less country roads have pavements. I imagine that in rural areas, schools are further apart, so you may cross the 3 mile limit by going to your 2nd or 3rd nearest school in the country.

Good point.

silvercar wrote: »

One of the many little joys of DS2's school was that there were school buses home at normal finishing time and late buses to encourage participation in after school activities.

Now I have "bus envy"! :rotfl:

SingleSue

silvercar wrote: »

The 'people like us' I want are the people that value education and want to encourage their children. Above that I would like as much diversity as possible.

DS1's school had a high ethnic mix that does not reflect the local area at all. Could best be described as people prepared to let their kids commute to have a decent free education.

The issue there is that there are some parents who are invested in their children's education but unfortunately no matter how hard they try to find the money, are unable to actually afford the school commute.

I would have loved for the boys to have gone to a different high school but there was no way my budget would stretch to what would have been a termly bill of £300 or £400 (at least) on top of everything else, my finances were cut to the bone as it was with no spare pennies to pay the additional transport costs.