Drop In

Day 132

30 September 2009

We went to the drop-in session at Swanage First School, this afternoon. The session was for the parents of the school, and the community, to come along and talk to Dorset County Council about the future provision of education in Swanage, both in the first schools, and with regards to secondary education.

The drop-in was one of several taking place in each of the first schools, and the session which will be taking place at Swanage Middle School on 5th October from 3pm - 6pm.

If you have an opinion on how things should be managed, please come along next week to the final drop-in session at Swanage Middle School. What we don't need is apathy, or a belief that it is pointless to put opinions to DCC. The last round of consultations bought about strong opposition to the proposal to close Swanage First School, which resulted in DCC agreeing to revisit Swanage to best decide on future provision.

It's quite interesting to talk to some of the councillors, and assess their ability to talk in a non-automaton manner. Go on, come along to Swanage Middle School next week - your town needs you!

A sign outside one of the classrooms, which seems very pertinent.

I saw this on the way home. I liked it, so I photographed it!

Birthday flower

Day 131

29 September 2009

It is my friend Sophie's birthday, today. So I decided to take a photo of my peace Lily for her. I did have a different flower, but it came out looking a bit bedraggled, for some reason. So I hit on plan B.

Happy birthday, Soph!

Baby Boom

Day 130

28th September 2009

This afternoon I took these pictures at the under-one's group in Swanage. The point of today's images are to show that Swanage is not a second-home town, nor a retirement town. More and more families are choosing to live here because it offers a wealth of opportunity for children, combined with a safe, clean environment, and a high quality of life.
Dorset County Council say that the schools in Purbeck have a surplus of places available, which needs to be reviewed and changed. The say that changing to a two-tier system, closing the middle schools in Swanage and Wareham, and shutting an unknown number of first schools will reduce the surplus places and improve the standard of education.
Although they seem very sure about the surplus of places, they don't appear to be very aware of the baby boom in the town, and can't seem to be able to predict the expected numbers of children who will require a school place in three or four years time. Nor do they accept that the birth rate has been increasing year on year since 2005.

Today's photo shows 21 of the 109 babies who were born within the last academic year. There are more families moving into Swanage, than there are leaving the town.

Now they are asking the town for their views on a secondary school in Swanage.

If Swanage Middle School closes, then 800 pupils will be expected to travel 20 miles a day in order to continue their secondary education. Swanage will become the largest town in the country without a secondary school. If this were to continue beyond the time at which these babies turn eleven, the impact on the environment will be significant. The roads will become more congested, with the A-roads having a larger number of buses as well as parents driving their children to the Purbeck school.
You can find out more about the proposal of secondary education in Swanage at the education Swanage website, which is independent of Dorset County Council, at http://educationswanage.co.uk/

Birthday BBQ

Day 129

27th September 2009

I know this is probably going to sound a bit cheesy, but I really feel so lucky to live in Swanage. We live in a quaint town with a generous slice of the Jurassic coastline. We have excellent schools in our town. We have beautiful views, clean, fresh air, and several festivals throughout the year which promote a well-established, and varied live music scene. We got a text inviting us to our friend's birthday BBQ, on the beach. The weather has been hot and this afternoon, a group of us got together to celebrate James' birthday. The kids had a great time, paddling and swimming in the sea, building sandcastles and generally having a brilluiant time.

This sea bird invited itself to the party, although nobody knew his/her name. It was aloof but we could tell it wanted to join in the fun.

An inspirational design: Beer Hat.

Funding Sanctuary; Finding Sanctuary

Day 128

26 September 2009

We've had a lovely day out, today. We went to the Margaret Green animal sanctuary in Church Knowle. The goats were as goats are: curious, a bit stinky, slightly sinister (horizontal pupils are worthy of distrust), but loveable and cute all at the same time. We went to the garden of rememberence, where people can pay for a memorial plaque for their loved and missed pets. We also saw how the ex-battery hens were being nursed back to health, and our hearts ached for the cats and kittens awaiting rehoming. The sanctuary do fantastic work. I last visited them in 1989, and it's changed a fair bit, with new buildings, enclosures and dedicated staff who do a great job of caring for the animals lucky enough to be bought to their attention. We donated to the trust, and then left for Blue Pool.

It is truly beautifull, there. We could see and hear the squirrels scuttling around, aware of the Autumnal clock ticking quietly amongst the background noise of nature. A pair of dragonflies danced in the mid-afternoon sun, and stopped long enough for me to take some photographs of them. I never realised how magnificent their eyes are until today!

The crystal-clear water of the Blue Pool allowed some spectacular reflections of the trees. I will have to try and come back in a couple of weeks to see if the leaves have turned orange.
And then we had a drink, and my daughter had one of these beautiful cupcakes. A perfect family day out!

First Shoes

Day 127

25 September 2009

My son started crawling several weeks ago, and now he is trying to cruise about. He can take steps when he grips our fingers. Stairgates went up this week, when we realised he was speeding up!

Today we bought him a pair of crawler shoes, so that he can get about a bit more easily. They are also a useful sock-loss deterrant, which is a good thing, as we have a drawer full of odd socks!

Grate!

Day 126

24 September 2009

The floor-tiling in the kitchen continues. Nearly all the tiles have been laid, so tomorrow the grouting starts.

Meanwhile, the grate for our fireplace in our lounge arrived, today. This is good. This is very good. This means that we are a step closer to having a piece of cosy-ness in our house, a step closer to feeling like this is our home, not just a place to live. A fire to stare into on a cold winter evening, to contemplate life and the universe whilst sipping on a glass of red.

Saving St. Georges

Day 125

23rd September 2009

The review of schools across the Purbeck area has today been the focus of St. Georges school in Langton, which hosted their drop-in session this afternoon.

The local community turned up to quiz Dorset County Council councillors like Rick Perry, below left, who were at the school to discuss the councils proposals, including their option to close St. Georges first school.
The school has been open for over a century and is at the heart of the Langton village. Although the school currently does not have rural status, it is a school in a rural area, taking pupils from Langton and the surrounding small villages, as well as from Swanage.



People turned up to show their support for the school, including parents, ex-puils, and members of the community who want to ensure that their locality isn't ruined as part of a cost-cutting exercise. The council state that the numbers of school-age children are falling in Purbeck and this is the reason for the review and the threats to our first schools.
I asked Rick Perry how he could be sure that the numbers are indeed falling. I asked if he could tell me the predicted number of children who will start school in 2013, when my son will start in reception class. He explained that he couldn't project the number of pupils in the future.
If this is the case, why are we having to go through the agony of another round of consultation with Dorset County Council, who state that they are listening to the community, and that they won't make any decisions until all the views have been heard, and yet there is a huge feeling of deja vu because this was the same thing we were told at the beginning of the year when the first consultation regarding moving from a three-tier to a two-tier system took place. This resulted in the council deciding to move to two-tier, despite substantive opposition.

Judging by the volume of people who turned up to support the school today, I see a close-knit community who are united against the closure of our first schools.

Dust

Day 124

22 September 2009

A year ago today, we moved in to our home, with the intention of "healing" it. It's a topsy-turvy house in need of lots of love and attention, and we need to do a lot of work to get it back to normal, again. One of those tasks involves putting a kitchen back into the heart of our home. What was once a room within a room within a room, was stripped out, knocked through, rebuilt and plastered.

Now it's been painted, and now my husband is laying floor tiles. He's doing a great job of it, too. Earlier on I was nagging him because he had stone dust in his ears, eyes and nose, which can't be too healthy.

Testing

Day 123

21 September 2009

Today we had a routine eye appointment for our little girl, who has been wearing glasses for the past year. Her prescription has stayed the same, but she can have a new pair of glasses. The drops that were used to dilate her pupils were used, and so she has eyes like saucers at the moment!

Swanage (cottage) hospital is a fantastic establishment. It has a ward, physio and out-patient department, as well as a minor illness service. The hospital is an essential part of the community, not least because the nearest major hospital is in Poole, around 20 miles away.
in the past year or so the out of hours cover has been jiggled about, and from personal experience of the service, I'd say that it could do with a bit more jiggling! However it's a lovely hospital with a friendly atmosophere, brilliant staff, and a smidgen of nostalgia leaving you with a feeling of hospital life in a bygone era, courtesy of little antique artefacts dotted about the place.
There used to be a maternity department, but I don't know when it closed. I wonder how many people currently living in Swanage were born at the hospital?

charity bike ride

Day 122

20 September 2009

Today my husband and our friend entered the Orchid bike ride, to raise money for the charity which is involved with supporting men with testicular cancer.
They both did really well, with Jolyon cycling a 30-mile route around the New Forest in around four hours.
Pat cycled around 23 miles. He was meant to stay on the same route as Jolyon, but he got too tired to carry on. However, this is probably due to him finishing a night shift at 6.30 this morning, having had no sleep for 24 hours or so.
Well done to you both, boys!

Early

Day 121

19 September 2009

We all had a really unsettled night. At 5.20 this morning we got up, because we were all wide awake.

Yesterday I met Liz Gilmour, who, along with three others, set off from Swanage pier at 6.45 this morning to swim eight miles to Bournemouth. I just about got there in time to catch them jumping into the water.
Each of the swimmers were raising money for variuos charities. Well done to all of you!
The sea was calm and it was fairly mild weather, but as we walked along the quay we saw all sorts of washed-up debris.






Whilst we were out, we saw the sun rise. Beautiful!

Later we went to our friend's son's birthday party. They are moving to India next week and we will miss them lots.

I am also missing my friend, who is having a henna party this evening. I should have been going, but because I don't seem to have grasped the concept of diaries and calendars, I managed to write the event down for next week instead of tonight, when I can't go.

No gold star for me, today!