...
%*$^in' buses...
[growl] Heartily sick of public transport whose departure/arrival times bear no relation to the timetable. And rude unhelpful drivers.
The timing was tight in the first place (no choice, unfortunately) but it would have worked had the bloody buses left on time. As it was we were seventeen minutes late getting to
Speedwell Technology College and hence missed the first introductory talk (the second wasn't until 8.30, too late for us to stay). But I think we picked up enough to get a fair idea of what the school is like.
Um, 'a little disorganised' comes to mind as a descriptive phrase. The facilities themselves are somewhat lacking (and one of the classrooms had been set alight during the summer holidays, which didn't help). Yet everyone seemed cooperative, friendly and enthusiastic - especially the school's rock band, playing very loudly in the hall between talks! The standard of work seemed quite good too - and they have a sixth form (like John Cabot and Broadlands), which I think is a good thing: the disruption of changing schools after GCSE's can be a real pain.
That being said... They have no school bus, the place is run down and there's a large fire station next door. And if I remember rightly, their stats aren't too good either.
Kai's not too keen. He didn't dislike it as much as Bedminster Down - nor did I - but... I don't think he'd be happy there. Nor does he.
He wants to go to Broadlands - and I have to admit he was certainly at his happiest and most enthusiastic when we visited. It's a lovely environment and I'm sure he'd do really well - not to mention being an absolute credit to the school! (That being said, he does like John Cabot and I'm sure would be very happy to be offered a place.)
Still have Brislington School to check out in a couple of weeks time, and in the meantime I'll try to find out if their reputation for bullying still stands: if it does, it's out as a choice, of course. For now though, that's the lot for this week (just as well, I'm knackered). We'll all sit down and have a chat about the matter this weekend, before Ken goes down to Dartmouth: we don't need to get the application in until 14
th October but it would be good to firm up opinions and impressions.
In other news... Dave next door tells me we have foxes again! (We used to have at least one that regularly visited the garden, from
Arnos Vale Cemetery just down the road, I think, but they were all wiped out when
mange swept across the city some years back.) Well, that would explain what Quyn gets agitated about every evening!
I'm delighted, I love foxes - beautiful, magical creatures. They've dug a hole under the fence behind my bay tree that we're going to leave open for them: rather have a regularly used run than lots of holes up and down the fence (not too worried this side but it makes a mess of Dave's lawn). Now we have the new covered compost bin in operation we may need to find a way to leave a little food out for them, if that's not too bad an idea - especially with winter coming on...
[thinks] Interesting. Just a little while ago I bought myself a small, dark brown ceramic fox from St Pete's Hospice shop in Sandy Park Rd - I
had to, the wee thing has an almost
desperate expression on its face and is so skinny all its ribs are showing. I had to give it a good home. And then the foxes came back...
Don't you just love synchronicity?
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Joules *Dances with Haddock* Taylor
pontificated this at 1:00 am
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