Monday, July 6, 2009




The reason for the lack of posts it that time has been gobbled up by bored children on the 11 week holiday extravaganza. Summer Camps have been organised and rejected so it has been a political minefield trying to get the 3 children occupied and to bond with their camp.Paintings have been left unfinished , phonecalls not returned and the house looks like a crime scene, dolls limbs scattered around and stuffed toy monkeys handcuffed to various pieces of furniture.
Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett have died. My son thought Jackson was a basket ball player.Jackson still dominates the media a la princess Diana infact my eldest daughter went past his house in Beverly Hills on the way to the 4th of July party to find a similar gigantic shrine like thing going on to Kensington Palace in 1997.
We also had some fantastic news this week and extraordinary fortune. In December of last year we signed Gabriel up for a magnet school knowing it was pretty much impossible to get in but that we would "gain points " in order to get him into a good middle school. I have several friends who's children had attended this school and they had collectively raved about it and the unconventional teaching methods..there are no desks and classes are known as "clusters" each having a different colour and theme.By February of this year I was so fed up with Gabriels catholic school that public school was looking more and more attractive. In May we got the inevitable letter that Gabe had not got a place at Open Charter but was on the waiting list . I eagerly phoned the school..(the first of many nuisance calls) and commenced pestering them on a regular basis. I was told he was 150th on the waiting list and to give up there was not a chance in hell. Reluctantly I went to our local school Carthay Circle and collected an application form. I went to great efforts to meet some of the lovely parents who were working so hard to elevate the school, I joined the PTA and went to the PTA BBQ and got ready to role up my sleeves. On the morning I was due to hand in the application from and register Gabe at Carthay School I thought I'll give Open School 1 last call just to make certain we did not get a place.THe patient and tolerant secretary who was so used to me by now said that Gabe was now 3rd on the waiting list and got quite excited saying they would know within half an hour if Gabe had a place . Of course the phonecall came and I was asked to go in immediately to register. It just goes to show that persistance works and to listen to the good advice of ones friends and neighbours who told me .."don't give up ..keep calling "

2 comments:

Karen said...

So what did you think of your local public school? Bad? Good?

Sarah said...

Hi Karen, Carthay is an up and coming school that has an incredible PTA but sadly local parents are nervous about sending their kids to . I went on the tour and I was impressed. Thanks for following my blog.