Derbyshire welcomes careful scholars

Ta-da! Absolutely no prizes for guessing that we're going* to be moving, not to Derby, but to Derbyshire. Forgive me for not being more specific, but as yet I'm not sure where exactly we'll be living, and also, much as I like you all, the illicit pretzel factory I'll be operating from my kitchen needs to remain just that. Can't have the police turning up to drag you lot away from peering through my windows while I am trying to produce enough pretzels a day to keep my little German's happy.

I managed to get the kids places at a school deemed 'satisfactory' by Ofsted. but I quite happy with that, as a friend of mine has her son there and they are all very happy with it. I'm never 100% convinced entirely by Ofsted reports. Schools and nurseries have enough advance warning of inspectors coming that they have time to brush up their act. On top of that if any points are highlighted they are told what they are and when the inspector will be coming back to see if they've sorted it out. Shouldn't be too hard to sort it out, but then again...

Mind you I am basing these views on the nursery reports, I think the schools take into account levels of achievement, so it's not that easy. Even so, a friend went through all the Ofsted reports, chose a nursery based on that, the (high) cost, and a visit, where she inspected how clean the toy boxes were, and still ended up removing her child after a while because they were feeding her 9 month old baby giant chocolate muffins and hotdogs, and leaving him sitting in filthy nappies for hours on end until official nappy changing time. So you can't always tell.

Anyway, I was happy with the decision and happy with the school and then...

Someone told us about another school which might have places. Kind of out in the middle of nowhere, very small, and outstanding according to what we've heard. And so, we now have 2 new school places where the kids will start in December, and now things feel really right. I have reignited my loving relationship with Rightmove and have been pre-browsing houses for rent in a giant radius surrounding this school. I'm struggling a bit with Britain's love of pattern - there are an awful lot of wallpapers for rent that would make your eyes bleed. Still, awesome fun!


* That's if nothing else changes between now and then, and who knows, it probably will.

(And yes, these photos have nothing to do with the content of the post, but we were at the Berlin Air Show yesterday.)