Diary of an (ex)London mum

I am writing this as I am watching a BBC programme on high achieving students from socially disadvantaged backgrounds, and the challenges they face on their educational journeys.  Specifically, the programme looked at students' pathway from GCSE and the decision making processes regarding higher education.  The striking thing about the three students, whose stories were portrayed on tonight's programme, was the lack of confidence that they felt in their ability to do well.  There is an overwhelming sense of responsibility of how going to university and going for their dreams may impact on their family.  Behind all of this is money.  Going to university requires money and even though the students can take out student loans to finance their studies, the enormity of the debt and the fact that they don't want to end up being a burden on their family if their dreams don't work out are barriers.  The conflict between what they want and what they think may b...

Learning to ride a bike is a rite of passage.  We have been talking about helping Baby to learn for a while now and he had actually never shown much interest until recently.  About two years ago we bought him a balance bike for is birthday and, although he had taken it out occasionally, he much preferred to use his scooter.  We took him to a couple of balance bike sessions, called Veloblance , at the velodrome at the Olympic park, which he loved and kept asking to go back to, but he didn't really show all that much interest in cycling otherwise. We bought him a pedal bike for his birthday last year but made the mistake of buying one with a frame that was slightly too large for him- even though we measured his inside leg to try to determine frame size- and he didn't really take to riding it as he couldn't quite put his foot on the ground to steady himself.  So for the Summer holidays we bought a slightly smaller bike, one on which he could easily put his foot on th...