This is a great little Primary School in the Bailey's Court area of Bradley Stoke. It was built in…read morethe last 10 years, so the school buildings are in a pretty good state (the architecture is pretty modern too), but they have resorted to a few dreaded portacabins for a few of the classrooms, as the school has expanded. The standard of teaching is excellent. Results have been consistently high, and that makes it very popular, so only if you live fairly close will your kids be able to get in. The school is very friendly, and is at the centre of the local community. They have a great Christmas Fayre and Summer Fayre, which are not to be missed.

Choosing a Primary School - what a minefield?…read more League tables tell you one aspect. OFSTED reports tell you another. Parents of current pupils can give yet another view!!! We currently have 2 cherubs at this school and whilst we are really pleased with it, we have no other Primary School experiences to base our recommendation on. My wife works for the NHS in quite a few other schools and reckons the only real shortcomings are the relative lack of extra curricula stuff that goes on. We've found it really hard to break into the cliques that seem to dominate the music and sports lessons that are availaible but perhaps that's just us!! My advice would be to visit a few schools and check out the different vibes betwen them - they did all seem to have different atmospheres when we did the rounds a few years back!!! As a footnote we would rate 4 of the 5 class teachers that our children have had as excelent and the other as very poor. We have to assume that every school has its duffers!!!

Pros~…read more Doulting is a lovely place to attend school. The school boasts frield and open space for the children to explore. The children are very polite and well behaved I was so impressed when I went for a look around by the well mannered children. The school is a hive of activity within the school, church and community. Constant events from parent assemblys, sports days, school discos, church services, fete etc The children are given the opportunity to learn instruments attend school trips after school clubs and activities are also avalible. The school has recently undergone some decorating and improvements to make it even better for the children Cons~ There isn't a breakfast club and the after school activities are limited

Circomedia is the leading training centre for phsical theatre in Europe and has been established in…read moreBristol for ten years. It offers serious full time professional courses or three month tasters or part time evening classes for those curious to just have a go. Has a second home in a beautiful converted church in St Pauls which houses a large selection of equipment such as trapezes and rope ladders . If you just like watching circus check out their end of year show, often on at Bristol Old Vic for some high flying high quality performances.

My review is primarily for the Circomedia Portland Square, St Pauls site which they lease this…read morebeautifully restored church from the Church's Conservation Trust and have installed a permanent flying trapeze rig and a sprung dance floor. It is a wonderful space with the modern equipment and glass screens juxtaposed with the richly coloured stained glass windows and old stone font. Circomedia run a range of training courses from a two year diploma, teacher training, evening courses, workshops and team-building exercises. Some of the skills covered include clowning, corde lisse, acrobatics, juggling and unicycling. Circomedia also hosts performances here, the next one being Rapunzel and for just one short week in August, will be opening a continental style café at the front of the church with fair trade and organic produce and spontaneous circus performance

City of Bristol College has city wide sites each offering different specialisms of study. At…read morecollege Green A levels and GCSE's are offered alongside diplomas in media studies, hairdressing and beautician, a wide range of computer literacy courses and many more. The college is accessible in terms of physical disability catering for wheelchair users, people with visual impairments and deaf people. If students have other learning support needs the learning services department will assess and offer appropriate support. Students range in age from 16 - 90. There are two on site cafes, a well equipped learning resource centre (library) a computer suite with PC's and macs. The site is situated very centrally, easily accessible by bus or on foot.

The City of Bristol College offers low cost hair and beauty treatments at several of its centres…read moreincluding College Green, Ashley Down and Bedminster. All treatments are carried out in their modern salons by the students who may take a little longer than a professional salon but offer an excellent service. The students are fully supervised and offer cutting, styling, colouring and perming. Students are trained in both men and women's hairdressing and also cater for Afro Caribbean hair as well as European. Some of the beauty services include waxing, massage, reflexology, manicures and facials and use quality products such as Dermalogica.

I attend the Orchard Studios for a silversmithing class and have done so for approximately a year…read morenow. The tutor is extremely helpful and I really enjoy the course. They also hold woodworking classes, enamelling, stained glass and various other courses and do lots of work with people with learning difficulties. Would definately recommend this studio as the least expensive in comparison to Bristol University etc.

This is one of the best primary schools in Bristol in terms of results, getting excellent SATs…read moreresults and producing some of the most intelligent 11-year-olds in the city. It is very artistic and the walls are covered in art work. There is no uniform as such as this creates a very bohemian vibe. Situated next to a prison, the inmates have painted colourful figures which adorn the school walls. There are a decent number of male teachers at this school, despite a national shortage (apparently). In fact, at one point around half of the staff were male - and this makes it a really good place for children without a male role model in their lives. Parking can be a bit of an issue for parents dropping off outside this school on a narrow residential road. There are often hundreds of cars parked either side but the children benefit from a lovely old chap who has worked as a lollipop man for many years.

Are you looking for a new University to go to? I recommend this one in Newport; although, perhaps…read moreit depends on what you want to study exactly...? I went here for an open day and was pretty impressed..., but I did find that what I had in mind for accomadation standards where possibly a form of standard, that for me did not quiet reach my satisfactional level of requirement. That and I was already convinced and fixed with the exact type of University that I wanted to go to... But I was almost convinced to change my mind partly because the Media and Film departments in particualar looked really impressive and they nearly changed my mind as to what type of degree I wanted to do, especially since I had already done a National Diploma course at Coleg Glan Hafren in Cardiff. Newport is about twenty minutes to half an hour from Cardiff and by the use of public transport there are some buses to get back and forth from Cardiff to Newport, if you should need too... but the trains are alright to go on as well and you may find that you need both forms of transport. We met either the Vice Chancelor or the Headmaster of the University and he was really welcoming and was full of information about the Media and Film course and they did show a variety of different short films that some of the students the year before that open day had created. The short films weren't bad. The quality of them I thought was the best. If your thinking of studying a Media and Film degree in Wales then I certainly recommend this University as they are much more flexiable towards who they let into their University and the actual building of some of the buildings on this Campus in Caerleon looks fabulous, like an eighteenth century house or something... And the staff seem very supportive, friendly and helpful... Mind you if I had gone to study here I would have stayed living at home, but then I wouldn't have learn't how to live independantly... which I have found to become very useful.

The thing about selecting a university to attend is that most undergraduates-to-be want to escape…read morethe humdrum of their upbringing to climes unknown to them. Newport, on the face of it, isn't the tiniest backwater (although nobody's saying it's a sprawling cosmopolitan metropolis). But anybody not from the area should beware, because University Of Wales, Newport is split into two campuses: Allt-yr-yn and Caerleon. The former is less problematic, a suburbs base due to be replaced by the new City Campus in January 2011. The latter is entirely outside Newport, however, a good 10-15 minutes away by road, hardly ideal for convenient trips to the city and an even lengthier scoot over to Cardiff's more stimulating surrounds. Business, media and arts-led courses are probably the chief reason to attend the university. And on a positive note, with less nearby nightlife to readily splurge your loan and fairly dirt cheap rental housing in Caerleon, at least skint students can make their cash stretch a little further (if they don't spend it all on travelling to Newport/Cardiff anyway).