Cass, have you tried those elastic type ones? They are called snagless hair ties or something like that. They look like plastic but they can't pull them out of their hair. I used those on the girls when they were little and didn't like their hair being put up. LOL at getting sand - you wil regret doing, you know that don't you? But one tip - don't let them play in it while it is damp because it will stick to them, but if it's dry sand it wont stick. And I would definitely be saying something. Exploring their bodies is a natural part of development, but there is natural and then there unnatural kwim? I would have been shocked to see her doing that and now you can put a lot of things in context, I think it might be time to say something. The carers may genuinely not know and letting them know what's going on just gives them a heads up too.

Cally, you don't really have many options down there either do you? I suppose you'd have to look at canberra schools if you wanted private?

We used to be firmly in the camp of not using boarding school. DH went from yrs 7-10 and always saw it as a complete waste of his parents money - not that he didn't do well or didn't appreciate it, but more that there were other things they could have spent $15k per year on. But now we're actually at that point in time where we have to really think about it we just aren't sure if the local high school will be good enough. DH did raise a good point last night though about whether he will actually get better marks over there and said there is no point if he isn't going to do a lot better. So I spent part of today trying to look for HSC results comparisons and NAPLAN results and the boarding school still comes out on top. Plus I think he will have more opportunities there than he will here. He probably wont do as well as he could if he went to the school DH went to but that school has a different focus and tends to direct students towards professional careers.