Childcare Sufficiency Survey - we need your views on childcare

This is a message from "Staffordshire Families Information Service"

If you have a child aged 14 and under (under 17 if they have a disability), and are a resident of Staffordshire, we really need to hear from you.  We know that childcare means different things to different people, so we'd like to find out about your views of childcare:

• Could you find a place easily?
• Are the costs in the right price range for you?
• Is your childcare easy to get to?
• Is it open at the right times and flexible enough whilst you work?

Your feedback will help us to assess childcare demand, supply and any gaps in childcare, and will help us to look at what changes are needed that could help improve childcare for families.  The results of the survey will be included in our Childcare Sufficiency report, which will be published in March 2011 on our website. The survey can be accessed online here.

Dear Parent

As you know, this year we have carried out a comprehensive Curriculum Review. I would like to thank parents, students, governors and staff for their contribution to this process and pass on the main development points for the coming year and beyond.

The School Day
On a large school site, moving around between lessons takes time. This can mean that students lose valuable learning time. This year we made the move to integrate afternoon registration into lessons to regain some of that time. However, feedback showed that moving to much longer blocks of time for all subjects at Key Stage 3 and 4, as some schools have done, was unpopular. Fewer transitions directly between lessons do provide more learning time. Therefore we plan to:

• Change from 6 x 50 minute lessons to 5 x 60 minute lessons per day.

Parents may find the article below useful in supporting their child during the production of examination coursework.

http://www.ofqual.gov.uk/files/2009-12-24-plagiarism-parents.pdf

The examination period for Year 11 students is already upon us, with most students already completed their oral tests for their Languages courses.  Currently, in lessons students are completing their work and beginning revision programmes to ensure that they are well prepared for their final papers.  I should like to take this opportunity to wish all students every success in this summer’s examinations and I look forward to a happy day on Tuesday 24 August – GCSE results day!