Information about Swimming Lessons

- Classes 2 and 3

Swimming lessons will begin again for children in Class 2 & 3 on Friday 27th April at Evesham Swimming Pool. The children will need to bring swimming costumes/trunks and towel in a water proof bag each Friday. A few children wear goggles and if this is the case for your child, please request an information sheet with a permission form if you have not already had one.

There will be 10 sessions in this summer term. At Church Lench we consider swimming to be an important part of the curriculum, so we hope that the children will enjoy the expereince.

Changes to the length of the School day

Over the last term, the staff team and governors have discussed how best to arrange lessons so that there is enough time available during the school day to teach extra subjects which have been introduced into the curriculum.We will, with your agreement, be making some minor abjustments to the length of the school day which will take effect from the beginning of next term. We plan to increase learning time by 20 minutes each day by opening the gate at 8.40am. This will allow for registration at 8.50am and the first lesson to be underway by 8.55am. At the end of the day, pupils in class 2 and 3 will collect their belongings from the cloakroom at 3.25pm. If you have any comments or concerns about these changes, please contact the school office.

Changes to Marking Children's Work

From this term, we are making changes to our procedures for marking and responding to your children's work. The aim is to help the children know what they have done successfully and what the must do to improve their work further.

When the teachers plan lessons, they always have a very specific learning objective as a focus. You may hear your child talk about this as the 'WILF - What I am looking for...' this means that everyone is clear about what they have to achieve from the lesson.

During most lessons, teaching staff will work with a small group of children for a while to help them improve their work to meet the success criteria. Work produced in these groups will be intialled with a D to indicate 'discussion' through the lesson. When the group has worked with a teaching assistant, the teacher will read and intial the work as 'seen', because the next lesson plan needs to reflect their learning progress.

Where the children have been working independently, the teacher will mark their work in depth. Green highlighting will show each child, three places where their work has met the success criteria. Yellow highlighting will show the children one area to improve to match the success criteria. The children will have time to make the improvement the next day. During the week all children will experience both independent work and adult guided group work. Our younger children will usually discuss their work and improve it with the teacher at the time of the lesson so their work will usually be marked with a D.

Persistent errors with punctuation and spelling will be dealt with differently - again the aim at all times is to help your child improve.

Snowline List

This year's snowline list has now been published. In the event of the school having to close due to heavy snowfall, we should be grateful if you would follow the usual procedure of phoning the next person on your list.

If you need to check whether the school is closed, please tune into one of the following radio stations:FM102 The Bear and/or BBC Hereford and Worcester (FM104) These will broadcast all school closures in the area and we will ring to inform them (if we can get through!).

About the School Website - Why aren't there

many pictures of our children on the website?

Some parents have asked why there are not many pictures of pupils appearing on this school website. The school operates a strict policy of parental consent in relation to images and names of children being published in the public sphere, which includes the internet. Parents are asked at the beginning of each year if they give permission for photographs and names to be used by the school, so although it may look like the school hasn't any pupils on many of the shots used, it is very important for us to adhere to the wishes of our parents.

Contact Details

Don't forget to update your contact details for us at school. If your telephone number or mobile number has changed please make sure that the school office is informed, so we can still get hold of you in an emergency or if your child is unwell.

When your child is ill

Please ring the office and inform us early in the day if your child is not coming to school. This will help ensure that all our children arrive safely and are accounted for.

Car parking

Just a reminder to please park considerately outside school and take special care not to block the access to The Tuer. Cars should not be parked in front of the school wall as the school bus needs to pull in, nor on the bend for safety reasons. Plenty of parking is available at the Lenches Club just down the road. Thank you for your co-operation.