School survey 2008

Pupil survey

• 93% think it is mostly or always a good school.
• 94% think lessons are fun and interesting.
• 95% say teachers listen to their ideas.
• 96% think they have to work hard..
• 85% think that children in our school behave well. (46% think children behave well most or all of the time).
• 70% of children have school dinners.
• 81% of those who have school dinners say they like them.
• 69% of those who have school dinners think they are healthier than before.
• 93% think we have good playground equipment.
• 79% of children say there is an adult they can go to if they are worried. (These figures decrease lower down the school but increase higher up the school).
• 11.5% of children say yes, they feel lonely at playtime. 38% say they are lonely some or all of the time.
• 88% believe they are trusted to do things on their own.
• 45% of children have looked at the school website.
• 92% of children have access to a computer at home.
• 81% have access to the internet at home.

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Parent Questionnaire Autumn Term 2008

Response published 13th February, 2009

Firstly governors and staff wish to say thank you to all of you who took the time to complete the parent questionnaires last term. We value your opinions and were really pleased to receive your positive and constructive feedback. Here are some of the main findings and actions arising from them.

Response

126 responses were received - lower than the 2006 survey - relating to around 35 per cent of the school (see Figure 1). Response was highest for Foundation Stage with around 80 per cent of forms returned but response declined from Year 1 onwards. Across KS2 as a whole, around a quarter of forms were returned.

• 98% of parents said that their child likes school.
• 96% thought behaviour was good (as opposed to 87% in 2006)
• 92% said their child feels safe in school.
• 89% believe that the school helps their child to learn key life skills.
• 91% feel the staff pay attention to making school a good environment for their child.
• 86% of parents feel that the school promotes healthy eating.

Homework

Feedback about homework varied widely. 80% of parents said that the school sets homework regularly as opposed to 63% in 2006. We believe this to be a result of improved communication at the beginning of each school year clarifying routines.

A small proportion of parents commented on the quantity of homework the children receive. Some believe that their child receives too much homework, some believe their child receives too little and some were unsure how much homework was the right amount.

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Communication

We recognise that communication can always be improved and asked for your feedback. The communication book used in Foundation Stage and Year 1 is extremely popular and valued by parents and staff alike. (94% of parents found this very effective). We have trialled its use in Year 2 but have found it more difficult to manage. The timetable, class routine, and way of working mean a very different role for teaching assistants by year 2 and we are finding it more difficult to use books regularly enough to make them really valuable. The Year 2 teachers have suggested that parents communicate through the reading record or by putting a note in the bookbag instead.

Parents are also very pleased with the use of homework diaries to improve communication between Y6 and Y5 children and their teachers. This is helping these children to develop a sense of responsibility and independence in preparation for secondary school.

This year two teachers will be trialling a Managed Learning Environment (known as Fronter) with a view to using this across the school next year. This will enable teachers to have their own web space onto which can be uploaded information, links to websites, photographs etc with a view to improving communication and guiding parents to support their child's learning. We will send more information about this as soon as we can.

An overwhelming number of parents commented on the school website. Only 22% of parents thought this was a useful form of communication and many commented on the need to keep it up-to-date. We will try harder to keep it up-to-date and we hope that Fronter will help to improve this.

88% of parents found Ms Gatliffe's monthly newsletter to be very effective. Similarly effective are good behaviour stamps (85%) and good behaviour letters (84%). These will all continue.

Only 21% of parents found the leaflets by the front door/office to be effective. Perhaps this is because parents do not know about them or their whereabouts. They can be found just inside the front door on the left hand side. They cover topics such as Maths, English, Science, homework, school dinners, uniform, school trips, special needs, hearing impairment and many more. Please take a look.

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Parent' evenings

There were many comments about the format of the Autumn term parents' meetings. Although 60% found them helpful, many of you found the meetings to be repetitive and not as useful as one to one parents meetings to discuss an individual child. The teachers agree. From Sept 09, the parents' meetings will revert to being an opportunity for parents to discuss their child with the teacher. The teachers will send any other information home in the form of handouts at the beginning of the term.

End of year report

The end of year report was considered to be effective by 74% of respondents. The reports will largely stay the same except for some minor changes as a result of our curriculum review.

After school clubs

The end of year report was considered to be effective by 74% of respondents. The reports will largely stay the same except for some minor changes as a result of our curriculum review.

I know from feedback from parents that afterschool clubs are valued by children and parents alike.

6 parents made comments regarding clubs. Some parents asked how they could find out information regarding afterschool clubs. Some parents questioned why clubs were not provided for KS1. Some parents said that they did not know what provision there was for afterschool clubs (significantly this was largely Foundation Stage and KS 1 parents - this is because clubs are mostly only available for children in KS2). It is clear that there is some confusion over after school activities. Let me clarify. Our policy is to run after school clubs for KS2 children because we feel that these children are the right age and maturity to be able to cope with being at school for extended periods. We do not provide extensive clubs for KS1 or Foundation Stage children as we feel that they are very young and often very tired at the end of the school day. We run clubs for 5-6 weeks at a time each term. One term will be for Years 3 and 4, the next will be for Years 5 and 6 and so on. Clubs vary from term to term due to demand and the availability of staff. They include: cooking, drama, art, crafts, musical theatre, dance, football and website/podcasting.

All children (in the relevant year groups) are invited to these and are encouraged to indicate their preferences. All children receive a place at a club. We also run some clubs which are invitation only clubs. These include: homework club (which has been extended to 2 nights a week for each group) and booster. Some of the sports clubs are allocated on a first come first serve basis due to limited places.

We are limited to the days on which we can run clubs due to teachers' regular meetings and planning commitments.

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General comments

• A small number of parents (less than 10%) commented on the short notice given to parents for some events, notably Sex Education meetings. We will endeavour to give parents as much notice as possible for all events.
• We currently employ a music teacher 2 days a week. All classes receive a taught music lesson and have singing practice every week apart from Foundation stage (who have frequent but shorter music sessions).
• We have also noted the need to let Foundation Stage parents know when their children are/are not included in whole school events such as Harvest Festival. We apologise for this oversight.
• As we are an ECO school, we are mindful of the quantity of paper used in sending letters home in book bags. We are aiming to print correspondence on both sides of the paper and using A5 paper instead of A4 where possible.
• School dinners have greatly improved over the last year so the children told us when we asked them! There are always 3 choices: one meat, one fish and one vegetarian plus sandwiches. There is a choice of at least 2 vegetables plus salad. There is always one dessert plus fruit or cheese and crackers. Each KS2 class takes it in turns to come into lunch first (and therefore last too). On the very rare occasions when one choice runs out, there is always plenty to choose from.

New

We are developing a text facility whereby we can send instant text messages to you to let you know for example if a club is cancelled, school dinner money is owing, absence has not been reported or if the school will be closed due to bad weather. Watch this space!

Your feedback is greatly appreciated.

Kind regards

Anna Harding - Deputy Headteacher

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