Head Teacher Initial Consultation - Autumn 2002
As part of my initial audit of all areas of the work of Green Lane School I felt it important to understand the views of parents and to that end I produced a questionnaire which was sent to all families. The response rate was good with just under 50% of our children being represented. This is a tremendous response rate for a questionnaire and as a result we can, within small margins for error, treat the views expressed as valid and representative of the school population as a whole.
On the whole the results were very positive and where there was comment or criticism it was usually constructive and helpful.
The results have been shared with staff and with Governors.
Some issues which emerged will form part of our School Improvement Plan in the coming and subsequent years.
I attach for your information a summary of the responses and the main points raised.
Q1 What aspects of school does your child enjoy?
There were a wide variety of responses to this question with many saying that their children enjoyed all aspects of school.
All curriculum subjects featured as some children?s favourites with the most popular subjects seeming to be:
· PE in all its forms
· Computers
· Art and Creative activities
· Numeracy
Other areas which were valued were:
· Reward systems and Golden Time
· Their relationships with their friends and the social aspects of coming to school
· The relationships with teachers
· Music/choir/performances/dance
· Trips/visits
65% of the respondents said their children had no worries at all but the response to this question was very interesting in that it did produce the widest range of responses. Many issues raised had one/two/or three respondents with obviously very personal worries. However, a number of responses centred around the following main themes:
· Problems with friends/falling out/teasing etc
· Getting into trouble with teachers for work and/or behaviour
· Various problems with dinners
These issues and some of the more individual ones i.e. changing for P.E. are being considered for change and/or adjustment to alleviate the concerns.
The largest number of negative responses were in relation to ?horrible toilets? ? and we very much agree with the children?s assessment. There is already a plan to refurbish these in the summer holiday. We have to wait until then as we need at least six weeks to complete the improvements.
However, I have impressed upon the boys that if the practice of - wetting and screwing up toilet paper and throwing it in order to stick it on the ceiling of the toilets does not stop the refurbishment of their toilets may have to wait until it does!!
Q3 ? What do you expect your child to do to ensure they get maximum benefit from their education?
The responses to this question were very heartening in that the views of parents and school were very closely matched. This must be positive as such mutual understanding and agreement will ensure that the approaches we take at both school and home will be similar. Consequently, our children will receive the same messages in relation to the importance of their education. The main responses are listed below:
· Try Hard/do their best
· Pay attention/concentrate/stay on task
· Good Attendance/punctuality
· Behave well ? follow the rules
· Participate and enjoy ? have positive attitude
· Be respectful/well mannered/good relationships
· Enthusiasm for learning ? good attitude
· Ask for help if needed
· Do their homework
· Listen carefully
· Understand the importance of education
Q4 ? What do you think you should/could do to support your child?s education?
Here again there was a good correlation between the views of home and school. The overwhelming response was to support children with homework. There were a variety of responses which encompassed the following views that parents:
· should emphasise the importance of working hard
· should encourage children by taking an interest in their school work and life
· should encourage good attendance and punctuality
· should communicate regularly with teachers
· should support school work, particularly current topics, by visits, library and internet research etc.
There are a number of implications for school related to this question. Clearly we must have good and regular channels of communication and opportunity to talk both formally and informally.
Our plans for communication in relation to homework will be covered under Question 6.
Many parents asked for more timely communication in relation to topics being covered and we intend to address this by producing ready for September 2003 a whole school topic plan which will outline the topics to be covered term by term for each year group. This will be sent to parents at the end of the summer term. In the meantime we intend to issue the year group newsletters earlier in the term
Q5 ? Are there any other ways you would like to be involved that we do not at present offer the opportunity for?
The main response to this question was ?no? with many parents commenting that work commitments made it impossible to be further involved.
Of those parents who did comment there were several who wanted the opportunity to see more of the work in progress in the classroom and we are reviewing ways that we can accommodate this request.
There were several parents who wanted to help in classrooms. As the questionnaires were anonymous could we ask that those parents make themselves known to the class teacher or to Mrs. Walsh as we are always grateful of any help.
Similarly, the parent who would like to be involved in the Governing Body ? a parent governor vacancy has just arisen and if we know you are interested then we can ensure you are receive a nomination form for the forthcoming election.
Several parents mentioned knowledge of topics which was covered in the previous question and responses which mentioned parents' evenings will be covered in Question 8.