We ended up with a terrific response rate as you can see from the below chart. My thanks to all the school community members who took the time to respond.
We have gone through the information in great detail and I have also reported a summary of the findings to the School Council. We are obviously doing a significant number of things really well as the responses were very positive. However, like anything, we also have areas that we need to develop.
What is working well:
Parents responded very positively (agree or strongly agree %) in the areas of Teaching (95%), Leadership and Management (95%), Student Support (89%), Resources for learning (98%) and Student and community life (93%). These are all above the ESF averages so a real credit to everyone involved.
The students and staff scored the school across all sections with a range of 91%-100% (agree or strongly agree).
A consistent theme across all stakeholders identified the following trends;
- The general feeling and appreciation that our staff are caring, committed and enthusiastic
- The feeling from students that the work set is interesting, challenging and enjoyable
- The feeling that the school runs smoothly
- The feeling that the students are well supported
- Everyone is proud to be part of the Peak School community
Even Better If:
Although we still scored reasonably high in the “Philosophy and Objectives” and “Learning”, these two areas did not score as high as the other sections. As a result of the information collected we are looking to address these areas in our new three year strategic plan with a particular focus on how we are communicating what we do to our parents. There was a definite disconnect in some curriculum areas between how the children responded in terms of being/feeling challenged and how some parents viewed this.
We are currently reviewing our Program of Inquiry, which was always planned for, and this will ensure we address the concerns around the perceived lack of emphasis on science (scientific skills and knowledge). We are looking to really strengthen this area of our curriculum to ensure the children are regularly exposed to scientific ideas through their units of inquiry.
We also scored relatively low in regards to celebrating children’s achievements outside of school and this is probably because we celebrate this success at our assemblies where parents are unable to attend. We are now looking at the feasibility of having the option to “live stream” our assemblies and other school events so parents and family members who cannot make it can watch it over the internet.
Please be assured that the school is using the survey data to review its practice and it has already helped shape the priorities for the next three years.
