Every year, we invite you to complete the annual survey of parents and carers. Thank you to the 89 people who completed the 2019 survey.
The agree/disagree statements were closely based on those that Ofsted use for their Parent View. This gives you the chance to tell Ofsted what you think about your child’s school, from the quality of teaching to dealing with bullying and poor behaviour.
We also asked whether you’d recommend the school and invited comments about what you like and what we could improve on.
We’re delighted that the statements prompted a very positive response: at least 94% of parents agreed or strongly agreed (and most strongly agreed).
Particularly positive responses can be seen for a few statements, including two where responses were 100% in agreement. These relate to My child makes good progress at this school and I receive useful information from the school about my child’s progress.
Also very positive was that 98% of parents would recommend us to others.
A couple of respondents expressed concerns that seem to influence their responses throughout the survey. Sadly, the parents chose not to provide their names or explain why and this means that we’re not going to be able to try to address their concerns. If you’re one of these parents, please do consider arranging an appointment to speak with Mrs Weekes and/or me, Mr Roundtree – we’d really like to explore your views and see what we might be able to do to make things better.
The statements, with one or two typical comments, are:
- My child is happy at Moortown Primary School. (‘Both our children enjoy coming to school and have made some lovely friends.’)
- My child feels safe at this school. (‘The overall school and staff make my child feel safe.’)
- My child makes good progress at this school. (‘I can’t believe how far my reception child has come this year. It’s phenomenal’ and ‘Miss Rushbrooke is a wonderful teacher, ensuring academic progress, but with a great imagination and strong sense of fun – if only she hadn’t had to contend with SATs!’)
- My child is well looked after. (‘From teacher to headteacher, everyone cares’ and ‘Very much so…The caring culture means that the children look out for each other, too.’)
- My child is taught well at Moortown Primary School. (‘My child is taught in a fun and engaging environment and is learning to the best of her ability’ and ‘The open mornings demonstrated the high quality of teaching.’)
- Adults in school make sure pupils are well behaved. (‘It is such a great environment I have rarely heard of any trouble from pupils.’)
- Moortown Primary School deals effectively with bullying. (This is the one statement which didn’t earn a 94+% agreement, but that’s because 22% answered they didn’t know, with comments saying their child hasn’t encountered bullying: ‘We’ve had no experience but I can see that there are high expectations of behaviour’ for example.)
- The school is well led and managed. (‘Well organised, clear communication, plenty of options to feed back, connect and always an open door and time for conversation. Thank you brilliant hard working team.’)
- The school responds well to any concerns I raise. (‘All staff have been very approachable in this regard.’)
- I receive useful information from the school about my child’s progress. (‘The reports and parents evenings are very helpful.’)
Would you recommend the school? (‘We cannot speak highly enough of this school.’)
Tell us something you like about the school.
63 comments received, some of which relate to very specific reasons, but typical comments include praise for our teachers, our children’s behaviour and our community feel. ‘Nice culture and friendly inclusive environment. High quality staff and teaching. A standout is its respectful learning environment’ and ‘Caring and involved staff members. All seek to help and assist parents as well as pupils.’ are typical comments which we appreciate greatly!
Any reference here or throughout the survey to particular teachers will be passed on to teachers, who welcome the feedback as part of their commitment to performance improvement.
Tell us something the school could improve on.
55 comments received, although many of these are actually positive comments like ‘I like it the way it is. A shame we can’t opt out of SATs…’
As in previous years, the majority of comments reflect conflicting viewpoints, especially in relation to homework: some want more, some want less; some don’t like the creative homework, some don’t like the whole-school homework tasks… The conclusion, as in previous years, is that we can’t please everyone all the time about an issue like homework, but we will keep reviewing this. Interestingly this year, another example of differing opinions relate to the degree of competition in our school. Two other common issues that were raised are school dinners – we’ll pass on this feedback to our caterers – and the inconsiderate/unsafe parking of some parents/carers – we’ll continue to monitor and try to address these concerns in whatever way we can.
The survey results and the comments will be passed to Mrs Weekes, as Head of School, who will review the feedback alongside me, as Head of Federation, in order to identify up to three key actions that we will do. Mrs Weekes will also feed back to staff any particular concerns that were raised as well as – far more common – make sure staff are aware of the praise they’ve earned.