We hope you’re managing to enjoy some rest and recuperation this summer. This long message has no essential information – it’s for your awareness only.
Every year, we invite you to let us know how we’re doing via the annual survey of parents/carers. Thank you to the 55 parents/carers who responded. (Figures below may not total this because some people didn’t express an opinion to each question.)
We asked about some of the changes we’ve made due to Covid. Here’s what you said.
Parent-teacher meetings
19 people said they’d like these to continue by Zoom and 10 said they’d prefer the meetings to return to being in person. 24 people said they’d like a mixture – this seems to be the best way for all in that it’s convenient to meet by Zoom, but we recognise the value in coming into school to properly meet the teacher and to have the chance to check out your child’s books. Based on this, we plan to host the October meeting in person (if our risk assessment allows) and the February meeting by Zoom.
Weekly news
We asked for your thoughts about our weekly messages – we had 50 responses. Two of the responses said there were too many or too long (‘Sometimes there are too many emails/messages each day, which makes it difficult to follow up with’) and two others commented they preferred the paper newsletters (‘I’m more likely to read the paper newsletter.’). Eleven more responses were fairly mixed or indifferent, and within many of these, the length or frequency of message was also raised as a problem. However, 35 responses – that’s about two thirds of respondents – felt entirely positive. Comments include ‘I enjoy reading them – the weekly aspect gives a more real-time insight’ and ‘They are great, going paperless has meant communication is faster, cheaper and better for the environment.’ Based on this, we’ll continue to publish weekly news on our website and by email. However, we’ll try to be more mindful to keep other communications to a minimum.
Learning workshops
We also asked for your views about the learning workshops. These are to help you support your child at home. Traditionally, we’ve held these in school and, generally speaking, the attendance has been quite low. Last year, we held a series of short presentations by Zoom instead. People who attended told us at the time they much preferred these. The survey backs this up. If we don’t count the four people who said they wouldn’t attend any sort of session to support their child’s learning, that leaves us with 73% who said they’re more likely to attend by Zoom and 18% less likely, with the others fairly open to either or unsure. The Zoom sessions were an efficient way for us to support parents across all three Sphere schools, and your feedback confirms that for most of you, they’re a better option, too. We’ve planned in a series of Autumn Zoom workshops again this year – the first one (on phonics) starts on Monday 13 September at 6pm.
Homework
Our fourth question was perhaps the most important – homework. After the Spring lockdown, we suspended our Homework Policy that set out a Creative or a Practice Makes Perfect or a Talk Time homework each week. Instead, we’ve provided a Talk Time homework activity that should be accessible for all children in Years 1-6, and we’ve emphasised the importance of reading, learning spellings, and learning numbers facts and times tables (using NumBots and Times Tables Rock Stars, for example).
We asked you to consider a variety of statements about homework. Without exception, the statements that you agreed with the most are the same statements that support continuing with our current approach to homework:
- Reading at home is the most important way for my child to make good progress: 86% agreed
- Numbots / Times Table Rock Stars helps to improve my child’s recall of number facts: 84% agreed
- We use the Talk Time prompt at home for a discussion: 77% agreed
- The current ‘slimmed down’ homework means my child has more time for other activities that help him/her to progress: 61%
Homework is always a problematic area. Some parents have previously told us they want more and an equal number have told us they want less. Research indicates that homework has limited impact on learning. We know that for some, homework can actually create a tension at home that doesn’t help anyone. At school, reviewing homework takes time. We’re increasingly convinced that the current approach is the best way forward. We can easily monitor how much children are learning number facts and times tables (we can do ‘mini-tests’, but can also check the data on NumBots and Rock Stars). For younger children, we can keep an eye on their Reading Record book. We need to explore how we can ensure older children regularly engage with reading, perhaps through a different Reading Record-style book. Based on the feedback, we’re going to continue with the revised provision: a Talk Time prompt each week and an emphasis on regular reading and learning spellings and number facts.
Other aspects of life Moortown Primary School
The second part of the survey asked about aspects that we often include in the annual survey – statements that Ofsted also use when they seek the views of parents and carers. We presented you with four statements and invited one of three responses: ‘agree’, ‘disagree’ and ‘don’t know’. If we don’t count the very small minority of respondents who might have indicated they don’t know to the statements below, the proportions are:
- My child feels safe at this school: 100% agreed
- My child does well at this school: 96% agreed
- My child has been bullied and the school dealt with the bullying quickly and effectively: thankfully, the vast majority of respondents indicated their child had not been bullied; of those remaining, just one indicated disagreement with this – the parent left their name so we’ll follow this up
- Moortown Primary has high expectations for my child: 100% agreed
- We also asked if we achieve our vision to be a happy and healthy place to learn: overall, 98% agreed with this
Additional comments
Typically in any survey, there are more comments with suggestions or criticism than overall praise – think about the last time you filled in a survey for a hotel or product. However, about two thirds of respondents left additional comments and well over half of these were completely positive: ‘Thank you to all the team at Moortown Primary for doing an amazing job through such challenging times and consistently providing care and support for all the children’ and ‘I’m going to miss the school when [my Y6 child] leaves. You do a great job and have been brilliant, through your communications and support during the pandemic’ were typical comments – thank you!
Of the remaining responses, nearly all contained positives mixed with a suggestion or two. We’ll review each point carefully with a view to acting on as many as we realistically can. Two things that crop up at least a few times this year (and in previous years) are:
- school meals: this has been a concern in previous years and we had planned to work with our caterers to explore improvements, but the Covid restrictions blocked this, and in fact made school meals a very challenging area to manage – we’re going to keep an eye on this
- after-school clubs: three parents asked about after-school clubs, but with some understanding that we haven’t been able to provide many this year – we’re hoping to get more up and running next year
This survey helps us to gain a broad overview of how we’re doing. (By the way, we also ask pupils similar questions!) For more specific questions, comments and concerns, it’s always best to speak with your child’s class teacher or Mrs Weekes. Many thanks to those of you who completed the survey this year.