2021 Parent questionnaire
57 questionnaires were completed. This was lower than most years as this was an electronic form due to Covid 19. Paper forms are normally distributed and completed at parent consultation. In 2021 this was all remote. Where parents had a view (not including don’t know answer) the following percentages are applicable:
1 |
The school is welcoming to all visitors |
98.3% |
2 |
My child is happy at school |
96.5% |
3 |
My child feels safe |
100% |
4 |
The school encourages children to adopt a healthy lifestyle (for example free fruit/veg in the infants, sports and PE, clubs, Healthy School status – does this help?). |
94.6% |
5 |
My child receives support if he/she needs it (for example through provision maps for children with additional needs, provision for Gifted and Talented pupils, support for medical needs, for children with English as an additional language, counselling, playground support) |
100% |
6 |
The school keeps me informed of my child’s progress (Examples of this are parents’ evenings, reports, and SATs results, comments on home learning, certificates and stickers). |
98.2% |
7 |
My child is making enough progress |
94.5% |
8 |
Teaching and learning in school is good |
100% |
9 |
Homework is at the right level for the age of my child |
95.8% |
10 |
Staff and children have good relationships |
98.1% |
11 |
Behaviour in school is good |
100% |
12 |
Bullying is dealt with effectively |
100% |
13 |
The school tackles any discrimination and inequalities well (do you feel that all children and parents are treated equally and with respect and are discrimination/racism not tolerated and dealt with appropriately?) |
100% |
14 |
The school is well led and managed |
100% |
15 |
The school keeps me well informed about events in school (via text service, newsletters, school blog, new website) |
100% |
16 |
The school takes account of parent’s/carers’ views (this survey, informal chats) |
100% |
17 |
The school takes account of pupil views (class and school council, pupil interviews, assembly) |
100% |
18 |
The school makes sure that my child is well prepared for the future (for example when starting school, changing year group or changing school). |
100% |
19 |
I would recommend the school to other parents |
98.3% |
20 |
Overall I am happy with my child’s experience at this school |
100% |
NB: questions about extra-curricular activities and PTA were removed this year because of Covid regulations. Hopefully, they will be back in 2021-2022.
The following questions had more than 2 ‘Don’t know’ answers: 5 – 10.5%, 9 – 17.5%, 11 – 12.3%, 12 – 12.3%, 15 – 5.3%, 16 – 33.3%, 17 – 8.8%.
Parents wrote that strengths of the school are:
Friendly and Welcoming
Relationships between staff and children
Communication
Inclusivity
Care of pupils
Behaviour
Environment
Teaching
Covid 19
Other
Parents wrote about priorities for improvement. Here are our plans for tackling those issues:
Homework amount. Should older children get a bit more? Learning logs? |
It’s always a hard one to get right for all families. Some parents want more – some want less. Currently our policy asks for:
Our focus is on practising reading, spelling and tables. We’ve focussed on homework that doesn’t not involve so much transfer of items from home to school and vici versa. We will review this as new Covid safety advice comes from Leeds H & S team which follows government advice. |
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Communication could be improved as it is in too many forms: text, email, newsletter, class page or Google Classroom |
I think the answer to this would be text alerts if something is posted on website, Google Classroom. For Tapestry (EY assessment system) parents receive an email alert.
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More training for staff regarding SEND so every member of staff has better understanding and how feedback should be given to parents |
We have had quite a bit of training on SEND this year. This has been remote due to our Covid Risk Assessments. This has included: Autism Awareness Training Tier 1 which all staff completed. Other staff have completed a range of online courses tailored to the needs of children in their cohorts including autism and dyslexia training We plan to complete the following SEND training in 2021-2022: Lead practitioner autism training, SENIT dyslexia training and in house training led by the SENDCO. This will be a good place to look at suitable feedback to parents. |
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More visitors from outside to enrich the curriculum |
We have been especially cautious this academic year about visitors in school and keeping us and them Covid safe. We have stuck to SEND and Children’s Social Work Service professionals and teachers for PE French and music – all keeping at least 2m away from anyone else. Hopefully, we will be able to add other visitors to our lists when we are able to mix more freely. I agree that adding a real life dimension to the curriculum makes it real and relevant to pupils. |
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Diversity Being an anti-racist school. Working with other schools in Otley to promote Green issues, anti-racism and equality. I wonder how much diversity there is in school and how widely this is promoted. |
Otley Pool and Bramhope schools have created an Equality and Diversity Charter together. You can see it, along with our equalities policies, on our website: https://www.ashfieldprimary.co.uk/equalities/ This academic year, we have review our equalities policies with feedback from pupils, parents, staff and governors. Since the initial lockdown in March 2020, we haven’t focussed on this as a family of schools, but when we are able to mix our bubbles again, we will be working collaboratively with this focus again. Otley is not a racially diverse area and so therefore promoting diversity is important where ever we can through the curriculum. We will be having another diversity week next half term.
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Bringing the environment and sustainability into lessons and promoting green issues |
Two objectives from the Otley, Pool and Bramhope Steering Groups are:
We created a green school council last year. Now restrictions outdoors have lessened we can start up our eco warrior panel with representatives from KS2 again. Schools looked at increasing our green footprint outside. Ashfield sourced extra hedging material – goat willow and hazel. We have planted it on our easterly border.
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Continue to develop outdoor education / forest school type learning Bringing environment and sustainability into lessons |
Mr Ross is Ashfield’s Forest School Practitioner. He provides this mostly with Acorn and Maple children within his bubble. Once Covid restrictions relax he will be able to share these skills more widely. Environment and sustainability falls under our geography and science curriculum in most topic. We also have particular focus days such as World Ocean day coming up on 8th June. Other curriculum areas such as art and our use of plastic make links to this when they can. |
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Stricter enforcement of the uniform, footwear and PE kit |
I agree. I think that having days when children wear PE kit to school has not helped this situation. We will send more reminder letters to all and texts to individuals. We will have another nearly new uniform sale to help reduce waste and to save parents and carers money. |
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Wearing masks outside when there is plenty of space to socially distance |
The wearing of mask for adults is not mandatory. Currently, Leeds Health and Safety team advice is: ‘Primary / Nursery Settings - in primary schools, it is still recommended that face coverings should be worn by staff and adult visitors in situations where social distancing between adults is not possible.’ The main bit of the playground does not pose a congestion problem. It is coming in and out of the gates and past Y2 and Y3. This will of course be under review and I will change this on our risk assessment when Leeds change their advice along with government advice. Children in primary school do not need to wear a face covering. |
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More live online sessions during lockdown to ‘see’ their teachers. More interaction during periods of social isolation. |
All our families managed home learning in very different ways according to parent carer and pupil needs along with the needs of the wider family. We wanted to make sure we recognised this while making sure that we were meeting Government requirements in terms of the amount of content available on Google Classroom. Please see our offer on the website: https://www.ashfieldprimary.co.uk/covid-19-school-updates-and-information/ The remote learning structure we put in place was designed to give staff the opportunity to respond quickly to children who were struggling each day, either through an individual messages on google Classroom or through a personal phone call. Advice was if your child was struggling with any of the content on Google Classroom after watching the pre-recorded material to reach out to their class teacher. As well as each family having different needs, each school has its own personal circumstances that make their provision look different to another school. Ashfield has a number of staff who are either critically extremely vulnerable or who have underlying health conditions. When we chose our organisational model, I took staff health concerns seriously and advice to limit the amount of staff in school. As we are one form entry, this means teachers at home are responsible for more than one year group’s remote learning and teachers in school have mixed age classes in their bubble. This model made it not possible to further expand live lesson time. The children were not all accessing Google Classroom at the same time due to constraints at home. Some families were submitting work in the evening and some early in the morning. Getting all the children online at the same time would not work for many families. |
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Double yellow lines on one side of the little road opposite school |
Leeds highways department may be able to help. Their website is : https://www.leeds.gov.uk/parking-roads-and-travel/report-an-issue-with-a-road-or-pavement It states: If you think a road needs new markings, crossings, traffic or parking restrictions, request an assessment using our online form. |
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A return to proper dinners rather than the grab bags |
We have agreed with Catering Leeds to return to their full menu from September. |
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Continue to develop an exciting curriculum |
All schools have had a recent focus on developing their foundation subjects. This continues to be a priority for us and subject leaders are monitoring this closely. |
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Reasons for celebrated in assembly text |
I have set up a new website page: https://www.ashfieldprimary.co.uk/celebrations/ Where first names of pupils celebrating and reasons will be announces each Friday. |
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I’ve not seen Nursery observations |
Observations are published in bulk when class teachers have quality assured them. |
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Speech therapy with no notice |
Sometimes SEND professionals offer availability at very short notice. We try to take them up on this. Parental consent will have been sought prior to the appointment but dates cannot always be set in stone. |
There was one more comment mentioning a referral to children’s social services that would not be appropriate to publish.