Parent Carer Questionnaire Results and Analysis Spring 2017

Thank you to everyone who filled a questionnaire in. We value your opinions.

107 questionnaires were completed. Where parents had a view the following percentages are applicable:

The school is welcoming to all visitors	100%
My child is happy at school	97%
My child feels safe	100%
The school encourages children to adopt a healthy lifestyle (for example free fruit/veg in the infants, sports and PE, clubs, Healthy School status).	100%
There is a wide range of extra activities (for example the range of clubs, after school activities, themed weeks, trips and visitors etc).	98%
The PTA makes a significant contribution to the life of the school	99%:
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)	98%:
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%
My child is making enough progress	94%:
Teaching and learning in school is good	100%
Homework is at the right level for the age of my child	95%
Staff and children have good relationships	99%
Behaviour in school is good	97%
Bullying is dealt with effectively	96%
The school tackles any discrimination and inequalities well (do you feel that all children and parents are treated equally and with respect and discrimination/racism is not tolerated and dealt with appropriately?)	99%
The school is well led and managed	100%
The school keeps me well informed about events in school (via text service, newsletters, school blog, new website)	94%
The school takes account of parent’s/carers’ views (this survey, informal chats	100%
The school takes account of pupil views (class and school council, pupil interviews, assembly)	100%
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%
I would recommend the school to other parents	100%
Overall I am happy with my child’s experience at this school	100%

Parents wrote that strengths of the school are:

Nurturing, friendly and caring ethos

Warm welcoming atmosphere – from all staff and pupils – no matter how busy they are.
Staff are always available to discuss any issue.
Caring and nurturing and encouraging.
Strong relationship between pupils and parents – I feel my boys are truly known.
Friendly environment
I can’t think of a better school for my children: all staff are extremely friendly and helpful.
Good work ethic kind, fair, approachable and helpful
The openness, support and diversity of the school.
Ashfield has a strong feeling of community
Very open to parent conversations and feedback
Everyone treated fairly
They have gone above and beyond to help our family.
Very caring of children & meet individual needs.
Ashfield has good relationships with parents
Positive attitudes
Really well organised
Would recommend the school and staff to everyone.

Communication

Administration staff in our reception area good link between staff and parents
Good at informing of any problems my child has on a day to day basis (if any)
Many questionnaires mentioned they were pleased with good communication.

Behaviour

Good behaviour of children
Clear expectations for behaviour
Clear positive reward system
Emphasis on good behaviour

The environment

Safe clean environment for the children
Positive learning environment
Outdoor space
Friendly comfortable setting

Parents wrote that strengths of the school are continued:

Learning and teaching

Everyone is supportive of different learning styles and needs
Staff prove they know both my children very well and strive for the best for them.
Teachers have great relationships with the pupils.
Staff teaching children at appropriate levels
Standard of teaching
Always willing to help pupils and parents – very supportive
Amazing conscientious and committed staff
Encouragement and praise for the children

SEND

Nurture and support on an individual basis is brilliant in terms of learning and social and emotional responses
Inclusion – good with SEND
Allowing children to learn at their own pace – for example Read Write Inc groups by need not age
Interventions to address specific needs
Great links with SENDco and class teacher
Special needs support
Lots of support for our child with learning through extra boosters to help with additional needs

Homework

Homework and school work

Exciting Learning

Extra trips and experiences e.g theatre maths and WAGAmama
After school clubs
Plenty of extra curricular activities
Outdoor space
Above and beyond learning experiences such as Tim Peake link up
Google Expeditions
Viking campfire etc
School discos and themed events
High aspirations for our children are encouraged – especially through the Tim Peake project

Parents wrote about priorities for improvement. Here are our plans for tackling those issues:

Parent priorities for improvement	Our plans for tackling these issues or our view on these issues
More homework and communication to parents about homework	Staff and governors are reviewing our homework policy this month. It’s always a hard one to get right for all families. Parents have differing views with regard to amount of homework, which makes it challenging for us to provide a one size fits all model. A core non-negotiable homework will be expected with optional extras. Governors are currently interviewing a range of children about their homework experience. We will let you know when the policy has been reviewed and put on the website.
Breakfast Clubs and After School Clubs	Currently, Ashfield has a breakfast Club open from 8am each morning. If you require a place please speak to Mrs Brown or Mrs Hey. If you need child care earlier than 8am, Kidsclub can help from 7:30am. They offer breakfast and transport to school. 07910 382528 otleykidsclub@hotmail.co.uk We are currently looking into the legalities and logistics of opening earlier and if that looks possible we will ask parents whether they would use this earlier facility or not.
Breakfast Clubs and After School Clubs	Many parents were really pleased with the variety of after school clubs on offer. We will continue to try to expand our range of clubs. Staff leading booster clubs after school and attending meetings means that we cannot always offer many more clubs. Request for more musical clubs have been noted although we currently run choirs and orchestra clubs. These have led to a concert with our Family of Schools. School productions are at Christmas with a Year 6 follow up in the summer term.
Communication reduce the amount of texts and letters Communication – more than 1 contact per pupil please Texts are often short notice.	Some parents have suggested emails. We will consult with you whether this method of receiving letters would be easier for you.
	If required, messages can be sent to 2 contacts. Please let the office staff know if this would be useful for you.
	We will endeavour to forward plan more carefully to reduce short notice events – especially when this requires you to do something, bring something in or organise costumes. Sometimes events and clubs are cancelled at the last minute which is beyond our control and texts are the quickest way to let parents know about this.
Visitor access to the playground during the school day	As we have a low fence and gates, with no electronic locking system, we have a careful monitoring system of visitors in school. Any stranger, not wearing a badge supplied by the office, will be challenged. This ensures office staff all know who is in the building. School staff make sure that doors are not left open when classrooms are unattended so that strangers cannot just walk in. At playtimes, the gates at the top end of the playground is watched carefully by a member of staff as is the area leading to the wildlife garden to ensure children stay where it is supervised and safe. I have planned a visit from a Leeds Education Authority consultant who is going to discuss potential security systems to ensure everyone is registered by the office staff before coming on the premises.
Communication on educational progress between parent consultations.	We started the year with an informal invite into the classroom to meet the class. We will revisit this idea and invite you in to class so your child can proudly show you their work and classroom displays. Should you have any questions, you can then chat to the teacher or make an appointment for a longer conversation.

Classroom space particularly for Y4	I’d love a magic wand for this one. As the children grow, we will look at where the current Y4 are best housed. There is no longer any LEA money now they are in KS2 to help us adapt. The Resources committee of the governors will be looking at solutions within our new budget discussions – there are some plans but they haven’t been finalised as yet. The average Ashfield classroom size for KS2 is 50m² for a class of 30. The current Y4 in two rooms have 26m² plus 42m² = 68m² for 39 pupils. The smallest classroom will not go beyond 20 pupils.
Larger classrooms and smaller classes More teaching assistants for larger classes	Funding for maintained primary schools is based on class sizes of 30. Smaller class sizes would not be possible with the funding we receive. Also, there is not the funding to enlarge classrooms either. Our classroom sizes are broadly in line with those of classrooms around Leeds. We are unusual to have so many teaching assistants in such a small school. For a large class of 30 we have a teacher, a higher level teaching assistant and a teaching assistant.
PTA – Let new parents know about them and their activities. Attract new parents Improve PTA led activities	Friends of Ashfield have a website page http://www.ashfieldprimary.co.uk/pta-friends-of-ashfield/ They’ve tried out new event ideas this year including: a curry night and ‘Ashfield’s Big Night In’ as well as the old faithful discos, Christmas and summer fairs. The next meeting will be on 20^th April at 6pm. All are most welcome.If you have ideas for events, attracting new parents or would like to help in any way – please come along and join us.
Behaviour	The vast majority of our pupils behave very well. A concern was noted about the behaviour of some older children in front of younger children in the morning before school starts. Children should be closely supervised at this point in the morning by their adult or be arriving at a time when they can walk straight to their classes. Please let me know if you witness this problem and I will deal with it directly. Also a concern was noted about the behaviour of a couple of individual pupils. A few children do have specific needs that impact on their behaviour. They have a special behaviour programme worked out for them with the support and advice of outside professionals. The needs of the rest of the class are always a priority.
Rich and varied curriculum	We teach foundation subjects in topics so that children can become immersed in a theme and make subject links across the curriculum. Please have a look on our website: Key information; Curriculum and choose a particular subject area. This tab will show you when the subject is taught for each year group in a long term plan as well as our subject policies. You can also look at our whole school curriculum map on that webpage. Each year we review the curriculum content, what has worked well, what could be improved and what we struggled to fit in well.
Punctuality	We will endeavour to be more punctual in opening the doors both at the beginning and the end of the school day.
Be more stringent with school uniform.	Please see the uniform rules on the Parents page of the website. Children are asked to comply and a text is sent home if they are not in complete uniform.
Some cosmetic improvements to the building	So far this financial year we have: Painted and decorated the hall and entrance hallways Replaced the fascia on the front of the building Replaced the fence to the east of the school Implemented fire safety measures such as doors with vision panels and extra doors in the corridor tightening other doors and making extra doors in a cloakroom. Each year the governors of the resource committee and I look at the available budget and plan for what needs to be done and what we would like to be done. We will be planning more improvements in the next financial year.

Healthier school lunches / Encourage more water drinking	Our school meals are provided by Leeds City Council. They have a nutritionist to carefully work out a balanced diet. Although the puddings look very ‘sinful’, they are made to be lower in fat than standard sponge puddings. There is always a salad bar and choice of vegetables and for pudding there is always a fruit or yoghurt choice. Children are encouraged to bring water bottles to school each day and they have chance to replenish them at our water coolers. I’ll organise an assembly to remind everyone about the health benefits of drinking water.
Lunchtimes – chances for football and playground painting.	As the weather warms up the children will be able to use the grass areas more often and there will be lots more space for a variety of activities including football. In the meantime we are introducing other activities to the tarmac including skipping and quick sticks hockey. In the new financial year we are looking into costs for painting playground markings. We have more indoor clubs this year such as Mine craft and Lego therapy as well as Mrs Hey or Miss Bannister’s crafty clubs.
Sports competitions at other venues.	Since the last parent questionnaire, Ashfield have taken part in the following sports competitions: KS1 multiskills Basketball Cross country running Gymnastics 5 a side football Brownlee triathlon tennis Mrs Wheeler, who is leading PE, will always look out for events in our family of schools and further across Leeds for us to get involved with.
Keep up the good work improving attainment and progress	We will always have this at the forefront of everything we do.
Neutral box on the tick list.	We will consider this option for next year.
Getting as many parents as possible engaged with their child’s school.	We have been aiming for this through parent consultations, parent workshops, assemblies, presentations and one to one discussion with parents. We will continue to keep this as a priority aim.