Every year, we invite you to complete the annual survey of parents and carers. Thank you to the 79 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 very positive responses. Particularly positive responses can be seen for important statements which earned 100% agreement (My child is happy at Scholes (Elmet) Primary School and My child feels safe at this school) and one which earned 99% (My child is well looked after). Also very positive was that 96% of parents would recommend us to others.
The statements, with one or two typical comments, are:
- My child is happy at Scholes (Elmet) Primary School. (‘Both children go to school happily every day and speak fondly of their teachers and everything they do in class’ and ‘The fact that my child is happy to go to school in the mornings and seems happy at pick up strongly suggests they are.’)
- My child feels safe at this school. (‘[My daughter] feels very safe and understands the rules.’)
- My child makes good progress at this school. (‘[My son] has made massive progress in the short time he has been at Scholes.’ and ‘Making great academic progress. Very pleased with the teaching.’)
- My child is well looked after. (There were only three comments here, and they relate to specific concerns regarding children eating/drinking – we’ll look into these.)
- My child is taught well at Scholes (Elmet) Primary School. (‘Mr Catherall is a fantastic teacher.’)
- Adults in school make sure pupils are well behaved. (‘Pupils are invariably polite and courteous towards visitors’ and ‘Never get to see them during school hours so no idea. The children I see outside school hours all seem polite and well mannered.’)
- Scholes (Elmet) Primary School deals effectively with bullying. (56% agreed with this statement: ‘We were really pleased with how Mrs Hague addressed the friendship group issues that arose.’ Many people (41%) responded by saying they don’t know: ‘Luckily, we’ve never experienced bullying.’)
- The school is well led and managed. (‘I have no direct involvement but there seems to have been a lot of positive changes made in the last couple of years.’ and ‘Miss Hague is fab and could not be more helpful.’)
- The school responds well to any concerns I raise. (‘All queries are dealt with fairly and efficiently.’ and ‘I have not raised any concerns so far but any questions I have had have been answered promptly, openly and well.’)
- I receive useful information from the school about my child’s progress. (‘The reports are great to see. Keeps us up to speed of my child attainment and can then raise concerns by seeing the teacher or headteacher if required.’)
Tell us something you like about the school.
48 comments received, some of which relate to very specific reasons, but typical comments include praise for our teachers and other staff, the swimming pool and the friendly atmosphere. ‘Scholes (Elmet) Primary School is a fantastic school with a strong team of enthusiastic teachers that try their very best to make learning as fun as possible’; ‘My child likes his teacher and his happy to go each day to school’; and ‘My child does enjoy more of a active way of learning and I feel like Scholes have a good mixture of this’ 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.
35 comments received, although many of these are actually neutral or even positive comments like ‘Nothing really’ and ‘I am happy with all areas at the moment.’
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. One other common issue that was raised relates to school dinners – we’ll pass on this feedback to our caterers.
The survey results and the comments will be passed to Miss Hague, 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. Miss Hague 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.