Annual survey results summary, 2019
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.
There's still time to enter...
…our 2019 Summer Competition!
Scholes (Elmet) Primary is a happy and healthy place to learn – and we want your child to celebrate this by creating the words ‘happy’ (for children up to Year 2) or ‘healthy’ (for children in Year 3 to Year 6) from letters that your child spots in the environment.
Here’s an example of a letter ‘h’ which we’ve found on the internet – somewhere in their surroundings, can your child find the five letters that spell ‘happy’ or the seven letters that spell ‘healthy’?
We found the example above on the internet, but it would be even better if your child were to take pics from real life – perhaps they could find all the images on one day out, or perhaps they set themselves a target of finding one letter every week of the holidays. Your child could spot ‘letters’ near their home or on holiday. They could make the letter shapes from their own body, stretched into different positions, or they could even ask different family members to create the shapes!
There will be four prizes of £15 book tokens – two for the best ‘happy’ words and two for the best ‘healthy’ words.
Please paste the words into a Word document – one side of A4 – and email to school (scholesoffice@spherefederation.org) by Friday 06 September 2019.
Good luck!
Has your child been looking out for letters that spell 'happy' or 'healthy'?
Scholes (Elmet) Primary is a happy and healthy place to learn – and we want your child to celebrate this by creating the words ‘happy’ (for children up to Year 2) or ‘healthy’ (for children in Year 3 to Year 6) from letters that your child spots in the environment.
Here’s an example of a letter ‘h’ which we’ve found on the internet – somewhere in their surroundings, can your child find the five letters that spell ‘happy’ or the seven letters that spell ‘healthy’?
We found the example above on the internet, but it would be even better if your child were to take pics from real life – perhaps they could find all the images on one day out, or perhaps they set themselves a target of finding one letter every week of the holidays. Your child could spot ‘letters’ near their home or on holiday. They could make the letter shapes from their own body, stretched into different positions, or they could even ask different family members to create the shapes!
There will be four prizes of £15 book tokens – two for the best ‘happy’ words and two for the best ‘healthy’ words.
Please paste the words into a Word document – one side of A4 – and email to school (scholesoffice@spherefederation.org) by Friday 06 September 2019.
Good luck!
Happy and Healthy Summer competition
Each year, we invite children to enter a competition – last year, we enjoyed reading lots of postcards from around Yorkshire, the UK and the world.
This year, we’d like your child to get creative with a camera! We want our school to be a happy and healthy place to learn – and we want your child to celebrate this by creating the words ‘happy’ (for children up to Year 2) or ‘healthy’ (for children in Year 3 to Year 6) from letters that your child spots in the environment.
Here’s an example of a letter ‘h’ which we’ve found on the internet – somewhere in their surroundings, can your child find the five letters that spell ‘happy’ or the seven letters that spell ‘healthy’?
We found the example above on the internet, but it would be even better if your child were to take pics from real life – perhaps they could find all the images on one day out, or perhaps they set themselves a target of finding one letter every week of the holidays. Your child could spot ‘letters’ near their home or on holiday. They could make the letter shapes from their own body, stretched into different positions, or they could even ask different family members to create the shapes!
There will be four prizes of £15 book tokens – two for the best ‘happy’ words and two for the best ‘healthy’ words.
Please paste the words into a Word document – one side of A4 – and email to school (scholesoffice@spherefederation.org) by Friday 06 September 2019.
Good luck!
Living and Learning : I can illustrate happy and healthy choices.
Our whole school homework produced some super examples, including songs, posters, games, a cow (to show a lactose intolerance) and lots of discussions. Children illustrated how they make healthy choices about food, exercise and sleep.
Scholes Open Gardens - scarecrow competition
We have been supporting the team of volunteers who orgainse Scholes in Bloom. Today is the Open Gardens event and we created some scarecrows in school around this year’s theme, ‘World of Song’. The scarecrows will be displayed again on Britain in Bloom judging day on 19 July.
Whole school sports roundabout
Our whole school sports roundabout is a chance for all children to work together, in teams, showcasing their sporting skills. The mixed aged teams encourage children to work together, supporting and encouraging each other. Thank you to all the parents and carers who came to show their support.
Super sunny sports day
The Key Stage 2 children enjoyed a fantastic competitive sports event on Friday. Thank you to all the parents and carers who came to offer their support. It is much appreciated.
Last chance to submit your views
At Scholes (Elmet) Primary, we’re always keen to hear your views.
The annual survey is still available for you to let us know your thoughts, but goes offline on Monday 24 June so you’ve only a few days left. The survey will only take a few minutes or so.
We hope that you let us know any questions, comments and concerns (as well as causes for celebration!) whenever these crop up, but we like to gather the views more generally at the end of the year. We’re looking forward to reading your views.
Scarecrow competition - Scholes in Bloom
