Post on 28-Mar-2016
description
Survey of Parental
Perceptions
Oldmachar Academy e-Magazine
Contents
Context ... 3
Core Parental Priorities 45
Homework & Challenge 67
Expectations / Recommendations 89
Perceptions of Our Systems 1011
Other Priorities 1213
Health and Wellbeing 1415
Special Features
Read about:
How parents rate our schools delivery of education
What we are going to do to take on board the perceptions of parents
This e-magazine collates a range of articles which have featured in recent school
newsletters. They have all featured aspects of the recent parental survey of percep-
tions, which was conducted in October 2013. This survey can be compared to a previ-
ous survey which was concluded in 2011.
344 parents took the trouble to complete the survey, giving us a strong evidence base
for our future planning. We thank everyone for the effort they took. In response, the
articles shown here give a detailed analysis of perceptions of parents across a range
of issues. We will use this information to get everyone thinking about what we need
to do now to improve our school further.
3
This e-magazine collates a range of articles which have featured in recent school
newsletters. They have all featured aspects of the recent parental survey of percep-
tions, which was conducted in October 2013. This survey can be compared to a previ-
ous survey which was concluded in 2011.
344 parents took the trouble to complete the survey, giving us a strong evidence base
for our future planning. We thank everyone for the effort they took. In response, the
articles shown here give a detailed analysis of perceptions of parents across a range
of issues. We will use this information to get everyone thinking about what we need
to do now to improve our school further.
Analysis
We tested the attitude of parents to
the new school blazer for S4S6 and
its potential to improve ethos in S1
S3.
The tables below show the strong
endorsement for the implementation
of the blazers. In summary, parents
can be said to have expressed the
following views:
S4S6 Blazer
Approve: 70%
Disapprove: 7%
Dont Know / Care: 22%
S1S3 Blazer
Approve: 64%
Disapprove: 24%
Dont Know / Care: 12%
We will now reflect on how we can
take forward the implementation of
an S1S3 blazer for next session.
Pupils will be consulted about this
development over the next few
weeks.
Core Priorities
4
In 2011 we undertook a major survey of stakeholder attitudes to our school. We did this to get a
sense of what our parents felt our planning priorities should be. Two years on, we have updated
the survey. Thank you to all of the parents who responded.
344 completed questionnaires were returned representing over 40% of the parent body. A num-
ber of statements were tested, to show parents attitudes. We are very pleased to report that over
25% of parents said that the school had improved in the past year. This is a strong endorsement of
our improvement planning.
Our parents also supplied a written comments which we will be reading and responding to in due
course.
5
Analysis
Our parents have told us that they
believe the school has improved over
the past year.
1/4 of parents surveyed confirmed
that this was their view, with only
very few saying that they felt the
schools performance had got worse.
Parents have rated the school overall
higher compared to the survey two
years ago.
The three factors that parents felt the
school was best at are:
Control of Bullying
School Discipline
School Security
The three things that parent rate
lowest are:
School facilities
Careers Advice
Computer Access
In 2011 we undertook a major survey of stakeholder attitudes to our school. We did this to get a
sense of what our parents felt our planning priorities should be. Two years on, we have updated
the survey. Thank you to all of the parents who responded.
344 completed questionnaires were returned representing over 40% of the parent body. A num-
ber of statements were tested, to show parents attitudes. We are very pleased to report that over
25% of parents said that the school had improved in the past year. This is a strong endorsement of
our improvement planning.
Our parents also supplied a written comments which we will be reading and responding to in due
course.
Weighted Previous %
Criteria Score % Survey Change
Control of bullying 69.8 64.8 +5.0
School discipline 69.6 67.1 +2.5
School security 69.2 67.4 +1.8
Developing moral values 68.3 67.6 +0.7
Exam results 67.9 68.3 -0.4
Levels of homework 67.0 67.7 -0.6
School communication 66.9 65.3 +1.6
Social health education 66.8 67.4 -0.6
Caring teachers 66.3 63.9 +2.5
Happiness of child 65.8 65.6 +0.2
Choice of subjects 65.4 66.4 -1.0
Developing confidence 65.3 63.0 +2.3
Teaching quality 64.8 65.2 -0.4
Availability of resources 64.5 62.5 +2.0
Developing potential 64.5 64.4 +0.1
Truancy control 64.3 64.4 -0.1
Community spirit 64.3 67.3 -3.0
Computer access 62.6 63.3 -0.7
Careers advice 61.6 66.3 -4.7
School facilities 56.9 56.8 +0.1
"Overall" Rating 72.9 72.1 +0.8
Analysis of Homework
Our parents report that students in
Oldmachar Academy are doing more
homework than they were two years
ago.
This is true in all year groups, with
the exception of S4, in which year the
figure has fallen slightly.
It is important that our students re-
ceive meaningful homework, which is
one way in which we provide an addi-
tional challenge for young people.
Levels of homework have improved
markedly in S1S2.
We continue to be concerned at the
gap between the levels of homework
being done by girls compared to
boys.
The lesson from this is that perhaps
boys need to spend a bit more time
doing homework tasks.
Amount of Homework
6
Information about Homework
The tables above show the number of hours that parents report
young people are doing on a weekly basis.
The top table shows the figures overall.
The middle table shows the figures for boys.
The bottom table shows figures for girls.
One thing that concerns us is that it looks as though parents feel S4
students could be doing more homeworkwe will be addressing this.
7
Reflection on Challenge
One of the things that teachers are
reflecting on is the extent to which
our courses and programmes are
challenging to the young people.
Overall, 11% of parents believe that
their children are being pushed too
hard in at least one thing. While,
30% of parents believe that their chil-
dren are not being pushed hard
enough in anything.
This session we have new curricular
programmes in operation for stu-
dents in S3 and S4 and this has
changed significantly the experience
of learning for young people in thee
two years.
In particular we will be considering
parental feedback on these two year
groups, especially as half of our S3
parents have told us that their chil-
dren are not being pushed hard
enough in any one thing. Since our
S3 curriculum is designed to promote
breadth, this is perhaps not surpris-
ing. Indeed, almost 30% of parents
thought their S3 child was being
pushed too hard overall. Teachers
will want students to feel challenged
and will reflect on how to take for-
ward the S3 curriculum.
On the contrary, S4 seems to present
a much more significant challenge
that it did two years ago. Signifi-
cantly, fewer parents think that their
children are not being pushed hard
in anything.
Level of Challenge
Here the views of parents of S3 and
S4 students from 2011 are com-
pared to the same year group for
2013. Fewer S3 parents think their
children are being pushed hard
enough in anythingbut many
more S4 parents think their young
people are being challenged.
Pushed too hard?
Not pushed hard enough?
Expectations
It is important to us that parents of
students coming to the school feel
that it meets their expectations. We
want people to have high expectations
of our school and we work really hard
to meet these high expectations.
72% of parents new to the school told
us that it was as expected, or better.
This is a good endorsement of our
work. Only 4% of parents thought
that the school was worse than ex-
pected. A quarter of parents ex-
pressed no opinion. This may be part-
ly explained by the fact that the survey
was done after ten weeks of the ses-
sion being completed.
The graph below shows this broken
down by primary school. This infor-
mation may ne of use to our primary
colleagues and can be useful in plan-
ning future transition processes.
Expectations & Recommendations
8
Expectations & Recommendations Parental Recommendations
In this section we look at the overall level of parental recommendation of
Oldmachar Academy. We can report that 90% of parents would recom-
mend this school to another parent. This is very pleasing information for
us to have. However, staff of the school will consider how we might ad-
dress the fact that a number of parents would not recommend the school.
The tables below show the way in which parents recommendations
change depending on the gender of their child, with boys parents rating
us higher. In addition, the lowest recommendation level we received was
from S4 parents (78%). While this is still very good, nonetheless, we
would like to explore this with parents in cure course.
9
Analysis of Recommendations
It is important that the school has the
confidence of its parental body and that
it builds trust with them over time. A
number of factors can interfere with the
level of confidence that a group of par-
ents can have.
We will be exploring the factors that
may have led girls parents to rate us
lower than boys parents.
We will also be exploring the factors
that have led our S4 parents to rate our
work less highly that the parents of oth-
er year groups.
Some factors might be related to the
fact that this year we are implementing
new national courses for young people
in S4. This has been a challenging devel-
opment and it may have affected the
confidence of parents in our work.
We will review this with teachers in the
coming months.
School Discipline
Two of the most improved areas of
school performance over the past few
years is that of School Discipline and
Control of Bullying.
Parents report that these areas are
better than when we last surveyed
their perceptions.
This information correlates with feed-
back from students themselves, who
have also reported that these things
are better than in the past.
We have worked hard to improve this
area in the last two years. We have a
clear set of procedures for respond-
ing to incidences of pupil behaviour
which disrupts learning. We are also
implementing Restorative Practice, as
part of our Respect Campaign.
We will be introducing these ideas to
parents in workshops as this session
progressesthis should help parents
to feel even more positive about our
work.
Perceptions of Our Systems
10
Caring Teachers and Pupil Confidence
Two of the most important parental priorities are that we are caring as teachers
about young people and that we develop their confidence and potential. Most
parents think that we are good at this but there are a number of parents think
that we are neither good nor poor at this.
Over the next few months we will reflect on how we can improve these percep-
tions. This will feature in our discussions with parents and students. We hope
that everyone will support our work in developing this area.
Caring Teachers and Pupil Confidence
Two of the most important parental priorities are that we are caring as teachers
about young people and that we develop their confidence and potential. Most
parents think that we are good at this but there are a number of parents think
that we are neither good nor poor at this.
Over the next few months we will reflect on how we can improve these percep-
tions. This will feature in our discussions with parents and students. We hope
that everyone will support our work in developing this area.
11
Analysis
We are pleased that almost half of
parents think that the school website
is an effective source of information.
We also take some confidence from
the fact that very few people thought
that it was not an effective source of
information.
However, we will consider ways to
make the website a more useful envi-
ronment for all parents.
We plan to consider ways of laying
out information so that it is more ac-
cessible and easy to explore.
The most important aspects of our
website are that it allows to share
information about:
Curriculum for Excellence
Our students achievements
News of recent and forthcoming
events
Policy and procedure
Our school website
Systems for Communicating
In the last eighteen months we have had approximately 90,000 hits on our
school website. It is a rich source of information and has over two hundred
pages of content. When it was developed, we consulted with students and
parents about what to include.
In this session, we plan to review the material that is presented on the web-
site and would welcome the input of any parent who felt that they could
make a contribution to this process.
We also ask that if any parent has an idea about something they would like
to see included on the website, but which is not there at present, we would
be pleased to hear about it.
Other Parental Priorities Promoting Citizenship We are reassured to find that par-
ents perceptions of the other key priorities we sought their views
about have been so positive.
The strong endorsement of certain
issues related to the promotion of
citizenship is a sign that we are
working effectively with parents to
achieve our objective of ensuring
that all of our young people are
Successful Learners, Confident In-
dividuals, Effective Contributors
and Responsible Citizens.
One of the key Experiences and
Outcomes of Curriculum for Excel-
lence says that young people
should be able to do the following:
I recognise that each individ-ual has a unique blend of abili-ties and needs. I contribute to making my school community one which values individuals equally and is welcoming for all.
We cannot achieve this important
objective without parental support.
12
Issue Weighted
Score %
Promoting racial harmony 71.1
Treating all pupils fairly and equally 70.9
Attitude of non-teaching support staff 69.1
Encouraging local community activity 68.6
School uniform 67.1
Explaining to parents how to help their child 66.7
Encouraging and listening to parent views 66.6
Encouraging and listening to pupil views 66.2
Teaching for special needs 66.0
Quality of school management 65.5
Handling complaints 65.3
Tailoring workload to child's needs and ability 65.0
Ensuring pupils do best and make good progress 64.7
Celebrating and rewarding achievement 64.0
Extra curricular activities 51.3
Please note that survey results
of 65% approval or over reflect
a successful element.
Analysis
It is a good thing that our teachers
are generally in tune with our parents
and have a number of shared ideas
about what is important about the
school and how it meets the needs of
young people.
But there were one or two difference
of perception that we need to reflect
on. These are listed below:
Developing Confidence is a much
greater priority for our parents
than was appreciated by our
teaching staff. This is something
we can work on addressing
Caring Teachers is also a greater
priority for parents than the staff
of the school had considered it to
be. We will explore this discrep-
ancy in due course
Developing potential is in the top
three of parents priorities.
Teachers will reflect on this.
These three issues will feature in our
future planning as a teaching staff
and we will publish plans to address
13
Parents priorities and
teachers perception of them.
Survey of Parental Perceptions
14
Promoting Health and Wellbeing
In Curriculum for Excellence, all young people are entitled to develop skills for learn-
ing, life and work, with a continuous focus on health and wellbeing.
All teachers have a shared responsibility for this and the schools curriculum map en-
sures that health promotion is effectively planned for and delivered.
In the recent survey we undertook of parental perceptions, we gained important feed-
back on how our parents perceived this delivery. Several aspects were tested, includ-
ing our programmes for social education, as well as how we promote healthy lifestyles
in our young people.
The feedback from parents suggests that we could do better in encouraging a healthy
lifestyle through diet. There is much less approval for this than for the comparative
indicator for how we promote health through exercise.
We will explore this aspect as a priority in the next few months and use this infor-
mation to inform the updated school improvement plan.
Social Education and Happi-ness
We have thought deeply as a staff
about what kinds of attitudes we want
to encourage our young people to
have and how these attitudes might
help them be happier in school.
At the heart of health and well being is
the sense of person has of their own
self worth and how able they feel they
are to improve their own circumstanc-
es. A sense of achieving things in
school helps a young person to feel
motivated and positive about them-
selves.
Teachers understand the importance
of setting relevant and challenging
work for young people. Constructive
feedback on work can play a big part
in developing the skills and confidence
of young people.
We are always happy to hear from
parents if they have questions about
such things. If parents have any
doubts about their childrens learning,
it is better to raise there concerns
at an early stage.
We hope that as our systems for pro-
filing learning bed in this session and
next, and parents have better infor-
mation about their childrens progress
in learning, we can improve the per-
ceptions of parents about the wellbe-
ing of their children in school.
15
Planned Areas for Improvement
Out of Hours Learning
One of the weakest aspects of the recent survey of
parental perceptions was the range of extra-curricular
options that are available to young people in
Oldmachar Academy. We are working to share infor-
mation about such opportunities so that parents are
more aware of what we do. We also have specific
plans being developed for next session which are re-
ally exciting
Childrens University This session we are developing plans on behalf of
Aberdeen City Council to establish a Childrens Uni-
versity centre in Aberdeen. In this scheme, we work
with a range of partners to create different Out of
School Hours Learning opportunities for young peo-
ple. More information about this will be provided in
due course once our plans have evolved.
School Facilities
Our school facilities rated low again in the parental
survey. Some of the things that affect perceptions of
our facilities are beyond the schools control. We
have financial restrictions which affect the extent to
which we can deliver some of the improvements par-
ents might like to see. However, we will explore op-
tions again with our Parent Council. If any parent
has an idea about how we improve a particular as-
pect of the school, please let us know.
Upgrades to the Campus
We currently have plans in place to do the following
upgrades to facilities:
Toilet facilities in two areas will be improved
An upgraded ICT / Research Centre in D Block
Upgraded ICT servers to provide secure access
for mobile technologies in school
Continuous refresh and renovation of decoration
of corridors and classrooms
Nurture Space
Programmes of Work Related Learning
The recent survey identified Careers Advice as an
aspect that parents would like to see improved.
Since funding to Skills Development Scotland has re-
stricted the service they provide to us, we are being
driven to find other solutions. Partly, this will require
students to do more independent research about po-
tential careers. We will also be seeking new ways to
engage with partners, including parents.
Business Mentors
One thing we expanding is our use of Business Men-
tors. We have been part of a pilot scheme this year
involving Career Academies, which has seen a num-
ber of S5/S6 students benefit from weekly contact
with a mentor. This scheme really helps students to
focus on priorities. We hope to expand this pro-
gramme for next session. If any parent thinks they
could contribute to this scheme, please get in touch.
Feedback to Learners
We have been building new systems to improve feed-
back to young people in school. This involves a more
rigorous and structured use of Pupil Planners and use
of Tutor Time to allow young people to reflect on
their learning across the curriculum. This has had
particular benefits in engaging young people and giv-
ing them more control over their progress in learn-
ing. We will be building on this in future.
e-Portfolios
We have been building systems to communicate with
parents in different ways this session. These e-
portfolios are accessed through Glow (the Scottish
Schools Digital Network). We will be running work-
shops in due course to introduce parents to these
tools. We hope to improve these systems in future
and build on them.