Parent Questionnaire June 2023

Parent Questionnaire June 2023 feedback for parents

Many thanks to all parents who took time to complete the questionnaire last month.

Key areas of success

• My child is happy at school

97% of you stated that your child is happy at Muscliff; this is something which we are very pleased with (and will work hard to get to 100%!)

• My child does well at this school

97% of parents feel their child does well at Muscliff which is really great to hear, as we want to ensure that ALL children do well at our school… in so many ways – academically and also socially, emotionally, physically. We are really proud of the strong curriculum we have developed, the love of reading, the focus we have on supporting children to develop values of resilience, curiosity, responsibility, kindness and aspiration.   

• The school makes me aware of what my child will learn during the year.

There has been an improvement from 87% to 94% in the responses for this statement.

Over the past year we have looked at the curriculum information and class pages content on the website. We have created brand new 'class pages' that are consistently presented in every year group. These include up to date learning overviews, subject content, recommended reads, letters and other relevant information. We have also updated the curriculum pages so you can see the clear progression of knowledge and skills taught in each subject (history, science etc) across the school.  We also revamped the 'Curriculum meetings' last September to provide better information about the expectation of the children's learning by the end of the year and how you can support them in specific aspects of reading, writing and maths. We plan to hold these again in September; Thurs 14^th Y6, Tues 19^th Y3, Wed 20^th Y1, Thurs 21^st Y5, Wed 27^th Y2, Thurs 28^th Y4; all starting at 5.30pm.

• I am welcomed by the office staff and my queries are dealt with efficiently and competently.

98% of parents agree with this statement. Our office staff go over and above for staff, children, parents and visitors! Everyone who enters the school comments on how friendly, welcoming and accommodating the ladies are.

• I would recommend Muscliff to another family

We were very pleased that 97% of you stated that you would recommend Muscliff to another family. We continue to be very proud of our school and glad that you are too.

Areas of Development

• The school has high expectations of my child

13% of you stated that you didn’t feel the above was true, so this coming year we are going to make sure that you are better informed of our high expectations for every child, and what it looks like in each year group. In addition, some parents (8%) said they do not feel there is a good range of subjects available. Like all community schools, we teach all subjects within the National Curriculum. However, we have previously called this ‘Topic’ (which is an out-dated term and not reflective of our new bespoke curriculum). Next year, we won’t be calling the subjects ‘Topic’ – each subject will be referred to individually and we will be more explicit about the range of subjects and areas of learning that your child is focusing on.

• My child receives appropriate homework

This statement received a better response than last year, but is still lower than other aspects of our questionnaire.

Inevitably, homework will continue to divide opinion amongst parents with some parents feeling there is too much and some parents feeling there is not enough. At Muscliff we try to strike a happy medium. We recognise that for many children homework can be a real challenge given other commitments and obstacles so we aim to provide activities which will be engaging, relevant and lasting the right amount of time, that reinforce the learning that has taken place in school, and can be a mixture of online and non-screen options.

One of the comments that came from a few parents was that the teachers don’t give adequate feedback to enable the children to feel it is worth doing. This is always a dilemma and the rationale for our approach is rooted in research. In short, the directed time a teacher would take to feedback on homework would have more impact if spent working with the children instead. Responding to 30 children’s homework takes anywhere from 30 mins to an hour or so. Simply put, we believe that directed time is better invested in a teacher reading with a group of children than marking homework (that you’ve likely supported your child with anyway). We also believe that the focus of homework is more about keeping families aware of what’s going on in school and discussing the current learning rather than the focus just being on task completion.

• My child has been bullied and the school dealt with the bullying quickly and effectively

Although overall 90.5% of parents said they had either no experience of bullying, or that it was dealt with quickly, it still concerns us that 9.5% of parents do not agree. Any bullying is not accepted at Muscliff, and we will look at our approach and strategies, including teaching for children and parents around what ‘bullying’ is, and how we will manage it. This will be part of a wider project on engaging more parents with the school.

Parental Comments

We received an enormous number of individual comments about the school which we were pleased about. There was a lot of consensus about the school’s strengths; with particular mentions for:

• the close sense of community,
• having time for each child individually,
• strong sense of values,
• good communication with teachers,
• well behaved children,
• caring staff,
• SEND provision,
• inclusion of all,
• and the open door, warm, welcoming and nurturing ethos.  

We were really pleased to receive constructive feedback and ideas for how we can better support parents to feel involved. As a result we plan to provide more opportunities next year for parents to see their children’s work, through after school drop-ins/ book looks. We will also ensure that key information is not lost in the newsletter, that dates are sent out separately as reminders, and that parents are given an overview of available extra-curricular activities, as well as more information about the ways the curriculum is enhanced with opportunities for the children to learn new skills – languages, cultures, music and sport.  

All comments will be carefully considered as we set our school improvement priorities for 2023-24.

Thank you so much for your feedback.

Sarah Fenby

Head teacher

18th July 2023