Ofsted parents survey question for teachers

[Shouldidothis]

Hi, have name changed for this as details may be identifying.

We have had notice of an ofsted inspection at dd's school. There is an accompanying parents survey.
Now, there are many issues that I would like to mention to the inspectors on this survey, not least of which is the ineffectual bullying policy, which has let down not only dd, but at least two other girls that I'm aware of. (not dealing with issues seriously, and trivialising low level bullying).

Not properly stretching the most able children, and constantly sending home information written by the teacher which has been misspelled!

So, will the inspectors share info from the survey word for word with the head? Because if so, I really don't feel I can be completely honest, as it would be honest it was me. (I have previously been to the deputy head with all these issues).

Thanks

As it would be obvious it was me

Yes, they will. But your name is not on the form, so they won't say such and such said this.
Perhaps it will get the attention your daughter needs especially if the other parents report it too.

I take it the survey cannot be filled in anonymously. I don't know the answer but I think you should seriously consider being completely honest regardless. This is a serious opportunity to put right these issues and it would be a real shame to miss that.

I would encourage you to fill the form in with total honesty and encourage the other parents to do the same. Make the system work for you.

Why would you be worried? The School need to do something about this. It's important to your daughter. As long as you are not being malicious, I don't see what the problem is with pointing this out.

I worry that there might be negative repercussions for dd (although I can't imagine what they might be). The school apparently only narrowly missed out on outstanding last time, and though I personally think they are far from that at the moment, I am sure that will be the goal.

Happy wheezer - are you a teacher? If I specifically raise an issue, will the inspectors look into that issue during the visit or simply feedback to the school general parental concerns. How much influence/effect would it actually have?

Yes, you must tell the Ofsted Inspector about your concerns.
You could hand the questionnaire to the Inspector personally. You could mark it ?Private and confidential? leave it in the school office for them.

You could also approach one of the School Governors about your concerns. The Governor should check that your concerns are being addressed and the correct procedures are been followed.

There should be no surprises for the school in the parental questionnaire.
If what you say is correct then it is important for the children that these problems are sorted out.

At the school I teach at we had the pleasure of Ofsted's company back in September. The responses to questionnaires completed by staff, parents and children were analysed by 'Data Man' who then gave his findings to the Lead Inspector. Where issues were highlighted these were explored with the Headteacher and, where appropriate, with the year groups concerned or the school council.

When you complete the questionnaire you can only comment on the experience of your own child/ren. If lots of people comment upon the anti-bullying policy being ineffective then it will come out in the analysis and the Headteacher etc. will be asked about it in depth. If lots of parents feel their children are not stretched then that too will be explored but Ofsted is very data driven. If evidence suggests that there are a group of disgruntled parents who all think their children are extremely bright and all choose to complain to Ofsted that the homework isn't up to much there is a chance that the point you are trying to make may be missed in amongst the comments/ratings of other parents.

From my experience the actual teachers are told very little of any use in terms of questionnaire outcomes; we were told that X% of children didn't feel safe in the school. That was it - no information about which year group that was thus no opportunity for us, as teachers, to address that situation. It was a missed opportunity because had we been told it was Y3 and that the issue was that they didn't like using the same loos as Y6 then we could have done something to sort that out. Guessing isn't going to improve anything.

Just a small word of advice here, from experience. If you wish your comments to be anonymous, then don't send the survey back in your child's schoolbag, in an unsealed envelope...

Just saying...

You can actually ask to speak with an Inspector,I believe. This happened at our recent inspection.

there should be a number to ring them on if you don't want to put your concerns in writing
you can express your concerns discretely without giving your name or identifying details

My ds's school is being inspected this coming week. We've received a parent questionaire and there is a number on the front to call the inspection team. It also makes it clear is all confidential. It would be pretty pointless if it wasn't wouldn't it because then no one would ever complain and schools would not be pulled up on things if they had to. I used the form to feedback what I thought they were doing exceptionally well as as things I thought could be improved.

If there is a pattern to the responses to the parental forms then the Ofsted team will look to try and corroborate that belief. In terms of bullying they will be asking pupils about bullying and seeing whether they understand what bullying is and what the pupils thinks happens in the school. They will also potentially look at the complaints into school to see if there are any patterns there.

Having said that it is quite difficult to substantiate something like bullying being an issue. No school is immune from bullying, it is how it is handled that is important and I suspect that would be the approach that Ofsted would take. What evidence do the school have that incidents of bullying are not tolerated and something is done when it happens.

Well. Update to this thread......

School have been awarded an 'outstanding' by ofsted. As expected. On the day, I handed in my questionnaire in a sealed envelope addressed to ofsted inspector as instructed by the letter home. I was hones and wrote all my concerns, although there wasn't much space to expand as the questions were to be answered by tick box - strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree, with just a small box at the bottom to add comments.

There was one particular question which said 'the school deals effectively with unacceptable behaviour. I answered 'strongly disagree', as did one of the other mothers who I'm friendly with as her dd had the same issues. (different year group).

Anyhow, report comes out, and part of it Is the responses from parent questionnaires. It is in summary form, so each question has the number of responses for each answer (with me so far?). So for example 'the school keeps my child safe' - agree '76' etc.

Except that the question 'the school deals effectively with unacceptable behaviour' had number strongly disagreeing '0' .

Where did our sealed envelopes go?

I've rung ofsted and all they could say was 'well did you take a copy, and we would only have your word that you handed it in. It's fair to say, I'm a bit pissed off.

This school has somehow removed those questionnaires. Of course I cannot prove a thing.

It may not be the school. I know a pupil I dealt with with filled (with great difficulty) his questionnaire in when OFSTED visited, he was obviously in the 0% category in the results too. He was very disgruntled, but I'm pretty sure the school had no time to go through the questionnaires to weed his out. A long established teacher there was amazed by the OFSTED comments about lack of bullying too (the school tried, but there was bullying).

I suspect Ofsted wants to lose such questionnaires. I also know that written complaints about schools have been sent to the, and nothing was done/investigated.

I would raise it with OFSTED.

Having said that I think there is a tendency to ignore/whitewash the questionaire. I wrote something negative on one several years ago, and subsequestly found someone else had independently made the same comment. The letter to pupils included the phrase "no parents had anything negative to say about the school". I know the questionaire went in, and I am absolutely certain no one would have removed/doctored it.

Locally a secondary school had an important ofsted. The country really wanted them to be outstanding because they wanted them to take over a failing school. Hey presto... outstanding. I was speaking to someone who had what I would regard as a serious issue in her dc's form. She had written it on the questionaire, and knew of 8 other parents in the same form that had written similar. The information to parents said "some minor unsubstansiated quibbles". Try telling me ofsted weren't leant on heavily!

I had not thought Ofsted could be influenced. (By who? The LEA?). Is that naive of me? I was under the impression that they were an Independant body. I had assumed it must be the school, as all the envelopes went in to the school office.

Something similar happened at my DC school. I think they binned mine and

I'm guessing its the same with primary schools..... with secondary schools, the OFSTED team will have made up their mind what grading a school will get before the inspection starts simply on the basis of the data. They come in to confirm this rating and it rarely changes from the original.