We felt we learnt a lot from the last long tranche of home learning and modified our approach to include more ‘live’ lessons and clear labelling of tasks.
Even so, after the first two weeks of January we recognised there were some possible changes which would make the process more straight-forward. We appreciated that if we could spot them, it was likely parents could too, and that there may be issues that parents flagged up which we might have missed.
Consequently, we set up an online survey for parents to complete which covered a range of home learning topics so we could get a good overview of provision before we took any necessary steps.
The results were very positive for our school and where issues were flagged up they were invariably what we spotted and helped us to make changes with confidence that families would be on board.
There were 252 responses, of which Year 7 (56) and Year 8 (62) parents provided got the most responses, whilst following Years steadily reduced in terms of feedback; Ie – Year 9 (41), Year 10 (40), Year 11 (31), Sixth Form (19):
My child is able to access the school’s remote learning platform (Teams and Satchel One [Show My Homework] via School Office 365 account).
Only 1 parent felt this was not the case so we are taking it that accessibility is not a concern.
My child is being set an appropriate amount of work set per day / week.
56% of parents felt there was an appropriate amount of work set. Even so, the overwhelming feedback from other parents was there was too much and so we will work to get a balance that works for both points of view.
My child is being set work that it appropriately challenge.
94% of parents felt the work was appropriately challenging but the feedback from the other 6% generally tied into there being too much work.
My child is getting sufficient contact with staff (Eg – Teams, phone calls, emails, Show My Homework messenger, etc).
86% of parents felt there was sufficient contact. The other comments were a mixed bag, but the largest out of these wanted more contact.
My child finds the ‘live’ sessions (via Teams) with their teachers useful.
86% of parents said their child found the ‘live’ session useful. The remaining 14% talked about wanting more sessions, issues with home access, issues with understanding how they worked, and others wanted longer teaching in the sessions.
My child knows how to access additional support from their teachers (via messages in Show My Homework, via e-mail, via ‘live’ sessions).
98% of parents felt their child was fine with this aspect – we have sought to contact the remaining 2% where we can to alleviate any difficulties.
My child receives an appropriate amount of feedback on the work they submit.
60% of parents felt the feedback was on track – though the remaining 40% generally wanted more.
My child understands how to stay safe online, including knowing how to use the school’s remote learning platform appropriately.
99% of parents felt their child was aware of how to be safe online. There was 1 response that felt this was not the case and we will look to make contact with them.
Year 7-9 ONLY – My child would benefit from reducing the home learning burden by scaling back HLAs (homework assignments)
78% of parents of Year 7-9 students felt that the HLAs were too much. This view was largely tied to having worked hard to get the classwork completed, the extra time needed for HLA was an extra straw too many on the camel’s back.
Matt Allman, Headteacher, said: “We are very grateful to those who completed the survey because the overwhelming feedback was very positive and this is a real boost. We desperately want to get this right for everyone. The more general issues that came up were aligned with our thinking so we will roll some changes out in response, and individual issues which came up will bring direct contact wherever the parent has given their name. We well understand home learning is about both sides pulling together and this is why we felt taking on the views of parents was vital.”
