Knowing our Parents Ian Rowe General Manager, GL Performance Associate Governor – Newminster Middle School

Ofsted Annual Report, 2010/11 “Most commonly, the governing body knew too little about the school because monitoring was not rigorous or because over-generous self review judgements were accepted without sufficient challenge: at times of change and in an inherently challenging sector, they accepted too much on trust.”

New Ofsted Inspection Framework “Self-evaluation is now well established in schools, providing the basis for planning for development and improvement. Inspection takes account of and contributes to a school’s self-evaluation.” “The quality of its self-evaluation is a good indicator of the calibre of the school’s leaders and managers and of the school’s capability to improve.” When schools are first informed that they are to be inspected, they will be asked to provide Ofsted with a summary of their self-evaluation. This should include evidence from school stakeholders.

New Ofsted Inspection Framework “Inspections will give greater consideration to the views of parents, pupils and staff as important evidence.” Ofsted will draw on pupils’ and parents’ views to inform inspection judgements and they will strive to inform inspection activities by gathering the views of pupils and parents who have a significant interest in the school.

Parents – the key stakeholder?

Parent Power The Government is transforming the relationship schools have with parents. The thoughts and views of parents have never been more important in shaping the way schools are run. The SEN Green Paper emphasised the need for more parental choice in where and how their children are educated. The Bew Review for KS2 assessment called for a wider range of data to be made available to parents. The results of the new mandatory phonics screener at the end of Year 1 will be shared with parents. As part of the new Ofsted framework, parents have been given the power to trigger a school inspection.

ParentView Ofsted launched the ParentView website in October 2011: http://parentview.ofsted.gov.uk/ The website enables parents to share their views on their child’s school and it covers a range of topics, including quality of teaching, bullying, behaviour and levels of homework. The responses to the 12 closed questions that make up the questionnaire will help Ofsted decide which schools to inspect, and when.

Understanding your parents – An effective survey

“Evaluating parental opinions is not easy” “Response rates are usually poor and I have to question the quality of our data” “Recording and analysing the data can take days – normally during the school holidays” “What do my results really mean?”

An effective parental survey – Start with the end in mind What evidence do you need for your self evaluation? What evidence do you need to challenge assumptions from ParentView? What changes are you planning to implement? Are they the right ones? What changes have you implemented? Were they successful? .

An effective parental survey – Importance verses satisfaction Identify any disconnect

An effective parental survey Importance v satisfaction Qualitative v quantitative Reliability Feedback Focus groups Repeat annually .

Improving response rates Advertise Paper verses Online Pupil power Get teachers on board Incentivise Get the timing right Feedback Take action

Analysis Allow time and resource to enter the data Use the expertise at your disposal Understand and have confidence in your data 1 to 5 scale – standard error of the mean True / False – standard error of the proportion Read the qualitative results!

Be aware of parental bias Results Be aware of parental bias Kirkland Rowell Surveys 2011

Results Gender Analysis Year Group Analysis Weighted / Standardised data Historical data

The customer is always right? Don’t be alarmed by the results – you are measuring perception

Thank you Ian Rowe E: Ian.rowe@gl-performance.co.uk T: 0191 296 8270 W: www.gl-performance.co.uk