Remote Education Parent Questionnaire February 2021 (Summary of 94 Responses)

 

Thank you to all of the 94 parents who completed our Remote Education questionnaire.  As a result of school closures in January we were keen to assess our remote provision and identify areas for consideration moving forward.

 

A collation of the questionnaire responses indicates you are overwhelmingly delighted with the remote offer – thank you for your kind responses.  We have NEVER had so many positive comments – thank you for taking the time to write in such great numbers.  It means so much!  We are proud of our staff work who have met the challenges of remote education to offer the best possible alternative in such difficult times.   We are also so grateful for the support you have provided despite the pressures of your work situations.

 

As always we welcome your feedback on how we can improve and we will try to implement suggested changes where possible:  We have tried to respond to all areas identified below so we hope this answers any queries you raised.

 

REMOTE EDUCATION	RATING
	Home	School		Home and school
My child is learning from	57%	3%		40%
	Agree		Disagree
I am happy with the current remote learning offer	94%		6%
I am /my child is aware of the safeguarding, behaviour and e safety expectations in relation to home learning	100%		0%
I have suitable electronic devices at home to support my child’s remote learning	92%		8%
I have suitable resources for my child to record their written work	98%		2%
Live learning sessions are useful to support my child’s understanding of activities set	96%		4%
My child/I can navigate the weekly Google classroom resources	98%		2%
I am happy with range of activities available via Google Classroom	94%		6%
I am happy with the feedback my child is receiving in relation to work handed in	95%		5%
Teachers/school staff are available to support as needed	97%		3%
School communication regarding remote education is clear (newsletters/website/videos etc)	100%		0%
	Just right	Too little		Too much
My child is receiving appropriate level of independent work across the week	90%	4%		6%

 

 

There were so many positives identified we have decided to include them ALL!  Thank you!  We have removed sensitive / personal information:

 

Strengths

Work seems to be at the right ability for both of my children. Recapping what’s already been taught in school and just trying to expand a little – not expecting too much of parents. Setting up live learning. This is a vast improvement from the first lockdown. My child looks forward to logging on each day to her lessons and completing her work.  Through this method I now feel that the children are able to continue with their education.  In the first lockdown it was a daily chore trying to engage my child.  From a parent’s perspective having to work at home some days, my child is able to independently log on and complete her work with little support from myself, allowing me to continue to work at the same time.  It has also been lovely for the class to see each other through the live lessons, which is very important for all our children’s mental health. Daily assignments that are manageable in the home schooling environment. Easy to ask questions and always get quick response from teachers Provides much needed interaction for my child and allows him to join in prayers & assemblies. My child’s teacher has supported with their understanding to allow them to continue with his work. Much needed, as apparently, ‘I am a terrible teacher!’ Fun, age appropriate and engaging. Really pleased with the offer. All of it is excellent – the support received from the teacher to be able to use it to its full potential. It is clear school staff are working so hard to support each and every child (at home and in school). Thank you for all you are doing to keep in touch also. The work and videos are uploaded everyday at 9am. We find this better than before when it was uploaded later and we had to do the live session at 10am as it is not always easy for us to access this so we like being able to watch the recorded video lessons. It is also nice that there is the option to go on Google meet at 10.30. We don’t do this every day but try to a few times a week. The remote learning is amazing, the teachers ensure all children have a chance to answer and are listened to. The tasks are great and other options are available if resources aren’t available. Easy to operate. Teachers are fantastic as a point of contact for the children and to offer that bit of normality. The live session gives the day a focal point and prompts my child to do the work. Without it, my child would be difficult to motivate and wouldn’t ‘see the point’ of doing it just because I’ve asked her to). You are all doing a fantastic job. I really appreciate the hard work. Workload is manageable for the children to work independently. Feedback on work is appropriate and tells my child how to improve if required. Feedback is personalised to the child’s needs It’s very well organised. The use of quizzes is motivating. The Google meet helps maintain a sense of community and it’s great that they still pray together My child’s teacher is amazing, the engagement they bring to the lessons with the students is great. The effort of the recorded sessions are really good – it allows the students to work at their own speed and review sections. Lots of sessions for them to attend, including additional support on tasks. The remote education that has been offered is excellent; there is a good range of subjects on a daily basis and a mixture of practical and hands on activities. It is fantastic that not all tasks require the children to be sat at a screen for prolonged periods of time. The staff are very engaging during live lessons and the opinion of a drop in session on an afternoon are great support for the children when they have found something difficult. I can’t praise the staff enough for what they have achieved in such a short period of time to support the children both at home and in school – a massive thank you to all the staff. My child’s teacher is a great help. Very supportive. Varied lessons All work is put on in advance so easy to plan and print things out ready for the week. Google meet classes are very engaging for all the years my children are in and they enjoy attending. The school have been brilliant with communication. The daily live meets are lovely for the children to see their teachers and some of the other children in their class. My child is always engaged and the teachers are great at leading it – thank you. The work set is an appropriate mix of work that can be completed independently and with limited support. Feedback has been constructive but motivates my child to work hard each day. My child’s teacher is working very hard to support their learning at home and I am very grateful for all their hard work and effort. Thank you Teachers are going the extra mile as always to try and engage and teach the children Well planned and accessible resources. A variety of ways for students to access. Providing a calm and caring learning environment as always! The everyday online sessions with class teacher and assemblies Daily morning meet with class and my child’s teacher giving guidance on tasks set. The teacher is very good with IT. Voice notes etc. The pre-recorded lessons are fantastic. Engaging, fun lessons that fully explain what’s required of them and daily drop in sessions Communication Thank you to all the staff who are doing a wonderful job in very difficult circumstances. We really appreciate all the help and support you provide! The daily live lessons provides great structure and gets the children ready for their work. In particular, thank you to my child’s teacher who does lovely pre-recorded videos to teach the children and explain some difficult concepts. She always responds to private comments on google classroom and sets a thorough work timetable in advance so we can plan the work. We are very grateful for all the hard work the EYFS team are doing and the support you provide. The live lessons are great and the work set is variable so we can choose what is most appropriate for our child and resources at home. We can’t imagine how difficult your work is at the moment and we feel lucky our children are at such a lovely supportive school – thank you! Goggle classroom is good for younger children to navigate, easy to downloading resources and we enjoy house meeting videos. Morning live lessons are great / PE sessions / School assemblies Top class learning support and resources are provided. Students can easily access the support from staff if they need to. Both my children’s teachers have gone above and beyond. Short video’s to model answers and give clear expectations are excellent. Love the way all her resources in one place under the appropriate day – makes it very easy for parents to find and print resources and to submit work. Can’t praise St Bernadette’s staff enough for their learning support and their emotional support for families. Excellent. Different topics each day. Teachers providing examples of how to do things. Opportunity in the afternoon to drop in if any issues. Amazingly fast feedback if children send a private message to the teacher. Teachers school understanding if parents struggle to teach children how to do something, if parents don’t know how themselves. I like when teachers ring from time to time to ask how learning at home is going. House meetings/assemblies that take place so children can see the HTs. Opportunity for daily contact with teachers / school So well presented, daily updates, clearly identifies how you can ask for help. I like how children can message their teachers about their work. Amazing fast feedback. opportunity to discuss any work. Chance to see the teachers face and listen to the teacher during the lesson. Organisation of Google Classroom. Recorded sessions. Recorded stories with teachers. Variety of tasks. Feedback from teachers. Morning Live lessons are really helpful to bring structure, routine and some formality to home-schooling, so the children know they have to be ready for a certain time each day and they can be told directly by their teachers what work is expected for the day. The teachers are doing a wonderful job to still engage with children who have to be at home, to recognise how well they are working and encourage them for it. The live lessons so the children can see their teacher as well as their friends. A good mix of fun, support and teaching. My child is really pleased when they get to answer questions! Wonderful caring staff that go above and beyond for students. Both my husband and I still have to go into work to teach so knowing that my son is happy going into school and enjoying it is testament to the amazing staff. The teachers who plan and prepare the work to go online. Clear and easy to use. It’s very easy for children to understand and my young child can manage the days she needs to get on on her own Support from teachers We are extremely grateful for the support offered to our child. The live lessons drop-in sessions and videos for each lesson are an excellent mix. We realise that not all schools offer this level of support so a huge thank you to you all for the amount of hard work that is put in to delivering home learning. The teachers have shown a lot of dedication and have put in a lot of hard work to ensure that our children’s needs are being met as best as possible. A huge thank you to all. Teachers always available if there’s any problems Variety of work and support from staff Teacher’s engagement with the children, the organisation and support of everything has been amazing. Students have the freedom & control of their own studies My children are mostly in school, however when at home I can easily find out what the daily timetable is to enable us to prepare for the day ahead. The google meets are informative and also interesting for the children and the work instructions on google classroom are very easy to follow for the set tasks. System is simple and easy to access. Both children feel happy and confident accessing the work online. Under the difficult circumstances, staff are doing an excellent job at engaging the children and meeting their individual needs. Both my children feel able to contact their teacher to ask for further support when needed. The amount of work is both challenging yet manageable. Live lessons Time table of work is available in good time for the week/day ahead, communication of whole school events Variety of tasks, pre recorded demos/PE lessons My child’s teacher has provided a varied and balanced curriculum that is easy for the children to follow at home. They are always available if help is needed & gives the children clear guidance. The morning input is great for keeping the children engaged together a class. Daily prayers & just dance etc are a welcome addition to the academic studies. Easy to navigate, clear instructions, live lessons There is plenty of communication between the pupil and the school staff which helps to not lose the one big family feel the school has. The activities that have been sent out are always fun and possible to carry out at home. We are really grateful for this service. Having the live sessions are brilliant for the children and maintaining contact with us throughout the week. Interesting activities linked to school topics and relevant videos. Daily practice of key areas such as phonics, maths. It is clear staff are working exceptionally hard to provide resources and activities online. Really like the recorded verbal feedback. Makes a huge difference to child’s confidence and achievement. Amazing support from teaching staff; my child feels confident, both in and out of school, to learn and complete the work expected of them. Lessons are well structured and give my child the feeling of being in school, so allow her to concentrate as normal. The support that is given The offer is definitely better than the offer between March and July 2020. Easy contact and support You are all doing a great job in these difficult time. Thank you. The resources on there are perfect and applicable to my child. It is clear what is expected of them and the teachers always respond in a timely manner and are very positive. My child is very happy being in school and learning from home, so I thank every one of you for all the support and hard work. Very happy with the provision. Really well done so far – so thank you! Your efforts are really appreciated It works brilliantly. We have been very happy and impressed with the content/engagement/personal contact the remote provides – my child is very comfortable and able to navigate the online content. It is really nice to hear their involvement and to see friends in the live lessons. I think the service provided is excellent.

 

 

 

Please see our responses in relation to parents who identified areas for improvement:

 

Comment:  Some parents asked us to consider varying our weekly timetables to maintain enthusiasm and engagement

Response: We completely agree with you!  We have been delighted with the way children have engaged in our remote offer and the way they are responding to their core learning (Maths, English, RE, Science and Topic).  In recent weeks, you will have hopefully noticed how teachers have been adding further to this coverage and lots of children have been joining live PE lessons, partaking in French activities, engaging in well being activities, joining us for assemblies and completing Kahoot quizzes! We will continue to be mindful of this and will be adding afternoon experiences following half term such as Well being Wednesdays’ or Fun filled Friday’s to encourage wider activities such as further quizzes, baking, painting or even going for a wall (with an adult)! We hope this allows children (and you) a bit of ‘downtime’ so they are refreshed and eager to maintain their enthusiastic responses to their essential learning.

A lovely way to connect with children in these stressful time is reading together, as such we hope you enjoy engaging in our new online reading content.  Reading opens the door to so many opportunities and whilst we appreciate nothing replaces a physical book we hope this experience allows you opportunity to support your child in this essential skill.  Please let us know as you practice 100 reads (N-Y6) or 50 Maths practices (Y1-6) and we will celebrate and reward child via our House meets!

 

Comment:  A few parents felt pressured to complete all work

Response: Although we encourage children to complete all daily activities we understand the strain you are all under at present.  Please focus on Maths (daily activities and Maths skills booklets/timetables) and English (writing, handwriting, spelling and reading).  As outlined above, children love the wider curriculum coverage but it may not be possible to complete all activities every day.  Depending on age and stage, children can access tasks with varying independence.  Particularly the younger children, we appreciate the time commitment to complete activities. So please don’t be too harsh on yourselves and keep doing what you can!

Where children struggle to access curriculum content or conversely require additional work please contact teachers on an individual basis or inform them via your welfare calls.  Teachers are already setting specific work on an individual basis via Google Classroom where necessary for a limited number of pupils or offering short drop in sessions on an afternoon to support anyone struggling for any reason. 

 

Comment:  A few parents requested further live learning opportunities / recording.

Response: As a school we do not believe it is right for our children to learn from a screen for the full day.  We believe this could have a detrimental impact on children’s emotional and physical well being.  Not all children respond well to live lessons and as reflected on our survey, a few find them ‘overwhelming’ or ‘confusing’.  Therefore we try to offer a blended approach which includes live learning offers with material children can access independently eg worksheets and pre recorded inputs which can be stopped and replayed.  All classes offer at least two live experiences and we try to offer a flexible approach that is considerate of number of devices children have at home – hence a staggered approach to our live lessons – but also, where necessary, teachers can add additional live lessons as needed for their class/groups of children. 

In terms of recording live lessons, as things stand we will not be sharing these via Google classroom as lessons can vary in length and re-watching recorded live lessons may not be the best vehicle to support your children in accessing their learning.  Teachers always try to add detail to their tasks so it is clear what is expected for each task. Children are also encouraged to drop back to afternoon live lessons to clarify learning from that day or indeed another day’s learning where they have struggled or missed content.  As always though, please just inform teachers if you are struggling to understand/support your child and they will soon rectify any concerns/issues.

 

Comment:  A few parents asked about resources being available in advance of the day.  

Response: Teachers often schedule work to be available following live lessons as we find many children often try to complete work in advance of the day if we upload it all in bulk.  As a result, once children have received their input, their completed work is of a higher standard.  It is also easier for teachers to track and respond to completed work.  Where this presents an issue please contact the school office/your child’s class teacher and we will print or assign work via the Google classroom in advance of the day so you have work available in advance.

 

Comment:  A few parents found resources an issue  (physical and technical)

Response: A small proportion of parents commented that access to suitable devices was an issue – we have requested parents inform school if you need any further devices via our regular communication.  We have a small number of ipads in school which we can loan so if this applies to you please contact the school office for further information. We appreciate that at times technology at home or in school will provide a barrier to our remote offer.  We have improved our school Wi-Fi to lessen occasional issues relating to poor connectivity but unfortunately technology will let us down from time to time.

Again we understand children are completing so many tasks at home and may require additional exercise books. Please contact school if you require anything (books/pencils/pens/rulers etc) –  we would appreciate you collecting books via the school office.

 

Comment:  One parent relayed concerns connected to progress

Response: We completely understand your concern and agree it is a worrying time.  Children have received an unavoidable disruptive education offer since March 2020.  On return to school in September, children initially focussed heavily on key skills (English and Maths) as well as emotional and physical well being as outlined in our ‘Recovery model’.  We were delighted with how the children returned and began our wider curriculum offer from November. The vast majority of children caught up academically and as a result we have continued to teach our planned Spring content during school closures.  From home, the majority of children have been handing in their work, meeting our expected standards. Although we understand some of this will inevitably be supported, we will establish some baselining of children on return to ensure we accurately assess their gaps to ensure essential learning is not missed.  Where gaps have been identified, teaching content will be planned on an individual, small group or whole class basis.  Please try not to worry, we are so proud of your resistant children and will ensure we continue support them and help them progress in every way in the coming weeks, months and years ahead.

 

Comment:  One parent commented on Twitter content

Response: We have deliberately limited Twitter content since lockdown and are mindful of trying to balance celebrating home and school learning.   Our social media platforms are a really successful way informing (school and national news), motivating children and connecting with our local community in shared experiences.  We are proud of all our children in home and our key worker/vulnerable children in school and as such will try to use Twitter to help you stay connected.

 

 

Many thanks for your feedback.  We hope these responses answer your queries.  We have contacted some parents individually already where names were attached but if anyone wants to discuss anything further please do not hesitate to make contact so we can discuss it privately.  We hope to see a full return of all children from March but in the meantime please maintain your excellent engagement – it is making such a difference. THANK YOU!

 

 

Kind regards

Mr P Conway                            Miss S Brady

Head Teacher                           Head of School