ICT matters {TECHNO GEEK}
Techno Geek
Our survey said... SIMON HEPBURN, founder of Marketing Advice for Schools and a keen user of online surveys, tells us why online surveys are a useful tool for schools
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ll schools will have become used to surveys in recent years – not least because of the introduction of Ofsted’s Parent View questionnaire in 2011. However, there are many other reasons for schools to use surveys, and the number of tools you can use, and their sophistication, is increasing. This article suggests some ways schools can try these out!
WHY SHOULD SCHOOLS CONDUCT SURVEYS? Among the reasons schools can use online surveys are... ● T o quickly gather information from parents – the COVID pandemic threw up situations where schools needed to find out quickly whether parents were eligible for ‘key worker’ places for their children, or had carried out tests at home
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– and surveys proved a lot faster than letters or telephone calls in doing this. F or teaching purposes – as a part-time teacher I’ve written surveys that ask my students to feedback which topics they are confident (or less confident) about – and they’re also great for low-stakes quizzing if you have to teach remotely. T o explore potential changes in the school, such as introducing wrap-around care, and see what parents and other stakeholders think of them. F or marketing purposes – to find out how the school is perceived, and which areas are seen as strengths and areas for improvement. T o prepare parents for inspection – the most cynical use of surveys, but there is an argument that familiarising parents with how to fill them in will help improve the return in Parent View and tools used by other inspection bodies.
