In the past week, the children have been completing their termly wellbeing survey. This is part of our continuing commitment to be pro-active around wellbeing. The children are asked about how safe they feel, how happy they are, how much they enjoy school etc. It’s all a very simple, yes/no/not sure click-box survey and the younger children get a bit of support to do it. There is one question about how children ‘rate’ school from:
- 1 star (I hate it)
- 2 (I’m not really keen)
- 3 (I like it well enough)
- 4 (I like it a lot) to
- 5 (I love, love, love it!)
Every single response is looked at, by class teachers, the Pastoral Team and senior leadership. Any concerning responses are followed-up, for example if a child says they feel lonely or unhappy about their learning. This time, we also included questions about feeling safe online and knowing what to do if there is online content that makes them uncomfortable. Any major concerns will be shared with the relevant families, so we can work together to rectify things.
99% of children (98.9% to be precise) rated their enjoyment of school at least 3 stars out of 5. All others will be followed up to make sure there is no underlying cause beyond just thinking that there are better things to be doing in life than being in school! Any who mentioned being lonely, not listened to, finding work too hard, will also be followed up.
Just over half of children (52%) gave 5 stars; another 33% gave 4 stars, totalling 85%. The main positives reported were being with friends, kind adults and enjoying some of the very Parkdale specific things like Parkdale Pines, iPads, daily enrichment/physical activity time, lots of art, clubs, trips etc.
The children were asked to briefly explain their star ratings. Some of our favourites included:
| 5. Because school is fun and amazing and I learn lots of different things and have iPads and do sports |
| 5. I learn something new every day and I love my teacher |
| 4. Because sometimes it is hard to get up in the morning but I still like school. |
| 4. Because I like school we have a laugh. I’d say 5 but sometimes we make our teacher grumpy. |
| 5. Because I like learning, we can be ourself, we can tell a teacher if something is wrong and you can spend time and play with your friends. |
| 4. I did 4 because Maths is a struggle for me, I do like Art and science and history, especially science because we do really cool experiments . I also Love playing with my besties…!! |
| 5. Because all of the teachers care about me and help me when I am worried |
| 5. I don’t really like waking up early but it’s amazing |
The best 3 star review was probably this classic: “I suppose it’s better than watching TV all day. You don’t really learn much doing that, do you”