I think parents are bored with our annual survey. I know I am. To facilitate statistical analysis, we do not change the questions from year to year and we ask for a return for each child. Parents with two or three children passing through over a number of years must experience a dispiriting sense of dej... vu every April.
Certainly the return rate has dropped off, to less than half last year, and the outcomes have become predictable. We score high on pastoral issues and most parents would recommend the school. Dealing with unacceptable behaviour (of other people’s children, naturally) and homework aways produce the lowest scores. These are the subjects the vociferous minority of parents who turn up to the annual meeting want to discuss, too. We decided this year to try for the majority view: put the main survey on ice for a year and send out a detailed one on homework.
We had 21 replies representing slightly more than 10 per cent of our pupils, and yes, they all want more homework and they want it marked.
They give the impression they would like the children beaten for non-compliance. We hope the silent majority are happy with the status quo, but it would help if they said so.
