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Parent Perceptions Outcome letter - 17.11.14



17th November 2014

 

Dear parents and carers,

What's Working at Wetheringsett?

A big thank you to everyone who returned the form or wrote on a post-it to let us know what they thought was and wasn't working well at our school.  Parents are a key part of our school community and your views are very important to us.

You told us lots of things that they feel are working well:

  • ‘Forest School – such a great thing for the children and they get so excited about it’
  •  ‘Great, friendly atmosphere at school encourages children to enjoy and learn’
  • ‘lunchtime clubs’
  • ‘parents standing outside the playground’
  • ‘swimming in the autumn term is better than in the summer term as the weather is not so good and swimming is inside’
  • ‘school lunch times – excellent!’
  • ‘Being able to drop off at 8.30’
  • ‘School clubs’
  • ‘Information sharing’

 

You also told us about areas that you felt were only working ‘okay’:

  • ‘Some teachers email homework and it would be helpful if all teachers could do that’
  • ‘Swimming has brought children on but it would be better throughout the year’

 

As well as areas that you didn’t feel were working well:

  • ‘parking’
  • ‘need after school club’
  • ‘communication is very poor’/ ‘communication does not always work’/
  • ‘communication between the office and school eg pick up, wrong date for Harvest in newsletter’
  • ‘with the recent news about children’s dental health I am not sure the Friday tuck shop gives the right message’
  • ‘short notice about the cross country’
  • ‘quality of school dinners is poor’


It has been really helpful to know these issues and some we have been able to address straight away. However other issues are more complex or beyond our control:

Issue

Our response

1. Homework emailed to parents

It is great that parents find this helpful.

I have asked all staff to do this from now on.

2. Swimming

Just one term’s swimming costs the school over £1000. We are also concerned with the amount of other curriculum time it cuts into – the children have 2hrs out of school and only ½ hr in the water!

We are fully supporting the Debenham Community Swimming Pool Project as we would be able to reduce the cost and time if children were able to swim there.

3. Parking

This is an ongoing issue. The school has been attempting to establish a drop off point for a while. The termly governing body’s letter to parents will update you on this shortly.

4. After school club

We would love to have wrap-around care, but unfortunately there is not the demand to make this cost effective. Several families use Jungle Cubs in Thorndon who drop off and collect from the school.

5. Communication

We try very hard to get communication right. Information about events is available on the school website and the noticeboard and through letters, fortnightly newsletter letters, termly curriculum letters from each class and the half termly WOW newsletter (also on the website).

Despite our best efforts, we are very busy and only human and we apologise if sometimes mistakes are made.

However, if there are specific times when communication does not work well or you have any suggestions as to how we could improve this, please let us know!

6. Short notice for the cross country event

Agreed! We have already shared our views on this with the organisers.

7. Tuck Shop

This is run by the Friends of the school, rather than the school and it is, of course, up to parents whether they let their children have anything.

However, I tend to think that a healthy diet is about balance and moderation. Having sweets just once a week supports this.

The Friends tell me that they have added some healthy snacks, but no one has yet bought any of them!

8. School dinner quality

There have been some issues with the quality of some of the meals which I have shared with our provider, Eats.

 

 

We are always interested in what you think, (both positive and negative), so please feel free to approach me at any other time.

 

Thank you again for sharing your views with us and for your continued support for the school.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

Vicky Doherty

Headteacher 



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