The Fastest Way to Improve Your School
The fastest way to improve your school and boost staff, parent and student satisfaction is to identify and address the problems that annoy and frustrate people.
One of my biggest frustrations as a Principal were the ‘car park’ conversations that occurred before and after school. At around 8.30 am and 2.50 pm on most days, small groups of parents would congregate in the school car park. Sometimes they’d discuss the good and bad things that were happening around the world. More often than not they’d be whinging about some aspect of the school.
There always seemed to be something that was annoying them. I could generally tell how well we were going as a school by the severity of the issue they were complaining about.
If the issue was that the school had run out of paper towel in the toilets we were doing okay. If the issue was bullying or the poor standard of reading, I’d be more concerned.
However it was the 4.30 pm STAFF car park meetings that were EVEN MORE frustrating! After staff meetings I would often see staff, deep in conversation in the staff car park, complaining about an issue at school.
My greatest frustration was that both parents and staff seemed content to whinge to each other rather than raise the issue at school with someone who could help resolve the issue. Some people just seem to like to have something to whinge about.
I genuinely believe that the fastest way to improve your school and increase the satisfaction levels of all concerned is to identify the problems and then work towards addressing them.
I have specifically developed the SurveyMySchool instruments to support the leadership team to IMPROVE schools. The interactive format of the surveys identifies specific issues and potential solutions.
School opinion surveys that only provide data have VERY LIMITED use. Whilst data alone is helpful it can be misinterpreted and isn’t helpful if you don’t know what people’s specific concerns are.
SurveyMySchool is interactive. Respondents who express dissatisfaction with an aspect of the school are asked clarifying questions to provide further detail about their concern and potential solutions. The survey report provides useful information to improve the school and increase the satisfaction of staff, parents and students.
Click here for further informationSurvey My School overview
Or email steve@SurveyMySchool.com.au to start setting up a survey of staff, parents, students or ALL three.