Thank you to everyone who took the time to respond to our Family Survey which closed in September. Your positive comments were highly valued and shared with staff. Your constructive comments have resulted in a lot of discussion both to understand their context and to consider them with a view to improvement.

We summarise the overall results in the graphs below, as well as providing an overview of your constructive comments. The overview sets out the themes we've taken from these comments, along with actions and improvements aimed at addressing them. While we have reviewed and considered each comment, what is set out below is necessarily an overview. While the positive comments were extremely valuable to understand what is working well, the overview focuses on areas we are looking to improve.

Communication

A number of comments indicated that communication between school and families could be improved. Examples included last-minute communication, new starter communications, and, in one case, feedback later than parents would have liked.

It is fair to say that there have been a few things which have undercut the standard of communication over the last few years. These have included covid measures which disrupted both in-person communication as well as the predicable plan of the school year and regular events. Thanks to technology, information is often provided (and preferred) in disparate ways.

Here's what we've done to improve communications:

• Added a calendar to the newsletter and populated it with dates canvassed from teachers early in the school year. However, when opportunities arise on short notice, we'd prefer to seize them rather than miss out.
• Refreshed the school website with specific curriculum information for year groups.
• Kept the hybrid model for teacher meetings, so families can elect whether they prefer in-person or virtual meetings. This is working well for SEND reviews.

Here's what we'd ask of families to help ensure effective communication:

• Read the weekly newsletter and use the calendar dates included in it.
• Get the school app – click SZapp.
• Update the school of any change of mobile number or email address (via SZapp).
• Remember the school is communicating with a truly diverse group of families, with over 400 pupils across 7 school year groups, nursery and pre-school, in relation to a spectrum of events and circumstances.

School trips

A common theme was that you really value school trips and you'd like more. Dunalley values the rich experience for pupils that school trips afford too.

To facilitate school trips, we have:

• Re-established the Visits and Visitors programme (suspended due to covid measures).
• Re-started the regular schedule of class trips linked to curriculum (suspended due to covid measures). In 2023, we will put a summary of the trips usually undertaken by each year group on the website.
• Set up Parent Pay, so families can make extra contributions towards trips. We want these contributions to support families who need them.

To help with school trips, we’d ask you to:

• Pay for your children's trips when asked unless you are struggling financially. Where the full amount is not manageable, pay what your family can. We do our utmost to support our families in need and not contributing due to absentmindedness or an assumption the 'school will pay' takes resources away from those who really need them.
• Volunteer to accompany your child's year group if you're able.

Behaviour

A few comments raised past issues with behaviour, some were very general and some very specific. These included a lack of clarity on how bullying is dealt with.

The school has:

• A regularly updated Positive Behaviour Policy, Anti-Bullying Policy and Safeguarding Policy – which includes our Child Protection Policy.

• Provided training to all staff on these policies so they can address consistently unwanted behaviours.
• A robust PHSE curriculum which embeds positive behaviour in the school culture.
• An annual Anti-Bullying Week (this year in November) which raises awareness among pupils.

We'd ask you:

• Raise specific concerns quickly and directly with staff, either in-person or by sending an email to school. This should help to provide the full picture of what happened from everyone's perspective.
• Avoid speculating on WhatsApp groups as this can be counterproductive and lead to one-sided or inaccurate information.

Rewards

Some comments expressed disappointment about the lack certain rewards and merits (such as star of the week and wow vouchers), speculating on why these are no longer used.

The school has:

• Intentionally and deliberately moved away from these types of "extrinsic" rewards based on child psychology research showing that they can be counterproductive (see the explanation in our Positive Behaviour Policy).
• Ensured pupils are recognised for genuinely exceptional behaviour.
• In early 2020, provided a session for parents by Rob Long on this shift. In 2023, we'll re-share the key messages.

Parents can:

• Help your children to recognise the value of doing the right thing, simply because it is the right thing to do.

Clubs

Questions around consistency and fairness were raised in relation to opportunities, such as clubs. In relation to clubs, the lottery-like nature was said in one response to be discouraging.  

We can see how this perception could arise when looking at a small group of pupils without visibility across school, year groups and clubs. Club allocations by the school factor-in a broad matrix of considerations. These include:

• How many clubs are being offered (thanks to generosity of staff giving their time). See our Autumn 2022 Clubs.
• Number limits in each club, due to staff to child ratios (informed also by pupil numbers and time of day).
• Preferences of pupils and popularity of a given club (unknown until all submissions are in).
• A focus on levelling-up and giving pupils more in-school opportunities when their circumstances suggest this may be a fairer outcome.

To support clubs and opportunities for pupils, we'd ask that you:

• Collect (and drop off) your children on time for clubs.
• Volunteer to offer a club or support a club. This will increase the number of pupils it can be offered to.
• If you child doesn't what their place in a club, tell the school. This way, the place can go to another child.
• Prioritise club selections to those your kids are most interested in.
• Say thank you – all staff who offer clubs are giving their time, without their generosity we wouldn't have any clubs.

SEND: Special Educational Needs and Disabilities

Dunalley gives pupils with SEND the support they need to succeed - 79% of the responses were positive.

The comments received reflect the intensely individual nature of SEND provision. It also reflected how crucial parental support is.

To support our SEND pupils and their families we have:

• Continued to communicate with families who have children with SEND via an online portal (EduKey) and a specific email address.
• Offered a choice of virtual and in-person termly progress reviews and scheduled these well in advance.
• Recruited an assistant for the SENCO.
• Met with local authority representatives to discuss difficulties in accessing specialist support services for our families.
• Expanded our family support team.

We'd ask parents to:

• Attend termly progress reviews and help their child to achieve SEND targets.