ChildQuestion

Information in the event of emergency school closure

Useful links (including educational help and games for children).

tree

Back to governors pages Back to classes

Conclusions & results from the Children's Questionnaire 2008

Children’s Questionnaire Rationale

The annual children’s questionnaire enables children’s voice to be an active part in school development and evaluation process. This was appreciated and commented on by OFSTED.

"There is no school council but all the pupils are given extensive opportunities to voice an opinion."

OFSTED, June 2006

In Spring 2008 as part of the whole school evaluation and development, the annual children’s questionnaire was completed by every child present in the school in the Foundations Stage, and Key Stage 1 (Years 1 and 2).

In Spring 2007 the annual questionnaire was administered through a “hands-up” design to collect data to questions asked by the teachers in each class for each year group. One questionnaire was given to each class. However this year, the questionnaire was divided into two parts; one section for the child to complete and a second section for the class teacher to read in order to expand on the children’s views and their understanding and collect views from a whole class discussion. This was to eliminate any peer pressure to conform with the rest of the class to raise hands and also to give each child to understand the school values their honest opinion and the opportunity to complete a questionnaire as a ‘grown-up’.

The questionnaire was designed so that the section to be completed by the child could be read by an adult and the children were asked to respond either yes or no in most cases. Smiley face symbols J or L were added to help the children determine which column to record their responses. All pupils’ views were tallied and recorded.

All children have the right to feel safe at all times. The questions were designed to assess children’s ideas and opinions across all aspects of school life. These views were then evaluated to gain an understanding of the children’s perspective of well being and learning at Ashbrook School . Questions were also designed to address the children’s views on aspects of their learning; enjoyment of coming to school; how they learn; what or who helps us learn and what stops them from learning or is a barrier to their learning.

Whole class “layered” targets were also introduced in Spring 2008 with the aim to ensure that all children understood what they “must”, “should” and “could” achieve and a “challenge” target was introduced to ensure every child could experience a challenging situation.

The children’s views on the use of targets to support their learning and what they found easy or hard was questioned and how they recognised when a piece of work was good, or what to do when challenge is encountered.

Playtime is also an area which is questioned to ensure playtime is a fun. Enjoyment of playtime and how the children consider it could be made better is asked.

Creative Opportunities such as Fun Time Fridays and creative days are also areas which are discussed with the children.

Link to sample questionnaire

Link to responses & analysis

You will need Adobe Acrobat reader to view and print these, you can download it for free if you don't have it installed on your computer.