Scotch College

Over 900 parents respond to survey

School’s performance measuring up well in the eyes of parents.

Words: SYD BOYDELL • DIRECTOR OF CURRICULUM AND RESEARCH Photography: Andrew Murdoch

Last year, Scotch received the results of a major parent feedback survey, conducted in June and covering both the Senior and Junior Schools.

We think it is the first time the School has tackled such a large survey, and we are very grateful to the 948 parents who took the time to complete it.

The survey was planned with the support and encouragement of the Scotch College Council, for which we are also grateful. It was planned after extensive consultation within the School, and delivered in both paper and online form in association with Insync Surveys, a Melbourne-based company specialising in surveys of this kind.

We are very thankful for the hard work done by Dr Peter Lewis during terms 1 and 2 last year to ensure its smooth implementation.

The survey comprised a large number of statements that parents could rate (on a 1 to 7 scale) for their importance and also the School’s performance. There was also space for free responses on a range of issues, including academic achievement, pastoral care, the co-curriculum, life preparation, communication and culture.

The average rating given by parents for each statement (a number between 1 and 7, with 1 indicating low importance or poor performance and 7 indicating high importance or excellent performance) has given us a good indication of the importance to parents of each statement, and also of how they feel the school is performing on each one.

The free response items give further insight into how parents feel about the School. Over 1,000 comments were made by parents in these sections.

In the Junior School, 51 of the 77 statements scored an importance rating of over 6, and only two scored less than 5. In terms of performance, 68 of the statements scored above 5. In the Senior School, there were 82 statements, and here 55 scored more than 6 on the importance scale (only three were below 5). In terms of performance, all but two scored over 5.

Together with the free response comments, the perceived gaps between the importance and performance ratings will help the School improve in areas of most concern to parents.

A brief preliminary summary of the results of the survey was made available to parents on the Scotch intranet through Learning Point in June (as part of the School Performance Information), and a fuller summary was published there in mid-September.

Members of the Scotch Family interested in further details about the survey and ongoing work on implementing the findings should contact Dr Syd Boydell (Director of Curriculum and Research) at the school on 9810 4321. GS