Home Learning, Insight and Parent Forum feedback
Thank you for the thirty plus parents who attended the parent form on the evening of Thursday 13 October. The presentations on home learning and our new parental engagement software were well received and fueled lots of useful questions and comments. As I said on the evening, whilst we trialed the software internally before the summer, we knew that the only way to truly learn what works and what doesn’t, would be by introducing it for the whole school. We are providing parents with a huge amount of real time information, making it important for us to help parents learn how to respond to it appropriately, as well as supporting staff and students to use it.
Whilst most parents said they really liked the new system and were pleased with the amount of information now available, the main questions raised at parent forum are below with some solutions or comments in blue next to them.
The app doesn’t work. We didn’t even know there was one because we haven’t yet bought into this module! We will ask for a trial to see how effective it is and keep you informed. In the meantime, please use it via the internet as normal.
The homework shows as “overdue” when it isn’t. This is a problem that isn’t easy to solve. We wanted to turn the ‘signing in’ function off as it is not the normal way of operating for us at the moment. Unfortunately, this then shows the assignments as zero on the front page. We took a vote from parents and decided that it was best to leave it there but to let you know as parents not to worry about the “overdue” comment at the moment. Once we have the main parts of the system working consistently, we may revisit this.
Assessment page confusion over language. There is a guidance document for parents on the community page of the website and we will place a link on the front page of insight.
Rewards and Behaviour points/comments are really useful. Are rewards given consistently and what do they get? Our new rewards system is available to view on the website. We are encouraging staff, particularly in the older year groups, to use this function.
Examples of mistakes/missing class register marks. We are providing parents with a huge amount of information ‘warts and all’. Teachers are human and are busy teaching in lessons, meaning they sometimes make mistakes. However, having transparent information will allow us to follow up and hopefully reduce the likelihood of this happening.
Some concern about lack of homework being set in some year groups. It may be that staff are still using the planner and not the software. We will run a report and follow this up with teachers and students where appropriate. Please do contact a teacher, tutor, curriculum leader or Head of Year if you feel this is an ongoing issue.
Speed is an issue. We are working on this with the software company at the moment and will keep you informed.
In general, some of the functions that are causing confusion will be removed. My main plea is for you to bear with us whilst we develop the use of this really powerful software and to keep providing us with constructive feedback. To try and support this process, I will make sure there is a regular update on the system in the newsletter, of which this is the first!
Ashley Tomlin Principal Deputy Head
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