Service Children's Education:Survey of Parental Views 2006

The findings from the surveys reflect the views of a sample of parents across nearly all the Foundation Stage 1 (FS1) settings, primary and secondary schools supported by Service Children's Education. In general, parents’ views were mainly positive and the majority of parents were satisfied with the education their child was receiving. The responses of primary school/FS1 parents and those of secondary school parents were broadly similar. However, there were some interesting differences in the responses of these two groups of parents, and, in the main, primary school parents tended to be more positive about their child’s school than secondary school parents. This difference between primary and secondary school parents is not unique to SCE schools, as similar findings were reported in the recent Ofsted report on parental satisfaction. This report suggested that the higher levels of satisfaction observed among primary school parents, compared with secondary school parents, could reflect a greater sense of loyalty to primary schools among parents, ‘which means that parents of children in primary schools can be satisfied even when school effectiveness and pupil achievement are less than good.’ The majority of both primary and secondary school parents were positive about their relationship with their child’s school and, encouragingly, the responding secondary school parents were more positive about this relationship than those who responded to the 2005 survey. Most parents reported that they felt welcome in their child’s school, and they perceived the staff to be friendly and approachable.