Improving schools through Parent View
Ofsted has produced a toolkit for schools to help them promote Parent View, its online questionnaire for parents to give their views on their children’s schools.
With a leaflet and poster, as well as useful tips and case studies, the toolkit is designed to support schools and help them encourage parents to complete the Parent View questionnaire throughout the year and during an inspection.
The Ofsted website also features a video demonstrating Parent View to show users how to register, complete the questionnaire and set up alerts about schools.
Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Ofsted, Sir Michael Wilshaw said:
I want to see all schools urging parents and carers to use the Parent View online questionnaire. The views of parents help inspectors form an accurate picture of how a school is performing.
Just as importantly, the changes made to Parent View will allow headteachers to regularly monitor how parents see the school and are part of our commitment to help schools improve.
Parent View was created to give parents an accessible way to feed back about their child’s school at any time of the year. Their views contribute to Ofsted’s risk assessment process to determine when a school should be inspected.
Since September 2012, Parent View has also been the main route for parents to give their views to inspectors during a school inspection. When a school is inspected, parents are notified and invited to submit or refresh their views online so that inspectors can take these into account with other evidence.
The toolkit and video follow a number of improvements to Parent View, after discussions between Ofsted, the National Association of Headteachers (NAHT) and other professional bodies.
The changes are designed to give school leaders a fuller and more representative picture of parents’ views, so they can get maximum value from Parent View.
The main changes to Parent View are:
- schools now need to have a minimum of 10 completed responses – up from three – before the results for the school appear on the Parent View website
- schools can now sign up to receive regular email alerts about changes to the results to help them continue to improve their performance
- Ofsted has committed to investigate any concerns that a school raises about Parent View within 24 hours
Russell Hobby, General Secretary of the NAHT, said:
We’re pleased to see that the protection for the safe use of Parent View has been improved.
It is incredibly important that headteachers get parents’ views of their school and it is heartening that Parent View has uncovered that the vast majority of parents are really happy and delighted with the education their children are receiving.
We hope headteachers will encourage as many parents as they can to post their comments to ensure that a representative sample of views is heard.
The toolkit, launched today, is available on the Ofsted website to help schools encourage more and more parents to log on at the time of an inspection, and at any time of the year.
Notes to editors
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Parent View is available online. The toolkit, leaflet and video are available online. FAQs for Parent View are also online.
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The Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted) regulates and inspects to achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children’s social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work-based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.
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