Friendship Questionnaires

During the Spring term the children from Early Years Foundation Stage to Year 6 completed a friendship questionnaire during their PSHCE lessons. This was to find out their thoughts and feelings on life at Longmoor and to identify any areas we need to develop. Please find the results below. 

September 2018

Thank you to those parents who attended and supported the Macmillan Coffee morning where a grand total of £194 was raised.

As a group we discussed the parking around school and created some ideas of what we can do to help improve the situation for everyone.  Ideas included:

• Having a near miss register in the office 
• Contacting the council with regards to more double yellow lines on the corner of Wellington Street and the area directly outside school
• Promoting walking to school as well as using alternatives such as scooters and bikes
•  Investigating the possibility of a zebra crossing on Newstead Road
• Having a one way system on Newstead Road - suggest and hope the majority of parents agree
• Reward children for walking and cycling to school with Dojo points
• Having an assembly and competition about road safety

This is obviously an ongoing issue and we will continue to ask parents to park appropriately and carefully.  Mrs Dainty and our new Chair of Governors, Mrs Wright, are compiling a report to share with the police and local council regarding this issue.

The other issue discussed as a whole group was around collecting children at the end of the day and how we could improve this to make it easier to spot children.  We have asked Year 3 to use the infant gate and will be placing cones on the playground for staff to take their classes to which may make it easier to spot children.  We appreciate some people have more than one child to collect but felt that this was a strategy that would support the majority of parents.

March 2018

As a small group we discussed the recent homework questionnaire results.  Homework is an issue that needs some careful consideration which we will continue to develop as a staff and school.  Overall however most parents support homework and we will use the information collected from the questionnaire to develop our homework policy.

You said: 'Could there be more heritage or faith days in school?'

We have recently enjoyed a day looking at the Hindu faith and a speaker came in to share their knowledge and answer questions from the children.  We also have a Sikh assembly coming up in April and a parent came into school to discuss the significance of wearing a turban with the Year 2 children.  Mrs Mabbott has taken over leading R.E in school and has lots of plans for more faith days over the next year.  If you do have a specific link to a different faith or want to share your heritage with the children in school please get in touch - we would love to hear from you!  We will continue to celebrate different aspects of heritage through weekly assemblies as well as different faiths in school and the community.

You said 'Some children find waiting in the playground difficult and so could children come into school at 8.50 a.m?'

This obviously has impact on teachers who already arrive at school early to prepare for the day.  We will continue to discuss this as a staff and look into the issue further.  It would be helpful for school staff if parents would wait, as asked, behind the yellow line in the morning so that staff can organise and support children in developing independence in the morning.

September 2017

Thank you for braving the rain and supporting the forum and Macmillan Coffee Morning.  Here are some of the main points we discussed.

Class and School DoJo

You said: "Could school reduce the number of photos placed on here?"

We are learning how to use the system and have been so excited to share the great things in school we have been posting a lot of photos.  This message has been passed on and we will cut back on the number of pictures posted.

You said: "Could we have a list of subject coordinator staff so we can message them?"

Staff are now contactable through the Class Dojo system and so already have 30 parents messaging them directly.  Staff welfare is important and we have to protect their home life and well being.  Therefore a suggestion would be to direct any specific subject questions to Mr Green or Mrs Dainty who will then pass these onto the subject coordinators and they can then contact you directly.

You said "Your web page is not tablet and mobile friendly"

         "Your class pages need updating and it would be good to have the objectives for the year 

          group on the pages."

We will speak to IT support and the web page designers about this so please be patient.

I will remind staff about pages and will pass on the suggestion about objectives.

You said " Could year groups have summer holiday challenges?"

Great suggestion and many year groups do ask children to complete a task over the summer break.  I will pass this on to staff.

March 2017

Thank you for attending the Parents Forum and for sharing your views and opinions.  As only three people came I was able to ask some questions of my own.  Here is what we discussed.

Parents Forum

You said: " Could we have some of the meetings later on, possibly early evening, so that parents who work can attend?"

We can look into this for future events.

Letters home

I asked: " Would parents be happy for letters to be available only in paper copies for those who request it, should we look into reducing copies to one per family and do we send too many texts?"

You said - letters via email or the website would be great, yes please just the one copy per family is enough and the texts are useful and informative so the service is not over used.

Online Payments

You said: "Could we have an online system for paying for dinners?"

There are systems now used in schools for doing this as well as paying for trips and resources on line. These systems can be expensive but this is something we could ask parents about and investigate our options for the future.

Sports Day

You asked: "Will this be competitive this year?"

Yes it will with running races for all, including parents.  All we need now is the warm and dry weather!

Parents Mornings

You said: "These can be very hectic and noisy.  Would it be better to have parents on a rota basis so that you have more time to spend with your child?"

Whilst this is a good idea we certainly wouldn't want to alienate parents who might only be able to come on odd occasions when work commitments allow.  We can discuss this as a staff and get back to you.

Parking

You said: "People park irresponsibly and put themselves and children at risk - what can we do?"

We discussed this at length talking about walking buses, cones on the road, asking people to park beyond certain points and rewarding children who walk to school.  There is no quick and easy answer to this but it is a matter we keep discussing at school and thinking about.  We will keep you posted.

September 2016

Thank you to everyone who attended the first Parents Forum meeting which we combined with a Macmillan Coffee morning.  Points raised were:

                    Reception Starting Programme.

You said: "Two weeks was actually unsettling for some children."

The decision to take two weeks is based on the time that it takes staff to complete home visits to collect important information about the children.  Thank you for your comments - we will take these into consideration when we plan the transition to school next year.

                                               Diary Dates

You said: "Can we have more notice of events - these can be especially difficult to plan and prepare for if working."

We do try to give you notice of events but will try even harder!  Most dates are on the newsletters and class letters / web pages.  We will try to send text reminders to help provide more notice in the future.

                             Before  / After-school and Holiday clubs

You said: "Can more of these be provided for children?"

We have an extensive range of after school clubs though some of these are affected due to the weather and lack of hall space.  We are constantly looking at how we can offer more opportunities before and after school though some clubs cannot run due to lack of interest from the children.  More space in school with the new classrooms may open up possibilities of before and after school clubs - please watch this space.