Governor Questionnaire to Parents

Thank you to everyone who completed the biennial Governors’ Questionnaire. Your views about Our
Lady & St Werburgh’s are very important to us and you can see the results on the other side of the
page.

We have 210 children in school, from 152 families, and we had 122 questionnaires returned, an
increase of 29 on two years ago. 71% of families took part. The results are very encouraging and
indicate that the vast majority of you feel that Our Lady & St Werburgh’s is a happy school, which
delivers an excellent and improving standard of education in an environment with a strong Catholic
ethos.

We also asked you which two things you thought we are doing well and what two things you
thought we could do better, and here is a summary of the most frequent themes:

What things are we doing well?
The standard of teaching and academic achievement of the pupils is good (28 comments)
The school provides a happy, safe environment for children, with a strong sense of community (24)
There is a strong Catholic ethos and good religious education and integration with the Parish community
(11)
Communication between school and home is good (10)
There is a good range of in-school and after-school activities (9)

What things could we do better?
The availability, fairness and range of extra-curricular activities could be improved (19 comments)
Communication with parents could be improved in timing, content and frequency (12)
Issues of day to day management could be addressed (8)

Your Governors discussed the full questionnaire report at our meeting last week. The stand-out
concern this year is access to PE clubs and teams. The school’s recent Gold Award for Sport means
that more there are more opportunities to take part, but we need improve how that is shared.
Places to after-school sports clubs will now operate with a waiting list, so that any child who misses
out gets priority next time. We have also asked Mr Grove to encourage staff to recommend pupils
for friendly and practise events, to allow more of our children to experience the fun of being part of
a team.

We also want you to be reassured that any concerns about behaviour or welfare are to be addressed
promptly and fairly. Staff are there to help you and to listen to any concerns. If you ever have any
need to talk about your child’s progress or wellbeing then please approach their class teacher. If
that’s not always convenient do let the office know, so that an appointment or telephone call can be
arranged for you.

Once again, thank you for completing the questionnaire, we will repeat the exercise in two years’
time. Please turn over for the questionnaire results.
James O’Hara, Chair of Governors, December 2017