Can we write our own questionnaires?
Yes you can. ABCi now has a facility whereby head teachers or teachers can write their own questionnaires. This facility can be used in a number of ways. You can construct short questionnaires throughout the year to evaluate aspects of your curriculum. You may wish to evaluate a project that you have been working on with pupils to gain their views on how much they enjoyed the project and how sucsessful they felt it was. You can also use this facility to complement any one of the set questionnaires that ABCi provides.
Already, schools using ABCi are conducting questionnaires on a wide range of themes from evaluating sports day, handwriting, school plays, school trips, projects, bullying. . . . We see that there are no real limits to what you can do with this facility - we look forward to hearing about your ideas!
How do we know what our pupils, staff and parents feel about their school if we don’t give them a voice?
OFSTED recognises that pupils’ views about their learning environment form an important part of the evidence base for self-evaluation. As part of the inspection process a pre-inspection parents’ meeting is held and face-to-face discussions will take place between inspectors and pupils. Furthermore, questionnaires for primary, secondary and sixth form pupils are issued to be undertaken prior to inspection.
ABCi is all about gaining and understanding Pupil Voice. The resource has been designed so that honest and open answers can be drawn out of pupils, staff, parents and governors alike. These views can be shared and acted upon by individuals and groups with in the school to demonstrate that self-evaluation is a process which is carried out by all school stakeholders.
What is wrong with OFSTED’s current parent and pupil questionnaire package and how does ABCi go beyond these deficiencies?
There are considerable problems with the format of questionnaires provided by OFSTED. On a practical level, the very fact that it is a paper-based exercise requiring the responses to be compiled and evaluated manually means that you cannot speedily access results and identify potential links between parent and pupil questionnaires. Data collection can be cumbersome, time consuming and fragmented. Emphasis is also very much placed on pupil and parent consultation for the benefit of a four-yearly inspection event. ABCi believes that true self-evaluation must be underpinned by a rolling program of discourse and subsequent action between all school stakeholders.
Such a little amount of time and thought seems to have been dedicated to designing a consultation process that is increasingly being seen as key to the self-evaluation procedure. Take the primary questionnaire as an example. Even the highest achieving pupils between the ages of 5 to 11 will struggle to complete the form, without some form of adult input, thus challenging the honesty of pupil responses. Furthermore, and somewhat outrageously, no attempt has been made to differentiate the questions making them child friendly or accessible to special needs pupils. So the questionnaires themselves become a barrier to the very goals they set out to achieve. How can OFSTED gauge how pupils really feel about such issues as inclusion and self-worth if they fail to recognise pupils’ levels of understanding and participation?
ABCi’s questions are fun, differentiated, colourful, interactive and conceptually aware. They go beyond the immediate learning environment, the curriculum and teacher relationships to a wider awareness of how a range of issues can affect their ability to be happy and subsequently achieve their full potential.
How does ABCi relate to OFSTED’s Self-Evaluation Form (SEF)?
Ultimately, for school self-evaluation to be creditable and rigorous, hard evidence needs to be produced from three distinct sources:
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quantifiable data, such as the school’s test results
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information gathered through the school’s own monitoring procedures, such as the monitoring of the quality of teaching
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the views of key stakeholders
A key area of the SEF is section 2, ‘Views of Learners, Parents, Carers and other Stakeholders’. ABCi’s questions relate directly to this section. The range of questions focuses on different aspects of the school environment. These questions, their phrasing and differentiation, are the result of many years experience within inclusive classroom environments and a year’s research at post-graduate level. ABCi does however, go beyond section 2 of the SEF and the results of ABCi questionnaires can be used as hard evidence to support parts of section 5, ‘The Quality of Provision’ but also most of section 4, ‘Personal Development and Well-being’. In particular section 4 invites pupils to express their views, comment on how safe they feel and whether or not they enjoy their education. ABCi does just that.
We feel strongly that attitudes to certain aspects of the educational environment can only really be gauged by asking the ‘stakeholders’, particularly when emotional well-being – put simply ‘happiness’ – is a prerequisite to deep and sustained learning.
How does ABCi fall in line with the Index for Inclusion?
The Index for Inclusion, through the provision of a set of materials, serves as a guide for schools to set about creating inclusive cultures, policies and practices . The Index stipulates five phases of action from ‘Getting started with the Index’ through to ‘Reviewing the Index process’. ABCi has the apparatus to support phases 2 to 5.
In fact, ABCi can go as far to supplant phase 2, ‘Finding out about the school’. As part of this phase, the Index recommends a term should be dedicated to ‘detailed exploration of the school and the identification of priorities for development’. Get all your teachers, support staff, pupils and parents to complete the full compliment of ABCi’s questionnaires on the school, classroom, playground, dining room and community and you will have produced a comprehensive survey of all stakeholders’ views about how they feel about their learning environment, where they are happy and where they are unhappy.
The data from these questionnaires can be used to identify problem areas and action plans can be drawn up within ABCi – fulfilling the criteria for phases 3 and 4. Critically, questionnaires can be repeated after priorities have been implemented to gauge the success rate of any action that may have been taken. These results can be used as hard evidence within your self-evaluation process to demonstrate that problems have been identified, action taken has been taken and results demonstrate successful eradication.
The ABCi mantra is, after all, ‘How Inclusive are You?’
How does ABCi compare with other software packages currently available for consulting with children?
ABCi compares very favourably with other software packages currently available for consulting with children although it must be stressed that this is a new and innovative field and there are no packages (at least none that we are aware of!) that match the full range of facilities offered by ABCi.
Some online packages use similar questionnaire formats for pupils, parents and teachers with generated data displayed in the form of charts and graphs.
However, they appear to be born out of a desire to create a broader 'emotionally literate society', and do not have the enhanced capabilities of ABCi.
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It is aimed at Staff, Pupils and Parents with a set of Governors’ questions currently being developed.
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ABCi is aimed at Key Stage 1 and 2 but is also relevant for Year 7 classes particularly at the period of transition.
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ABCi gives pupils the option to remain anonymous and ultimately it is at the discretion of the teacher to draw pupils’ attention to this. Should anonymity not be selected, individual’s answers to individual questions can be viewed. This means that specific problems relating to specific individuals can be targeted.
- As pupils are entered into the system (a brief and easy task) they can be categorised not just by class, year group and sex but other criteria such as ethnic origin, special educational needs, chronic disease, social and economic background and academic performance can be applied to the individual. Thus, reports can be broken down to look at different social groups within the school.
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The questions are differentiated and thus accessible to all. They are visually stimulating and interactive and can be spoken or signed to pupils, staff, parents and governors.
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ABCI works on the simple premise that pupils, parents and staff are either 'happy' or 'unhappy' with their school or aspects of it. The results are therefore accessible to all - pupils included - for reflection, discussion and action planning.
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ABCi can also be used as an activity in ICT, PSHE, numeracy and literacy classes.
Can ABCi address the government proposals outlined in the 2003 Green Paper 'Every Child Matters'?
ABCi enables children to have a voice about their learning environment and any social issues they may have within their school and local community.
The differentiation of the questionnaires gives individuals the opportunity to respond independently to a range of issues that affect them, thus giving service providers clear and honest evidence for consideration and subsequent action.
The range of questionnaires for all ‘stakeholders’ within school helps to secure partnerships that can then work towards improving the relationships, attitudes and learning aspirations of young children, thus addressing the government aims for every child:
- Be healthy
- Stay safe
- Enjoy and achieve
- Make a positive contribution
- Achieve economic well-being
What role can ABCi play in ensuring we identify Gifted and Talented pupils within our schools?
A number of issues emerged from the government's evaluation of their provision for Gifted and Talented pupils. The Excellence in Cities (EiC) and other grant funded programmes were found to need improvements in the areas of identifying the gifted and talented and engaging with pupils and parents. ABCi is designed to create and stimulate dialogue between teachers, learners and parents. A series of questions within the set questionnaires that ABCi provides tackle the issues of underachievement, attitude and parental involvement.
Furthermore, the Action Plan facility can be used to identify areas of responsibility when setting about addressing issues relating to Gifted and Talented initiatives within the school.
How will ABCi help us to successfully offer extended services as part of the government's Extended Schools Initiative?
From September 2005, under the new Ofsted inspection framework, the effectiveness of extended schools services and educational and support programmes for parents, families and members of the community will be evaluated and reported on by Ofsted. Indeed schools have been required to provide evidence to demonstrate how well they work in partnership with pupils, parents/carers, other schools and the community since September 2003.
ABCi now has a range of questions that focus specifically on evaluating the Extended Schools Initiative and can help schools to understand local needs and opinions. Furthermore, ABCi can evaluate how an extended school strategy can fit in to the overall development plan for the school, measuring the impact and achievement of the service.
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