By Laura McInerney
At School Surveys powered by Teacher Tapp, we’ve had the privilege of surveying in over 400 schools over the past two years. These insights have not only revealed fascinating trends but also provided practical lessons that can significantly contribute to shaping better school environments.
Here are seven key things we’ve learned:
1. Small Issues Matter
One surprising insight is that small, everyday issues often have a significant impact. For instance, at one school, the frustration caused by frozen milk left on the front step during winter was a major concern for staff. This underscores the importance of addressing seemingly minor problems, such as ensuring enough laptop cables or having the right colour pens for marking, as they can greatly enhance the work environment.
2. Shifting Priorities
When School Surveys started, well-being was a major focus among leaders. Over time, however, we’ve all learned that well-being is a complex issue influenced by many factors and sometimes beyond immediate control.
Behaviour management has become one of our most commonly surveyed areas, prompted by school leaders’ continuous work on clearer, fairer, and more effective policies. Our newest question areas, prompted by requests from school leaders, include question packs on safeguarding and DEI policies.
3. Challenges in Policy Implementation
Implementing new policies in schools often triggers mixed reactions. In a clear example of this, a school surveyed its staff on behaviour and initially found that their policies scored low on our benchmarks for clarity and ease of use. The school revised the policy, and when staff were later surveyed, they reported that the new policy was clearer, fairer, and easier, but it also added more workload. Instead of giving up, the leaders persisted, kept iterating, surveying, and adapting. There may never be a perfect behavior policy, but demonstrating a readiness to change and listen continues to enhance it.
4. Build a Feedback Culture Through A Feedback Council
Leaders using School Surveys most successfully find ways to embed feedback into their schools’ cultures. One of the most effective ways we have seen this done is where leaders create a committee—mixed between teachers and non-teachers—to whom the head passes a summary of each survey’s findings and asks the committee to pitch back solutions to problems identified. This means the surveys are being actively followed up and also that the leader doesn’t carry all the responsibility for fixing things.
5. School Staff Often Wildly Disagree!
There is a concern sometimes that if you survey staff and find that 20% hate a certain policy and 20% love it, that you’re suddenly torn on what to do. The truth is that there’s likely to be a spectrum of opinions on most things in schools. Knowing that doesn’t mean you should change decisions because decisions should be made based on what evidence says is best for the pupils. But it’s worth knowing if it will really upset 20% of people so you can be ready to show you understand not everyone agrees and to explain your reasons and any mitigations for policy changes.
6. The Importance of Anonymity for Honest Feedback
The problem with being a headteacher is that you can only ever be in a classroom with a headteacher in it. Whenever you walk into the playground, the headteacher is there! This is why, when I was the editor of Schools Week, I’d interview school leaders and often ask, “What would you do if you were invisible for a day?” Most would say they’d walk around school to see what it’s like ‘normally’.
The benefit of anonymous surveys, with very specific questions about how the last lesson or the last week went, is that you can get a glimpse of ‘normality’ without being invisible.
7. Strategic Communication Enhances Survey Engagement
Communication is hard in schools—a lot is going on. Leaders who use School Surveys most effectively plan out how and when they will communicate that the survey is live. For instance, if they use emails, they strategise when the best time would be to send the email and schedule it accordingly. Others encourage staff to complete surveys at the start of weekly meetings using QR codes that are always displayed in the same place. A bit of strategic thinking can go a long way in enhancing survey engagement!
