Riverwalk Parent / Carer Survey January 2016

In January the school conducted a parent /carer survey to help the school and college to move on. You can find a copy of the survey here. Riverwalk would like to thank all the parents and carers (40% return rate) for taking part in this survey.

We were hoping for a 90% strongly agree / agree response to each of the questions and we are pleased that out of the eighteen questions asked fourteen achieved 90% or more positive responses.

The four questions that achieved less than 90% are in areas that we are already working on. Such as: the new web site being established, settling in, more information about how your child behaves in school, how we can support home learning and take into account the views and suggestions from parents and carers (I hope this survey is a start to addressing the last point).

The survey also indicated that 89.7% of you that responded had access to the internet and 76.9% had an email address that you regularly use. The results of this survey will determine future decisions about the types of communication we use to keep you informed.

On behalf of all the Riverwalk staff I would like to thank you again for taking part.

 

Here are the written responses from parents :

Lower School parent carers responses

What do you think is the best thing about Riverwalk?

  • “Both my boys have problems, the school has been very understanding”
  • “The staff are excellent, and do a incredible job, caring for the children”
  • “The positivity & caring attitude of the staff”
  • “Care & Communication”
  • “I feel the staff are very attentive and understanding of my child’s needs”
  • “The dedicated & very caring staff, who somehow know each child very personally”
  • “Very good with my child, would doubt many other schools are as good”
  • “Children able to reach their full potential with very good help”
  • “I love how the children are given opportunities to try new things, for example swimming & trips “
  • “It provides what my child needs and the teaching staff & SSA’s are all really nice”
  • “Staff are always kind, helpful and show real passion for children with disabilities, they communicate with the wider professionals involved”
  • “Children are very happy in the school environment”
  • “Friendly staff, welcoming atmosphere, good facilities”
  • “Positive attitudes”
  • “Experienced staff”
  • “well trained staff, understanding to different needs”

Is there anything else you would like to mention about Riverwalk?

  • “Keep it going “
  • “Unfortunately the school is let down by its current building & lack of facilities”
  • “Lack of speech & language provision”
  • “Would like to see more activities offered after school, all children having equal access to activities such as PMLD swimming, being regular as other pupils swimming”
  • “My little girl loves school , everyone is so kind”
  • “It would be lovely to extend some extracurricular activities, especially at the weekends”
  • “I think you need to have a school bell for break & lunchtimes. They must line up to go back indoors”
  • “I think that there should be more opportunities for parents to be involved in things”
  • “More communication from Physio, OT, SALT etc”
  • “More info in home school books, coffee mornings”
  • “Communication is awful; parent mail would be useful, need to know if my child has been seen by Physio, OT etc, no communication from them”
  • “My son has come on leaps and bounds”
  • “Lovely School”
  • “I would like to see management make more of an effort to build happy working relationship with its staff”

Upper School parent carers responses

What do you think is the best thing about Riverwalk?

  • “Opportunities for the children out of the curriculum i.e. tea club “
  • “My daughter is happy to go to school”
  • “Positive teaching”
  • “Dedicated fully supportive staff, who really care about each child”
  • “Communication is good but you must bother both ways”
  • “Care and communication”
  • “Students happy to go to school”
  • “Communication between staff and myself”
  • “Strong feeling of community”
  • “Riverwalk teach my child in a safe and fun environment”
  • “Friendly”
  • “The staff”

Is there anything else you would like to mention about Riverwalk?

  • “I feel positive things don’t get passed on “
  • “A very friendly school”
  • “I know my son is 100% safe at all times”
  • “Lots of changes at Riverwalk and Teachers need to be more permanent, 2 years of unstableness is not good enough”
  • “Attempting to help our son regarding the move to college”
  • “Amazing school, will be sorry to leave”
  • “All staff do an amazing job “
  • “Always striving to be the best and better”