Part of my job within the school is to coordinate the schools provision for More Able and Talented pupils. As a start to the process of moving us towards a new policy and hopefully some more effective practice, I decided I wanted to see what was already out there and what the views of our teaching and non-teaching staff were on this.
In days of old I would have knocked up a paper based questionnare, run it through the photocopier and left them in pigeon holes. A few would have been returned, leaving me to process this information (inculding typing) while the rest ended up in recycling, often once found at the bottom of a pile of ‘stuff’ some months down the line.
But these are not the days of old my friends. Oh no, instead I put my questions into a Google Form, emailed the link around to the staff and sat back and waited. 14 hours after sending the email I already have 34 replies and a few thoughts strike me already.
1. This is a much higher response than I would have expected with a paper based one. Even if you ignore the cost, environmental and time benefits this is clearly still a positive move
2. People have been submitting information this evening. If the form were paper based it would be left on somebodies desk. By moving online and into the ‘nearly now’ it becomes easier for people to complete it
3. Of the 32 who indicated what type of job they do within the school (Teacher / TA / Pastoral Team / Other) all but one are teachers. This suggests issues around access to, and familairity with ICT and perhaps also a feeling of inclusion felt by our non-teaching staff. To address this I’m going to offer paper copies to our TAs
The practicalities.
I’m not going into details here, suffice to say if you have a Google account you have access to Google Docs, which allows you to set up a form which you can post online or email to people. The information people submit through this form is added to a spreadsheet which updates in real-time. There are alternatives, such as survey monkey, but I’ve been really please so far with what I’ve seen, and I’m pondering making a survey a regular feature on our school website in future.
The questions
These are the questions that I’ve asked. I’ll blog again about the responses at some point in the future
- Are you… (A teacher / TA / Pastoral Staff / Other)
- Roughly what percentage of pupils in a given class or year group would YOU define as ‘More Able and Talented’ ?
- What criteria did you use to come to that figure?
- If you are a teacher, to what exent do you think your department meets the needs of pupils who are More Able and Talented in your subject?
- If you are not a teacher, to what extent do you think academic departments generally meet the needs of More Able and Talented pupils?
- Please outline any of the strategies or tactics you use in your teaching or see in classrooms to help meet the needs to MAT pupils in your classes?
- To what extent to you think the school as a whole meets the needs of pupils who are More Able and Talented?
- Do you have any suggestions for ways in which whole school provision for More Able and Talented students can be improved?
- Would you be interested in becoming more involved in the development of a strategy for More Able and Talented students at Olchfa?
- Please use this space to add any other comments you would like to make