Parent survey
The Partners in Learning parent survey is part of the Tell Them From Me suite of surveys on student engagement and wellbeing. The parent survey helps to clarify and strengthen the important relationship between parent and school. Participation in the parent survey is optional. We encourage schools to encourage as many parents as they can to build a robust dataset.
Benefits for schools
The parent survey provides school principals and school leaders with parents' perspectives on their school as well as their child's learning at home. Communication between parents and staff, activities and practices at home, and parents views on the school's support of learning and positive behaviour to help build an accurate and timely picture that schools can use for practical improvements.
How does it work?
The survey is anonymous and can be used either as a one-off survey or at regular intervals over time, with the ability to identify trends within schools and better inform school priorities. The survey is held once a year commencing in Term 3 and is run at the same time as the teacher survey and the second optional student survey. The survey is available in multiple languages and is conducted entirely online on computers, tablets or smartphones during a specific survey window. Schools may wish to make school computers available for parents to use. The survey takes around 15 minutes to complete. Parents with more than one child at the school may choose to complete the survey more than once, if they feel that their children’s experiences differ.
What does it ask?
- parents feel welcome
- parents are informed
- parents support learning at home
- parents' participation at school
- school supports positive behaviour
- safety
- inclusion
- school supports learning.
How do parents access the survey?
- Schools will provide parents with a unique URL to log into the survey.
- Parents will not need usernames or passwords to access the survey. Just follow the unique URL provided by the school.
- Parents can complete the survey on their computer, tablet or mobile device and choose from 23 available community languages.
- Schools may choose to invite parents to complete the survey in their computer labs if parents are unable to access a computer or the internet at home.
Encouraging parents to participate
How will schools receive their data?
School leaders typically receive their school's data within three business days of closing the survey. When results are available, school leaders will receive a ‘one click’ summary report of their school’s results and access to online tools to help them analyse and understand their data, including interactive charts and trend reports. Schools’ results can be compared against state-wide averages.
Find out more about accessing Tell Them From Me data.
Parent anonymity
To ensure anonymity, schools create a unique URL that will allow access to the survey for their school only. The school distributes this unique URL to parents via email or text message. Data suppression rules are applied to the school reporting tools where there are fewer than five responses. In other words, schools only see responses to questions which have been answered by five or more parents.