Overview
A survey is a set of questions sent to parents, students or staff, open for the dates you choose. Everyone it reaches is told in the app and answers once. A lesson observation is a form the principal or a coordinator fills in while watching a lesson; shared with the teacher, it becomes feedback they can read and reply to, and each teacher's average over the year is there for appraisals.
Making a survey
Press New survey. Give it a title and, if you like, a line at the top. For a term-end parent survey, Start from the parent survey fills in seven questions you can change.
- For: parents, students or staff. Parents and students can be narrowed to some classes (this year's, from Classes & sections).
- Opens on and Closes on, both optional: without them it opens when you open it and stays open until you close it.
- Questions, up to 30, each one of:
| Kind | Answered as | Shown in results as |
|---|---|---|
| Rating, 1 to 5 | Poor, Fair, Good, Very good, Excellent | The average, and how many gave each |
| Would recommend, 0 to 10 | A number from 0 to 10 | The Net Promoter Score: the share who gave 9 or 10, minus the share who gave 0 to 6 (from −100 to 100) |
| One choice / Any of several | Your choices, 2 to 12 | How many chose each |
| Written answer | Their own words | The answers, newest first |
Each question must be answered unless you untick Must be answered. Save it as a draft, then Open it: everyone it reaches is told in the app straight away, if it's open today. A survey set to open on a later date is answered from that date, without a separate message. Once anyone has answered, its questions, who it's for and whether it's anonymous can't change; Copy it to ask something different.
Anonymous surveys
- No name, and no class, is kept with an answer. Each person can still answer only once.
- Results, and the download, appear only once three people have answered, so no one answer can be told apart.
- People answer more honestly. It is ticked to start with.
How people answer
Parents, students and staff with a login see a card, "1 survey from your school to answer", on their dashboard (a parent's home, a student's Campus page, a teacher's My work), and get a notice in the app. It opens the survey: numbers to tap for ratings, chips for choices, a box for words. A parent answers once, whichever class the survey is for.
Results
Results shows how many it reached and how many answered, then each question as bars and scores. Every answer (CSV) downloads a spreadsheet with a row per answer: names, whether they answered as a parent, student or staff, and class only on surveys that aren't anonymous.
Lesson observations
- On Observations → Forms, make the form, or start from the ready-made one: six things rated 1 to 5 (lesson plan, subject knowledge, students taking part, use of the board and time, classroom management, checking for understanding) and two to write (what went well, to work on).
- Record an observation: the teacher, the day, the class and subject, the form's answers and any note.
- Tick Share it with the teacher (or share it later). They are told in the app.
Each observation shows its average of the rating questions out of 5. By teacher lists every teacher observed with their average and how many times; tap one to see only theirs. A form that has observations stays, so they can always be read.
What the teacher sees
On My work, under Feedback on your lessons, a teacher whose staff record is linked to their login reads each shared observation (every answer and the note) and can reply once. Whoever recorded it is told of the reply, which shows with the observation. Unsharing hides it from the teacher again.
Who can do what
- Surveys are made, opened and read with the Announcements part.
- Observations are read with the Staff part, and recorded with Staff or Exams and results to change things.
- With several schools, a member scoped to one school sees that school's surveys and observations.
Questions
Can families without the app answer? No: surveys reach people with a login. Share the app first, or ask at a parent-teacher meeting.
Can a teacher see another teacher's observations? No. A teacher sees only their own, and only those shared with them.
Do observations count towards appraisals? Each teacher's average over the year is kept on the Observations page, ready to bring to an appraisal.