To all parents and carers.
Good afternoon, from LCS.
Parent/Carer Survey - Survey Results
Our annual Parent/Carer Survey was sent to all parents and carers at the end of November. Thank you to those parents and carers who completed this survey and submitted their responses.
I have attached a Pdf to this email, with a summary of results.
Responses are very similar to those from 2023 and where there are differences, in the main, responses this year are more positive than last year.
For Q2-4 at the start of the survey, responses this year are all more positive than in 2023.
For the last two questions, parents and carers were asked to make comments on any issues they felt needed to improve, or where they were particularly happy. Some issues were mentioned by several parents/carers, which I can summarise as follows:
School Trips – some parents and carers have mentioned the number of school trips at LCS, compared to some other schools. This issue was also raised in 2023 and we have been working to try and address this over the past few months.
There are a lot of trips and visits from school this year, including to Sri Lanka, Iceland, France and Scotland, as well as to various locations in the local area and across England.
We have reinstated the Year 7 residential visit, which was last organised prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. This will return again this year, in the summer term of 2025.
Further plans are in place to look at similar trips, potentially outside of the UK, for students in Key Stage 3 from 2025 onwards.
Food and school meals – some concerns were raised by parents and carers around availability of indoor eating areas for students and queuing/waiting times for school meals.
There are indoor areas for all students to eat, at break time and lunchtime, but it is fair to say that, due to our pupil numbers and availability of resources, these areas can be very busy.
If students arrive at their allocated time to queue for school meals, which all students are asked to do, waiting times should be no longer than 10 minutes.
We are constantly looking at how we can improve our school meals service, and regularly involve students in this, through the School Council. This is an ongoing challenge for us, however, given our facilities.
Supply Staff – as in 2023, some parents and carers have expressed concerns over the number of Supply Staff being used at LCS. I am pleased, however, that some comments have recognised that the situation has improved this term.
As I have explained to parents and carers in the past, staffing is an ongoing challenge for us, as it is for all schools currently, across the city, region and country, as a whole. We made a decision in September 2024 to invest in additional Cover Supervisors, to reduce the need for external Supply staff. This has worked well so far, with far fewer external Supply staff being needed this term.
There remain ongoing challenges over staffing, particularly in some subjects, and we continue to do what we can under difficult circumstances. I fully accept the concerns expressed by some parents and carers on this matter.
After School Clubs – the final issue raised by several parents/carers was the availability, and advertising, of after-school clubs and activities at LCS. Staff at the school run lots of activities outside of the taught curriculum and we are looking to enhance our programme further, with the new ‘Littleover Certificate of Success’ we have developed for students in Key Stage 3.
These activities are advertised on our school website, but I accept that the ‘sign posting’ of this to parents/carers and students could be better. We will look to improve this in the remainder of this academic year.
All responses received through this survey will be considered and will help us to make LCS an even better school, for all our students.
Autumn Term ends at 1-40pm on Friday 20th December, with students returning to school on January 6th 2025.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all parents and carers for your support of the school this year and to wish you all a Happy Christmas and Happy Holidays.
We will see you all again in 2025.
Keep safe.
