Beechwood Park Home Learning Survey Lent Term 2023

Overview of Findings

Thank you to each and every one of you who completed this survey before half term; we had nearly 500 responses and a virtual book of comments; we have carefully analysed all your responses, breaking them down by year, by pupils, by parents and by staff. Thank you for all the constructive comments and suggestions.

It is clear that viewpoints differ significantly. For example, on the question of whether homework should be optional the overall results were:

Breaking this down further, pupils were more in favour of prep being optional whereas parents and staff tended to disagree with prep being optional.

There were similarly conflicting views regarding project work as home learning. This was the category where the greatest number of pupils ‘strongly agreed’ and ‘agreed’:

It was also the category where the greatest number of parents ‘disagreed’ and ‘strongly disagreed’:

Furthermore, there were many strongly worded comments against project preps!

In terms of time dedicated to home learning, once again, there was wide-ranging feedback. Through the School overall, the results were:

For Monday to Thursdays:

and for weekends:

Overall pupils suggested more prep time than parents through the week but less time than parents at the weekend.

The responses to the final set of questions were similarly varied. The greatest number agreed that reading should take place daily:

Almost everyone agreed that English and Maths were a core part of the weekly home learning. For other subjects, pupils were much more enthusiastic about prep than either pupils or staff. 

This gives a very small flavour of the overall responses and findings and I am working through the detailed results with the Senior Leadership Team and Heads of Departments.

I have already picked up on specific actions from your comments with the staff team on consistent levels of engagement with prep and use of Google Classroom. We will be considering the feedback at the next Academic Committee meeting and I will provide some more detailed analysis and next steps in the end of term Beechwood Lion.

Mr Bullock
Deputy Head – Academic