School Satisfaction Survey Part One

Monday July 26th: About a week ago I got an email telling me about a survey that the school was asked to participate in due to the fact that we will be having a school review next year. It came in the usual plethora of emails that come on a daily basis most of which I delete without opening. Luckily I had not deleted it. I presume that principals familiar with the system would recognise important ones as they come in, but I have deleted more than my fair share of important ones already.

Then on Friday last this big box arrived with 60 large white envelopes and fourteen little envelopes with windows and names. It also had a 'Survey Administration Pack'. I read this and was none the wiser. There was no cover letter for those of us who could not find where they had saved the email.

Then today an email arrived with Student IDs, whatever they were. I was unable to open the email so contacted the sender four times to get my questions answered. For example the staff were to be given their surveys at a staff meeting and those not in attendance given them later. All have to be back by August 6th so I spent the morning finding out that as we have no staff meeting before then just to give them out. Parents and students are to be selected randomly to take part. The idea is that parents, students and staff fill out questionnaires to 'identify things that could be improved and things that are already appreciated.' Another example of lack of clarity, was a new teacher did not have a form and another came for Mark. More phone calls and I now understand where to get a form for the teacher and that I can complete Mark's form. There is also a website to compare results of previous surveys and where you can check the response rate so that you can remind those who have not completed the 'voluntary' survey. Another example of the overload of bureaucracy here.

Another email arrived to tell me that the survey website was now 'live', which I eventually discovered meant that the online surveys could now be completed. This was then followed by another email from the CEO apologising for the number of surveys. This is the fourth one that some schools have done this year.
[Principals' End of Contract Review; Catholic Identity and Drug Education Program!]

So I now have to randomly select 60 families and 40 students (we have 80 families and 138 students).
All to a deadline of Friday August 6th.