Pupil happiness and safety

We're delighted that 100% of parents agree their children feel happy and safe at school. With 65.5% strongly agreeing on happiness and 69% strongly agreeing on safety, this strongly confirms that pupil wellbeing and safeguarding are at the heart of what we do. We will always look to maintain these high standards and continue ensuring every child feels valued and secure at St. John's.

School behaviour and expectations

We are pleased that 93% of parents agree that we ensure good behaviour at school. This reflects the effectiveness of our behaviour policies and classroom management approaches. We will continue to monitor behaviour closely, with Governor involvement, and will maintain clear communication with all families. We have high expectations for behaviour and will always work in partnership with parents to reinforce our positive and supportive approach

Handling of bullying

It is reassuring that 92% of parents whose child experienced bullying felt the school responded effectively. We also note that 13.3% selected 'Don't Know', highlighting the need to further communicate our anti-bullying policies and actions to reinforce confidence in our approach. We take a zero-tolerance stance on bullying and act swiftly whenever concerns are raised. We encourage both children and parents to inform us as soon as possible if someone is not being treated kindly, so we can address it quickly and effectively.

Communication and parental engagement

We’re really pleased that 89.6% feel we communicate effectively, 87% agree that concerns are handled properly, and 86% feel their views as parents are valued. As always, there are some families who understandably feel less certain, and this feedback reminds us how important it is that we clearly highlight the many ways we already share what’s happening at school.

We offer Parent-Teacher meetings twice a year, Open Classroom sessions where you can look through your child’s books and see their classroom, and termly Curriculum Overviews published on the school website. At the start of each school year, we also hold ‘Meet the Teacher’ meetings to help set the tone for the year ahead. Parents are always welcome to make an appointment to see their child’s class teacher at any point during the school year, outside of the formal Parent-Teacher meetings, if they have any concerns or questions. Recently, we’ve also started uploading class timetables to Google Classroom, which we hope will help parents chat more easily with their child about their day.

This year, we’ve introduced our Parent Forum as a more formal way for parents to engage with the school and provide input on some day-to-day policies and processes. We completely understand how important it is to know what’s happening in school - this is something that comes up regularly. We strongly believe in open communication, so if you ever feel unsure or want to know more, please just reach out to your child's teacher or myself.

To further support this, we have worked with the Parent Forum to create new Communication Guidance, which will be uploaded to the school website. We hope this will help parents understand the best ways to communicate with us. We are always happy to clarify anything and want to ensure all parents feel informed and involved.

Curriculum and extra-curricular opportunities

Over 95% of parents appreciate our broad curriculum and extra-curricular offerings, with nearly 70% strongly agreeing that clubs and activities are accessible to their child. We're really proud of our extra-curricular provision and the wide-ranging curriculum we've developed - this has been a significant focus for us over recent years and something that Ofsted specifically praised during their recent visit. Most families (82.7%) feel well-informed about their child's learning, but as highlighted in the previous section, we recognise there's always scope to improve how we communicate about curriculum content. More information about our curriculum can be found here on our website. We'll continue to explore ways to ensure clarity and effectively support home learning.

Expectations and support for pupils

The vast majority of parents (81%) agree we have high expectations for their children, and 93% agree their child does well at school. Many families also appreciate the support we provide for wider personal development. We are proud of our SEND provision, with 87.5% of SEND families agreeing their child is well-supported. Inclusivity is absolutely key to our ethos - not a single parent disagreed with the statement about valuing inclusivity, which genuinely means a lot to us. We have a comprehensive SEND page on the school website that provides an initial starting point for parents to find out how the school can support children. While this feedback is encouraging, we're always looking to improve further.  We'll continue working to ensure all families feel fully informed and confident in our support, particularly in making the details of our SEND provision as clear and transparent as possible.

Would parents recommend the school?

It's encouraging that 94.8% of parents would recommend St. John's to other families. Of the small number (5.2%) who selected 'No', we appreciate that two responses were actually closer to 'Don't know', and these parents kindly expanded on their answers, acknowledging it wasn't a straightforward yes-or-no decision. While we'd obviously prefer a clear 'yes!', we genuinely value this thoughtful feedback, as it highlights areas we can continue to clarify and improve, particularly around communication, ensuring consistent challenge for higher-attaining pupils, and transparency about school finances. We're already reviewing these points, seeing them as opportunities to keep growing and improving together as a school community.

Other insights

A few families expressed uncertainty around the meaning of 'personal development' at St. John's, as well as requesting greater transparency around school finances and future planning. We're aware 'personal development' can feel quite broad, and one of the strengths of our school is precisely how well we get to know each individual child - recognising their uniqueness and tailoring our support accordingly. Our confidence in this area was reinforced by Ofsted, who recently noted that "pupils are provided with exceptional personal development provision" and that we offer "a wide range of enrichment opportunities to ensure pupils gain valuable life experiences." We'll reflect on how we can communicate this even more clearly, so every family fully appreciates the excellent provision available.

Similarly, we will also review how we communicate our financial plans and fundraising goals, ensuring transparency and clarity.

Thank you once again for such thoughtful and constructive feedback. It really helps us ensure St. John's remains a nurturing, inclusive community where every child can truly thrive.