Increasing participation in the parent survey

Here are some tips that schools with high rates of parent participation have found useful.

Planning

• Talk to your teachers early and often about the survey and set a goal for the school to reach.
• Look for upcoming school events and talk about it, giving parents the option to complete it following the event.
• Make it part of any parent-teacher interaction.
  
• Schedule times with parents to complete the survey either before or after school.

In action

• Send out personalised emails to your parents asking them to complete the survey. Use technology to help you spread the message: text messages, ClassDojo, Seesaw.
  
• Place it in the School Newsletter or communication board.
• Provide students with information on the survey toprovide to their parents.
• Host open classrooms and have devices ready forparents to complete the survey when they are onsite.
• Send multiple reminders to complete the survey and include a countdown to the deadline.

Outcome

• Share the results with teachers and parents.
  
• Set clear priorities and initiatives based on the results.
• If you have low parental engagement, use the survey as the starting point to reengage with parents.