The School Surveys are administered in every state school in Queensland.
School Opinion Surveys are distributed to:
If you have been selected to participate in the survey, it's important to complete the questionnaire so that your views are counted. Your responses are treated confidentially and stored securely.
The school will use the results of the survey to evaluate and reflect on how well the school is going, and to identify areas for future development. If you are a parent/caregiver of a child at the school, your response will help the school become a better place for your child. If you are a staff member at the school, your response will help the school become a better workplace.
The greater the response from those asked to participate, the more closely the survey outcomes will represent your school.
All parents/caregivers and staff (excluding principals) have the option of completing either a paper or online version of their survey. This survey can be completed anywhere you have online access (e.g. at school, at home, etc). Once the online survey has been submitted, you cannot view nor change your survey responses. Your completed survey will be securely stored at Education Queensland, where it will be analysed.
If you submit both a paper survey and an online survey, then only your responses on the online survey will be used in analysis.
The principal of each school is responsible for selecting the delivery method of the survey. They can choose either paper format or online format for the student surveys. The online survey uses online access detail slips in the place of paper forms. Check with a member of the administration of your school to see if you have received these forms.
The information that you provide will be treated confidentially and stored securely. If you complete the paper survey, the school will not open the confidentiality envelope. The envelopes will be forwarded to an external contractor where your responses will be scanned and the school's data forwarded to the central office of the Department of Education and Training for analysis. If you complete the online survey, the data will be stored securely on the Departmental servers and be available directly for analysis.
The information will not be reported in ways which will allow for individuals to be identified.
The login and password combination for the online version of the survey is unique and is not linked to you personally. The barcode on your questionnaire has not been assigned to you individually. The login/password for online or barcode for paper forms is only used to ensure that forms are distributed to the correct schools and to allow the information to be analysed at the school level.
The School Staff Survey collects some fairly detailed background information. This information is only used for analysing staff opinions across the state and is not used in any presentations of the results for your school. This means that even in small schools the confidentiality of your responses will be maintained.
If you are still concerned about the confidentiality of your response, you may forward your completed survey form directly to:
Salmat, Reply Paid 9140,
C/- Manager,
Underwood Business Centre,
Australia Post,
DOCK 1 UNDERWOOD MAIL CENTRE,
UNDERWOOD QLD 4119
Each questionnaire is distributed to thousands of parents/caregivers, students and staff. The cost and time that would be involved in entering respondents' comments is prohibitive.
The set of questions is structured to provide information about some aspects of the school. The questions cannot cover every aspect of the school that is important. In addition, the questions are designed to be relevant to all schools. Where there are local issues, the school may have its own processes and procedures for gathering information and gauging the opinions of parents/caregivers, students and staff. Where people wish to express their opinion about aspects of the school that are not covered by the questions, they should raise their concerns with the Principal or Deputy Principal.
Where people wish to express their opinion about aspects of the school that are not covered by the questions, they should raise their concerns with the principal or deputy principal. Please don't write additional comments or concerns on the survey form.
The most important aspect to having a representative sample is the response rate. More accurate information will be achieved having a higher response rate from a smaller sample than by having a low response rate from a larger sample. For example, if 36 questionnaires were returned out of 40, this would be more representative than a return of 200 questionnaires out of 500. In essence, your opinion is greatly valued and completing and returning your survey forms will ultimately help your school into the future.
All parents/caregivers and staff (excluding principals) have the option of completing either a paper or online version of their survey.
Schools were given the opportunity to choose either paper or online surveys for students in 2011. Unless otherwise requested, the format used by a school for 2011 will become the default method used for that school for future School Opinion Surveys.
All principals complete an online version of their survey.
Each school will receive graphs and tables outlining its results in the school surveys. The school community can then use the results of the survey to evaluate, reflect, act and improve. The results are included in the school's annual report. Also, the results of the survey across the whole of Queensland are used to indicate how well Education Queensland is progressing in terms of key corporate priorities.
Towards the end of the school year, each school will be able to access data outlining the results for the school. Different schools will make these results available in different ways, including the school's annual report.
Parents/caregivers, students and staff are asked to complete the survey forms thinking back generally over the school year. However, a major event occurring in the school just before the survey week could affect the survey results (positively or otherwise). Survey results need to be considered in the context of what was happening in the school around the time when parents/caregivers, students and staff were completing the survey forms.
This page was last reviewed on 28 Jul 2011
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© The State of Queensland (Department of Education, Training and Employment) 2002.