How to conduct an effective survey

Use our step-by-step guide and grab-and-go statement banks to save time and get the insights you need from parents, pupils and staff.

Last reviewed on 31 January 2023
School types: All · School phases: All
Ref: 38620
Contents
  1. 1. Set a goal for your survey
  2. 2. Decide who to ask and when
  3. 3. Choose your format
  4. 4. Create your survey using our statement banks
  5. 5. Trial your survey
  6. 6. Launch day – make it a big deal!
  7. 7. Analyse your results and act on them
  8. Other ways to get feedback

1. Set a goal for your survey

Surveys can help you:

  • Decide your future school improvement priorities
  • Demonstrate the effectiveness of your actions over the past year
  • Show your local authority/trust, governors and Ofsted the impact of past school improvement objectives

Consider why you're doing the survey, and what you hope the results will help you do. Set a clear goal for the survey based on this.

Having a clear goal means you can make sure that every question in your survey is relevant and useful. For example, a goal might be:

  • To determine why you're struggling to retain teachers
  • To find out how safe pupils feel in school

2. Decide who to ask and when

Think about your survey goal, and then decide which stakeholders are best placed to tell you what you need to know.

All of your pupils, parents and staff about their experience of your school A

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