How to conduct an effective survey

Last reviewed on 14 October 2019
School types: All · School phases: All
Ref: 38620

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.

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Contents

  1. Step 1: decide what you're looking to survey
  2. Step 2: decide who to ask and when
  3. Step 3: choose your format
  4. Step 4: create your survey using our statement banks
  5. Step 5: trial your survey
  6. Step 6: launch day, make it a big deal!
  7. Step 7: analyse your results and act on them
  8. Other ways to get feedback

Step 1: decide what you're looking to 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

Start by looking at your school improvement aims for this year, especially those identified in your last Ofsted report.

Discuss with your SLT too. Share our statement banks with them and see which areas they think should be surveyed (you'll find these in step 4).

Also think about the outcomes of your survey:

  • What do you want the results to tell you?
  • How do you plan to use them in your school evaluation cycle?

Step 2: decide who to ask and when

To decide who to ask, think about what you want from the survey, then which stakeholders are best placed to tell

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