This reflective activity is designed to assess community members’ current perceptions and views of the school in relation to friendliness, involvement of community members, diversity, the school as a community resource and communication. It should be led by a pupil group.

Introduction

A healthy and inclusive school will establish and maintain good community relationships. The school should be viewed as a community resource, and, as such, should fully engage with the local community and provide opportunities to link up with local organisations, business leaders, churches and community groups. This will enable the school to develop a sense of identity and belonging, fostering the broad aims of inclusion, difference and diversity.

External relationships with individuals and community groups are vital for schools to develop an understanding of the culture and demographics of the community within which they are located. This reflective activity will provide pupils with a tool to identify and assess the local community’s perceptions of the school and to identify, improve and develop links and partnership working. The questionnaire is designed to assess community members’ current perceptions and views of the school in relation to friendliness, involvement of community members, diversity, the school as a community resource and communication.

This reflective activity will:
• assist in identifying current good practice and areas for improvement in relation to community relationships
• develop pupils understanding of the importance of engaging community stakeholders in the process of developing a healthy and inclusive school ethos
• develop an understanding of how the community can provide opportunities and skills to support pupils learning
• identify areas for improvement that will enhance the well-being of pupils and promote better learning

This activity should be conducted by a group of pupils within the school and supported by a staff team. Where possible the questionnaires should be distributed to ALL community groups/clubs and a large representative sample of individuals living in the community, as this will provide a more credible reflection and assessment of views. It is designed to protect the respondent’s privacy providing confidentiality and anonymity. The school will collect the completed questionnaires, then collate and analyse the data with the pupil group and staff team. The findings can then be used to inform the school improvement plan and lead to improvements in the current relationship with the community.

Steps:

1. Identify and list your sample: for example, business leaders, church representatives, employees of local leisure facilities, community centres, shops, cafes, restaurants, the local postman/woman, police officer, council representative, health care employees, and a random sample of local residents (minimum of 100 and maximum of 300).
2. Produce a covering letter to accompany the questionnaire as you are more likely to receive responses when people understand the purpose of it.
3. Distribute by hand, or mail-out to as many community members as possible.
4. Ensure that the covering letter clearly states a RETURN DATE.
5. Pupils should return in person on a given date to collect the surveys – this will encourage a larger return.
6. To ensure anonymity and confidentiality you should also ensure that there are a number of POSTING BOXES situated around the school (make sure that this is clearly stated on the covering letter, as this will also increase your response rate).
7. Collect questionnaires for analysis.
8. Schools should decide how they will process the data collected and how they will inform all school staff and community members of the findings.