Parent feedback
Dear Mr Dumican and the staff of St Edmund Arrowsmith,
"Just wanted to say that we think you are doing a fantastic job…..hats off to all of you."
"I just wanted to say I think you are doing an amazing job. When my child is in school, I have felt confident at the systems you have put in place. When my child is home-learning, I feel confident that you are all doing your best to deliver an education to her."
"I would just like to say I feel the school has done everything it could to support my child’s education."
"May I take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to all the teachers and staff who are providing excellent lessons during these challenging times. I, for one, am a very satisfied parent."
"Thank you to you, your staff and school’s 100% effort to gain the best possible outcomes for our children."
"I would like to put in writing our thanks for the support our child has received and is continuing to receive. My son is thriving, his education is continuing and the standards required of him are being maintained."
"Please know that he vast majority of parents are very pleased with how their children have and are being taught."
"I would like to take this opportunity to let you know that I think the school is doing an outstanding job in the circumstances. Since the beginning of lockdown the instructions sent to pupils on how to access Teams and the availability of teachers to answer emails and offer support has been outstanding."
"I wanted specifically to congratulate the school on their remote learning via Teams. My son has been fully engaged in his lessons and he has been kept busy everyday by his teachers. I really feel school are doing their utmost to ensure children’s education continues during this pandemic."
"Thank you…The quality of the lessons being delivered is excellent."
"I would like to express my gratitude to you and the rest of the staff for all your continued support during these times and for the commitment shown to our children and their education."
"I just wanted to thank Mr Dumican and every single teacher for the amazing work you all do every day."
"I would just like to say a huge thank you to you all and feel extremely proud of St Edmund Arrowsmith and all the hard work you are evidently doing day to day to ensure our children are safe and well educated during these difficult times."
"I just wanted to say a BIG heartfelt thank you to Mr Dumican and all the teachers, staff and domestic staff for all their hard work and dedication during this very worrying time. The standards put in place and the communication has been excellent."
"I just wanted to say what an amazing job you are all doing. My daughter had a few problems with her internet. One teacher replied at 10pm on a Saturday night. Now if that’s not going above and beyond!!"
"The staff are working above and beyond at the moment and should be congratulated on their hard work and commitment in delivering live lessons."
"I couldn’t be happier with the way your school has handled lockdown….the work your teachers are putting in place is fantastic."
"I would just like to say how well I believe you and your staff have supported our children through lockdown."
"We just wanted to say that we think you are doing an awesome job in teaching our children in these difficult and uncertain times. We can’t thank you enough."
"We are delighted with the way school has dealt with such trying times. Keep up the fantastic work."
"I know how hard all teachers, support staff and SLT have worked throughout last year and the beginning of this year to provide learning for all our children and I for one am really appreciative."
"I would like to personally thank you and your staff for the communication and support that you are giving my son in terms of home learning and well being."
"You are doing am amazing job…thank you, thank you, thank you."
"I would like it noted that I think the school is doing a tremendous job. Thank you for prioritising our children throughout all of this."
"We just want to send our gratitude and praise for all you are doing for our children during these incredibly difficult times."
"Thank you and all the staff for delivering an excellent service to my child in these very difficult times."
"I want to take the opportunity to say a huge and heartfelt thank you to you and all of the staff at St Edmund Arrowsmith. You really are making a real and vital difference to the lives of our children.
As an educator and a parent, I can't explain the guilt I have felt sending my son into school. However,
thanks to your passion, commitment and drive, my son has come home from school every day with a smile. He wants to be there. In fact, he prefers to be there. It means so much for me to be able to say that during a global pandemic and the unprecedented times that we are facing, my son is happy.
I wanted to send a quick message that would pay tribute to you, for your hard work and dedication during what has been a difficult and challenging time for all. With the conversations that my son has shared coming home, you and your colleagues have been amazing. You have not only cared for them, kept them safe, but you have done so with love and understanding.
Teachers aren't having it easy at the moment in the press and on Social Media. I beg you to ignore the ignorance and celebrate all that you have achieved and hope that you enjoy the half term that you so deserve.
You are creating history and achieving something that has never been done before and we hope we will never have to face again.
So, thank you so very much from the bottom of my heart. We can see his happiness and wanted to let yourself and the staff at Eddie's know that it is very much appreciated."
"I just want to say a big thank you to you and all the staff for last night’s parents evening for my son. As a teaching assistant myself I know how much pressure your teachers are under, but they are all doing a fantastic job. My son is doing really well in all his subjects too so that was lovely to hear. Thanks again and hopefully we will all get back to some normality soon. Have a lovely half term."
"I have been super busy at work, so before time gets away from me again this week, I wanted to say a colossal thank you for all the hard work you and the school family are doing.
I do hope you can all achieve some rare rest over half term. I marvel at how you are all juggling both remote and face to face learning, in addition to preparing the exam years, when the government have given so little guidance or notice for all of that.
My daughter is missing school and is persevering with her learning. She isn't confident to speak voluntarily on Teams, but I love overhearing her say the answer out loud and then celebrate when the teachers say the same answer. It must be so hard for teachers when they get less feedback or contribution than face to face. I do hope they know they are still making such a difference even when students are quiet.
Please send my best wishes to everyone and take care of yourself. You are worth more than your weight in gold. No need to reply, you must be inundated."
"Please can we pass on to all the staff a big thank you for a fantastic virtual parents’ evening last night. It was well organised; we had no technical issues and ran very much on time. The staff were very friendly, professional and gave us all the information we needed for our son. Thank you to all the staff for their amazing efforts over the lockdown period."
"Last night we attended our son’s Year 7 Teams parents’ meeting and just wanted to reflect on how amazing it was. The evening went extremely smoothly, and every staff member was attentive to our son, knew him well and shared positives with us. From the safety of our home, it was a delightful evening and a blessing to be a part of it."
"I wanted to share my thanks and appreciation for all of the learning and support delivered to my daughter, and all your students this term. On my day off each week, I have heard parts of my daughter’s lessons being delivered and it has been lovely to hear her teachers motivating and encouraging as they teach. Aside from learning, it has provided some much-needed stability throughout the uncertainty and has maintained a sense of belonging during isolation. These are things you cannot put a price on, and your efforts haven’t gone unnoticed."
"I just want to say a big thank you to you and all the staff for last night’s parents evening for my son. As a teaching assistant myself I know how much pressure your teachers are under, but they are all doing a fantastic job. Our son is doing really well in all his subjects too so that was lovely to hear."
"I wanted to share our experience of the recent Year 9 parents’ evening with you. All of our son’s teachers were so supportive and encouraging. I think to be able to talk with them whilst sitting next to our son was a real help. They are doing a brilliant job during a very difficult time. The appointments were pretty smooth running and one teacher in IT spent extra time explaining the option choices in great detail which we felt helped our son."
"I just wanted to say how lucky I feel that my son has been part of your school during the latest lockdown, and previous. I could write pages about the things you and your staff have excelled at, but it would take you far too long to read when I’m sure your priority will be getting school ready for tomorrow and supporting staff and young people.
So, these are just a few things to thank you and your staff for:
Welcoming each child in registration time, asking them about how they are.
Teachers carrying on even when “none “of the children have speakers.
Providing a mix of online input and time to work through tasks.
Offering feedback.... these are life skills that as parents we should support our children to accept.
Listening to some random suggestions from some about how “you should do teams like this sir!” And how the teacher did not humiliate pupils but retained control of a lesson.
How much praise and encouragement came from teachers in the sessions.
Contact from staff when there were technical issues.
Encouraging engagement in whole school initiatives and praise for those that did.
Encouraging staff to allow 5 minutes “movement “ between lessons...even though some worded it as 5 minutes because “I’m proud of your effort today!”
Giving parents as much notice as possible so that we could plan care for our children as well as managing our own jobs....even if the weather forecasters got it wrong.
For the sleepless nights I am sure many staff have had trying to get things right for all pupils with little guidance from the government.
Reacting to last minute decisions by the government and making the best of difficult situations regarding pupil access to technology, WiFi and parental support.
Providing testing for staff, and now pupils with no additional resources.
For continuing excellent communication with parents, parents evenings, postcards sent home and special mentions in assembly.
I am also aware of the tremendous effort in the background by other staff and I hope you will pass on my appreciation to all. Often schools are a place of many unsung hero, but I’m sure you will sing the praises of all your staff. My thoughts and prayers are with you all tomorrow as we continue our journey.
God bless"
"Good afternoon
I just wanted to write and say a very big thank you to yourselves and everybody that works at St Edmund Arrowsmith.
Your hard work, determination and care you have shown and given to our daughter has been incredible. Under difficult circumstances the school has stood tall and has been a tower of strength when us parents have struggled with home schooling.
You all deserve medals!!
Thank you again, and fingers crossed we can hand the teacher reigns to you until the end of the summer!!"
Just wanted to pass on our praise and thanks for such a well organised parent’s evening. It is a 100% improvement on dashing around school for 2 hours and stressing about missing appointment times.
I feel I learnt so much more about how the children are doing. I really loved how the teachers spoke directly with the children too, such a positive experience for us all.
In Y7, my husband was working away, and I had to try and see as many of our children’s teachers as I could, but it wasn’t easy, and I got a written report from some instead. I was grateful for that, but felt I’d missed out on that interaction with their teachers.
It would be wonderful if school would consider this online format as an alternative going forwards!
Thanks to all the teachers, it went very smoothly for all calls.
I just wanted to send some feedback on parents evening last Thursday.
Having two children in the same year we found it a much better experience having the sessions booked on Teams.
The sessions ran to time and it felt much more personal and without the stress of rushing backwards and forwards to the different areas of the school.
Please pass on our thanks to the teachers we were able to meet for their time.
Firstly, may I thank you for the regular and informative correspondence throughout the past year, this has been extremely helpful in what has been challenging times. All staff have been fantastic through lock downs with their online teaching, but I would like to say that Mr O’Callaghan has gone above and beyond and has obviously made an impression on our son as he has commented how much he has enjoyed his lessons and how much effort Mr O’Callaghan has put in saying they’re the best lessons. I have witnessed some parts of his lessons as I have also worked from home and Mr O’Callaghan has been enthusiastic and encouraging to all pupils and in our son’s words “he has made it fun and interesting at the same time”. We would like you to know our appreciation of the effort he has given.
Hopefully we are beginning to get back to some kind of normality now and the challenging times are nearly over.
