We’ve had a busy week asking lots of questions about Christmas, the National Tutoring Programme, outings and, er… smells! But before we get going with all that, let’s start with an update…
An update on our update!
Last week, we shared the exciting news that we are UPGRADING Parent Ping! We shared the update with 1% of lucky users this week and next week EVERYONE is getting it! As well as badges (whoop!) we’ve also added PASSWORDS to ensure your app is even more secure. You’ll need to set the password when you first login to the upgraded app, it’s super simple and we’ll send you an email with more information next week.
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Regular Pingers will know that we’ve been keeping a close eye on how your Christmas shopping’s going. This week, 21% of you finished your Christmas shopping (but 5% haven’t started). In response to the regular Christmas present question, a Pinger suggested we ask if any of you are making presents… It turns out a quarter of you are! Slightly more mums than dads will be getting out the craft box / putting a cooking apron on, and more parents of secondary-aged kids than primary.
Will at least one of those presents be for teachers? Three-quarters of primary school parents told us that teachers can expect a present (but this is far less common in secondary schools). Within the primary parent’s group, around a quarter of you will be chipping in for a joint present, we’ll check just how much you are contributing next week.
While we are talking about school, there has been a small increase in the number of you who are you considering taking your child out of school before the end of term to ensure they don’t have Covid or need to self-isolate during the holidays. On the whole though, the vast majority of parents are planning on sending their kids in through to the very last day.
National Tutoring Programme
A big decision within schools is if a child is falling behind in a subject, when should they have catch-up classes? We looked at this with the National Tutoring Programme (NTP) in mind as you previously told us you think that the tutoring on offer should happen during the school day.
Over half of you think that the catch-up should happen before or after school. Skipping lunchtime or an arts subject was the least preferred suggestion, and in-place of the same subject with the whole class was in the middle. Whether your child is in primary or secondary school makes a pretty big difference, as the chart below shows.
The other challenge if the NTP takes place in schools is the Covid-logistics of potentially bringing more people onto the school site. Most of you thought that the best solution is to use existing school staff, although parents who don’t work in school themselves were just keen that it gets going asap.
Outings
Since the summer, we’ve asked three times about what outings you’d be happy taking the kids on at the weekend. Outside activities have always been more popular than indoor (even now in chilly December), but across just about every category parents are less willing to venture out now than they were back in the summer.
And also…
👃 Does your child have a different smell when they are ill? Yes, according to 38% of mums! The more kids you have, the more aware you become of this smell… 41% of parents with 3 kids agree it exists
📚 We had an inkling based on a question last month, that mums might supervise homework more often than dads… and we were right! As would be expected, primary-aged kids are supervised &/or checked considerably more than secondary-aged, and teacher-parents more so than non.
Coming up next week
Next week (on your newly upgraded app 😉) we have more questions on Christmas, but we also start looking ahead to the new year. Got something you’d like us to find out about? Let us know your question suggestions here.
Don’t miss a question… Download the app and set your notifications to PING every day!