1. Who’s having laugh?
When asked last weekend, 31% of you had laughed ‘today or yesterday.’ Being a parent to a pre-schooler produced the most laughter (40% of pre-school parents had laughed compared to only 20% of secondary school parents) 🤣
Happily, crying is much less frequent with only 8% having cried ‘today or yesterday.’ But, again, pre-school parents had all the big emotions with 10% crying compared to just 4% of secondary school parents. Fewer dads than mums admitted to crying with 28% saying they have never cried over a parenting issue (compared to just 3% of mums) 😢
If you have more than one child then you were more likely to be shouting – eek! 48% of parents with multiple kids had shouted, compared to 28% of those with just one child. Oh, and if you were wondering, it seems that mums shout more than dads! 😬
2. Who thinks homework is unnecessary?
Homework is one of the main times when family life overlaps with school life. So, what do you think about it? On the day we asked last week, 23% of primary-aged children had received homework and 60% of secondary ones had. So far, so good…
Next we asked ‘in general, do you think it is necessary for schools to set homework?’
On the whole, most of you (60%) are in favour. However, 40% of parents who are teachers do not think it’s necessary for schools to set homework, compared to just 26% of parents who are not teachers… Is homework therefore a big PR exercise? Parent Ping has much more work to do on this issue!
Do you think it's necessary for schools to set homework? 40% of parents who are teachers think it’s unnecessary, compared to just 26% of parents who are not… Is homework therefore a big PR exercise? Download @ParentPing for more insights https://bit.ly/parentping
3. Are teenagers the only ones wearing masks in school?
As would be expected from government guidelines, parents told us most children of secondary age are wearing masks (68%), but 8% of you with primary-aged children have been asked to get your children masking up too!
In terms of teachers, 62% of you have seen secondary school staff member wearing a mask. The rate was around half this in primary school (33%) and lower again for nursery (26%), but it shows that mask wearing in primary schools and nurseries is not uncommon.
4. What’s the point of Ofsted?
As we learnt last week, parents who work as teachers can have rather different views about Ofsted than those who don’t work as teachers. However, when asked about the purpose of Ofsted, your views were actually largely the same. Most of you think the main purpose of Ofsted is to inform government and few think it’s to inform teachers. Interestingly, the purpose that Chief Inspector Amanda Spielman talks about most is the role of Ofsted in informing parents. Only around a quarter of you agreed with her.
That said, 8 in 10 of you have read the Ofsted report for your child’s school or nursery, so it’s clearly not unimportant for parents! Slightly fewer dads had read than mums, and slightly more for primary schools than for secondary or nursery.
* Estyn in Wales / Education Scotland
And finally...
17% of parents have already bought some Christmas presents (but only 10% of dads). Don’t worry though, there’s still around 100 days till Christmas 😉
Coming up next week
Next week, we have a user question on uniforms, a burning question on drop-off, and some timely questions on school-choice… Don’t miss a question by downloading the app and setting your notifications to PING every day!