Medbury Parents Benchmarking Survey

Report to Medbury parents on the Benchmark Survey Results December 2007

Over the past 8-9 years Marketshare has undertaken a major study designed to measure both parent and employee perceptions within the independent schools in Australia and New Zealand.  This study, titled 'Benchmarks for School Effectiveness' has been conducted in a large number of schools and allows individual schools to put their results into context by drawing comparisons with the results of other schools.  Currently 65 schools including 32 preparatory schools conduct these surveys.  Medbury School participated in the study in the second half of 2007.

Questionnaires were distributed by the school, completed by parents and returned directly to Marketshare for processing. Of the 230 surveys distributed to parents a total of 157 usable surveys were returned representing a return rate of approximately 68%. A total of 30 parents completed the boarding questions. At the time of surveying 36 families were boarding at Medbury School representing an 83% response rate for this section of the questionnaire.

Overall, satisfaction of parents at Medbury School is very strong with an average satisfaction index of 90.1.  This is well above important benchmarks indicating that expectations are strongly met with parents expressing strong support and loyalty.  Best practice organisations typically perform at above 90.  The average satisfaction index of other schools in the benchmarking set is 87.7.

The following areas scored highly:

• Quality of caring and support
• Co-curricular programme
• Communication
• Image and reputation
• Spiritual and personal development
• Support Staff

In the survey you identified some key areas requiring attention:

• Behaviour management including managing bullying.
• Boarder parents identified some boarding issues notably, the standard of accommodation and ability to communicate with the boarding house.
• Sports, particularly sports organisation and quality coaching.
• Class sizes.

Actions planned:

The survey results have already been discussed by the full board, the Headmaster and staff and actions introduced to build further on the areas of strong performance and to address the issues your identified.  These initiatives and action plans will be a key focus for the Board and senior management in Term One of 2008.

The survey data will also form a key input into the development of new stategic plan for Medbury which is to be undertaken in Term One 2008.  Further input from all stakeholder groups will be sought as part of this process.

The results show that Medbury is strongly out-performing the indpendent school benchmarks and this is supported by the fact that Medbury has a very full roll for 2008.

The Board would like to thank parents for providing this feedback which we see as critical to improving still further the overall performance of Medbury.