Introduction
Parent View is an online questionnaire that allows parents and carers to give their views about their child’s school at any time. It is also the main mechanism for parents to give their views about their child’s school to inspectors at the time of a school inspection.
The questionnaire can be accessed directly from the Parent View site or from the home page of Ofsted website.
How Ofsted uses Parent View
During inspections, Ofsted asks the Principal to notify parents about the inspection and invites them to complete Parent View. Inspectors will review the evidence from Parent View throughout the inspection to ensure that all online responses received during the inspection are taken into account. If the response rate for Parent View is low, inspectors may take steps during the inspection to gather further evidence of parents’ views.
Inspectors will consider and weigh parents’ views against a range of other first-hand evidence they gather – for example, lesson observations; discussions with pupils, teachers and senior managers; progress and attainment data and other relevant information – to make their overall judgement about the effectiveness of a school.
Outside inspections, Parent View can also be completed at any time during the year. This information contributes to the risk assessment process, to help decide if and when a school should be inspected. If a parent updates their responses for a school more than once in an academic year, the previous results will be overwritten so that only one ‘view’ for each parent, per school, is held.