Inclusive Practices surveys

Accessing the Inclusive Practices surveys and tools

To access the Inclusive Practices surveys and tools, schools need to register and be validated as a New Zealand school. Once registered, schools can access the Dashboard area to set up and administer the surveys.

Register here

About the four surveys and tools

The Inclusive Practices surveys are designed to be used as part of a school review cycle. Together these surveys support schools to gather data to assess needs, as well as track change over time.

There are four Inclusive Practices Tools (3 surveys and the School Review Profile). These explore similar themes, but are aimed at different members of the school community. These are the:

IPT Student Survey
IPT Staff Survey (available online only)
IPT Community Survey for parents, whānau and caregivers
Inclusive Practices School Review Profile (SRP) (available online only)

(Note: All surveys may be sat online, but only the Student and Community surveys may be sat as a downloadable hard copy survey.)

The Staff, Community and Student Surveys are designed to gather data that explores the perspectives of different groups. The questions in each survey are parallel versions of questions in the School Review Profile.

The surveys are written in language that is appropriate for each group. The questions in the surveys ask about the different ways your school includes all students in all aspects of school life and enables them to learn. The surveys have a focus on the experiences of students with extra support needs. However, the questions are written in a way that enables schools to use them to review practice is relation to another group of students or all students.

Schools will need to manually data enter survey responses for any surveys sat as a downloadable hard copy.

These surveys have been designed to be completed anonymously. All the surveys ask participants about the extent to which they agree or disagree that a range of practices are in place at school. For all surveys, there is one opportunity to add comments at the end. Participants are advised that any comments entered here will be included in the reports that are made available to the review team.

The School Review Profile is a summary tool that is designed to be completed by a review team. This tool supports schools to combine the data from the surveys.

For more information see the IPT Survey information sheets and guidelines.

The Student Survey is available as a downloadable hard copy survey.

Deciding how to use the tools

Based on your knowledge of your school community, you will need to consider two key questions:

Which groups will we ask to complete the surveys?
How will we support people to complete the surveys? (e.g., online surveys may not be an effective way of reaching your parent, whānau and caregiver community. If so, schools can use a printed hardcopy version of the surveys or use the questions as a starting point for a discussion at a community meeting).

To help you make decisions, more information about each survey is provided below.

The Inclusive Practices Staff Survey

The Staff Survey is designed for teaching staff but can also be completed by all school staff and professionals (like RTLB or Resource Teachers of Vision and the Deaf) who work at school with staff or students.

The Staff Survey must be completed online. It is completed anonymously and consists of 70 questions. It takes about 15-20 minutes to complete. It is important that you convey to staff that the survey is voluntary and they have the right to opt out.

The Staff Survey is managed through the Dashboard admin area of the website. To set up the online survey, the Survey Administrator completes an online template, then sends the website link to an online Staff Survey site to relevant staff.

See the information sheet for staff

On this site staff are asked to register, decide on a password and then complete the survey. They can also save their responses and complete the survey at a later time.

The results of the Staff Survey are also used to produce a combined Staff: Items at a Glance report which can be used to assist the review team to complete the SRP (as long as 5 or more staff completed the survey. This number is large enough to ensure anonymity).

The Inclusive Practices Community Survey

The main audience for the Inclusive Practices Community Survey is parents, whānau and caregivers.

You will need to decide whether you send the survey link to all parents or a selected group (e.g., parents, whānau, and caregivers of student with extra support needs.)

The Inclusive Practices Community Survey explores parents' views about the extent to which their child is included and supported to learn at school. This survey consists of 50 questions. It takes about 15-20 minutes to complete.

When informing parents, whānau and caregivers about the surveys, you will need to communicate the purpose for the review, and your rationale for involving parents in language that is appropriate for your community. It is important that you convey to parents, whānau and caregivers that the survey is voluntary and they have the right to opt out.

The survey has a focus on the experiences of students with extra support needs. However, it has been designed so that any parent, whānau member or caregiver can complete it. If your school has groups of parents, whānau, and caregivers who speak English as a second language you may want to arrange a community support person to assist parents to complete the surveys (e.g., this could be done at a home-school partnership or community meeting, or during the time parent-teacher-student conferences are held).

You will need to decide if you are going to use the online or printed version of the survey.

For the online Community Survey, the Survey Administrator will send an email to the parents, whānau and caregivers identified by the school. This email includes a link to an online Community Survey site and information about the survey.

See the information sheet for community members

On the survey site, people can complete the survey anonymously.

The Community Survey can also be completed as a printed version. The printed surveys are available as a downloadable document from the Dashboard administration area. You will need to provide an anonymous way for people to return their survey forms (e.g., a drop box at reception). A data entry template is available to enter the data from the printed survey booklets so that reports can be produced.

The Inclusive Practices Student Survey

The IPT Student Survey is designed for older students who require extra learning support, but can be completed by all students. The survey includes 24 key questions about the extent to which students are included and supported to learn at school.

The survey takes about 10-20 minutes to complete and is written in student-friendly language. To support as many students as possible to complete the survey a number of different possibilities are suggested to assist students to respond to the questions. A caregiver or other support person may help students to fill out this survey if necessary.

See the information sheet for students

See the guidelines for support people

It is important to respect students’ confidentiality and inform them that they have the right to opt out. Make sure students know who they can talk to if they would like to discuss any questions raised by the survey.

The Student Survey can be completed as a hard copy version or online. The hard copy version is available as a downloadable document from the Student survey admin page (as a pdf or Word doc). You will need to provide an anonymous way for students to return their survey forms (e.g., a drop box at reception or in students’ class). A data entry template is available to enter the data from the printed surveys so that reports can be produced.

To protect students' privacy and to ensure that the report data is meaningful, student reports are only produced once a minimum of 5 responses have been submitted to the survey. If your school is very small or you have less than 5 students completing the survey, we suggest you use the questions in the survey as a starting point for discussions which can feed into the review process.

Inclusive Practices School Review Profile (SRP)

Only one School Review Profile (SRP) response should be submitted for each school. It is an audit tool designed to support school staff to summarise data from the three surveys. It aims to assist schools to identify areas of strength as well as next steps.

The process of completing the SRP is as important as the content. The tool is intended to encourage dialogue between members of the school community.

The SRP has 100 questions. Most of these are parallel versions of questions in the Staff, Community and Student surveys. Aside from only one response being required and submitted online only, it is up to your school how you complete the SRP. The IPT support information provides your school with some ideas about a suggested process, See Guidelines for completing the School Review Profile.

Reports

As long as a survey has a minimum of 5 responses (to ensure anonymity), a report will be produced in live time. Schools with less than 5 people for each type of survey are advised to use the printed surveys as a starting point for a discussion that can contribute to the review process.

The results of the Staff, Community and Student Surveys are used to produce Items at a Glance reports. Each Items at a Glance report includes a small extra item number which shows how each question maps onto its equivalent SRP question.

The results from the SRP are used to produce the School at a Glance reports.