2014-15 Spring Survey

In  early May we surveyed students, their parents and staff to ask them their thoughts on some of the things we do on a regular basis at George Waters Middle School.

The areas we looked at were:

• JAWSS (Joint Activities with Staff and Students - our advisory program)
• Gym Blasts
• CARE Assemblies
• Daily Emails
• Agenda Time
• GWMS Instagram Feed
• GWMS Facebook Page

The survey asked people who responded to consider if GWMS:

• Keep the initiative
• Stop the initiative 
• Were happy either way
• Or if they weren't sure what it was

169 students, 15 parents and 16 staff members responded to the survey. Here are the results. 

(to get a larder view of the pie charts 'click' them). 

In each graph the dark orange represents 'Keep it', the grey represents 'Stop It', the blue represents 'Happy Either Way' and light orange shows how many people weren't sure what that area was.

JAWSS

The intended audience in JAWSS is students primarily and then staff. The goal is to help students create another connection with an adult at George Waters. Generally, JAWSS happens two times a month. In JAWSS students create their portfolio and discuss topics of interest to students. This is an area that staff and parents are generally positive about but we have some work to do to ensure students are positively engaged in this on a regular basis. We will be getting students involved in planning activities in JAWSS in 2015-16 to have their voice to make sure we are reaching and connecting with every child at George Waters Middle School.

GYM BLASTS

The intended audience for Gym Blasts is students and staff. These are fun, high energy games that allow students from grade 6-8 to work together.

Not surprising. in this case, that students, parents and staff are relatively please with Gym Blasts. For 2015-16 staff have discussed making the Gym Blasts have themes based on the different cultures that are represented at George Waters. It is important to our school that we recognize all students and where they come from while giving students a chance  to learn more about each other in a fun environment.

CARE ASSEMBLIES

The intended audience for CARE Assemblies is students and their parents. These are success assemblies where the entire school gets together to celebrate individual student achievements and school wide achievements. 

CARE Assemblies are well received by students, their parents and the staff. We will continue to recognize as many different students as we can in as many different ways as we can during these assemblies. Making sure that student's strengths are shown off are recognized is main priority for CARE Assemblies. This is not limited to academic success.

DAILY EMAILS

The intended audience for Daily Emails is parents with the bonus of students reflecting about their day. The goal is to inform parents,on a regular basis, about what happens at school.

Students are not overly supportive of the Daily Emails but parents agree that these are a good thing to keep doing. Staff will work with students to ensure they understand the importance of reflecting on their day and keeping their parents informed about what is happening at school.

AGENDA TIME

The intended audience for Agenda Time is the students. During Agenda Time students return their iPads to their homerooms and write their Daily Reflection.
This will be a goal for 2015-16 to ensure that this time is used well and everyone understands the importance of meeting at the end of the day to review what happened. This is a great chance for students to connect with their homeroom teacher before they leave for the day as well.

INSTAGRAM FEED

FACEBOOK PAGE

The audiences for the Instagram Feed and Facebook Pages are for everyone. These platforms allow the school to share pictures on a daily basis of students in action at George Waters. The goal of using these social medias is to break down the walls of our schools to allow parents and the community to see the great things that students do everyday in their classes. Both of these areas were well received by students, parents and staff.

An opportunity was given to people who completed the survey to provide open comments about the school as well. Thank you to those who took time to do so.

Some student comments:

• I think that all the activities in GWMS are fine, but we should have more gym blasts because we rarely have them and they're really fun. Also, if the library is closed, there should be an announcement since it's a waste of time going to the library then realizing it's closed.
• The assemblies are fun :)
• The hockey program is fun and so are the dances 
• More school dances because there fun, We should be able to take our iPads home
• CARE assemblies are awesome so keep them but I don't care to much for the daily emails home or agenda time we do nothing
• I like the way that George Waters offers a lot of way to get involved. I like that there's a lot of choices of clubs that we can join. I like that at the gym, the teachers are organizing a intramurals. 
• I don't really care about jawss because we only do portfolios, I'm far way from the school so my my parents don't go to school if it's portfolio caffe. Agenda of time should be cancelled because there's no purpose to it, you do nothing. Just sit there and wait till the bell ring. Gym blast is not fun, choose time is more fun because we have choices of where we want to go instead of teachers forcing us to participate in the activities of gym blast. If we had choice time, we all can pick what we want to do like Basketball, cooking, art.

Some parent comments:

• awesome Middle school !!!!
• I like this school
• Can we take are I pad's home please 
• I'm thankful on gwms for being a good school for my kid...most of their activities were for kids interest as to help kids growing into a responsible individuals. Staffs were amazing and accommodating, and the levels of sharkdoms were cool way that kids will be prepared to be a good citizen and a good person. 
• "I really like how the students have so many extra curricular activities to choose from. 

One staff comment:

• Mr. Mead, you are amazing. (<--Oh wait, Mr. Mead wrote this one)

If you have any additional comments about this information please comment below or email Mr. Mead at amead@sjsd.net.

Thanks!!

Mr. Mead