Dear Members of the SSIS Community –
Today we are releasing our 2016 SSIS Community Survey. Below you will find attachments linking to the survey and may choose to participate in English, Vietnamese, Korean, Chinese (traditional), and Chinese (simplified). We hope that many of you will be able to complete the survey this week so that we can share results with you at the upcoming HoS/PTA Parent Evening on Tuesday, 24 May 2016.
2016 Community Survey (English, Vietnamese, Korean, Chinese-Traditional, Chinese-Simplified)
We use surveys at SSIS, both internally and with our community, to measure our performance and progress and try and improve this school even further for your children. You may wonder, at times, what becomes of the results of the survey and so I would like to share with you some of my own personal reflections on last year’s 2015 SSIS Community Survey.
We read all of your written responses (translating when we need to from Vietnamese, Chinese, or Korean). We tabulate the results to each question, looking for trends within the largest communities within the school and across the whole school.
I was very pleased last year to find that the overall satisfaction with the school is good, well over 90%. There are areas, of course, where our parents would like to see improvement, but I am pleased with these results. The overwhelming majority of you felt welcomed by the admissions department, well-served by our other offices, and feel that your children study in a school with well-maintained grounds and classrooms, and with teachers who are well-supplied with materials and technology to educate their children. Surprising to me, the vast majority of you are content that your child gets to school in a safe and efficient manner. We spend a lot of time on this question and are always concerned about those students crossing Nguyen Duc Canh to get to school. We are always open to suggestions for improvements to safety.
A fair number of you reported last year that we needed to improve the quality and choice of food at lunch. Our Food Committee has been working very hard this year and I hope that we’ll see improvement on this year’s survey results. While we got very high marks for our curriculum, there were some parents who felt that we need to become more academically demanding and an equal number who felt we needed to ease up a bit. One thing that I noticed was that there was a group of parents who felt that they could not really judge things such as the teaching of the Core Values or the curriculum because they didn’t have enough information. That is something we have tried to improve this year with our informational coffees and presentations. Perhaps the biggest request from the surveys was for an even more robust after-school program, something we have been working on this year and we are planning even more for next year.
The most wonderful takeaway from last year’s survey was the question of how long most of you plan to remain here at SSIS. Almost half of you reported that you plan to have your children study here at SSIS for at least another five years which is exciting for all of us. Community building takes time, and the longer students stay with us the stronger the bonds will grow between them and with their teachers.
I’m excited to see the results of this year’s survey and to read your comments. The time and attention you give to this survey helps us as a school to continually serve you and your children better.
Sincerely yours,
Mark Sylte, Head of School
