A parent survey tells you how families see the school: communication, behaviour and safety, how well their child is learning, and whether their concerns are dealt with. It is most useful when it reaches the families you hear from least, not only those who always reply.
What to ask
Most parent surveys cover:
- Safety and wellbeing: whether their child is safe and happy at school.
- Behaviour and bullying: whether pupils are well behaved, and how bullying is dealt with.
- Communication: whether the school tells them what they need to know, and how concerns are handled.
- Learning: whether their child gets the support to learn well, including support for special educational needs.
- Overall: whether they would recommend the school to another parent.
Ofsted Parent View is Ofsted's online questionnaire for parents, and it asks ten questions on these themes. Our Parent questionnaire with national comparison asks the same ten questions, word for word, so each of your results sits beside the national figure and the figure for your phase. Our Parent and carer survey is a longer annual survey, and the SEND parent and carer voice survey is for families of children with special educational needs or disabilities.
How England compares
From Ofsted Parent View, 10 November 2025 to 6 April 2026, parents at state schools in England:
- 85.1% agree their child feels safe at the school.
- 76.5% agree the school communicates well with them.
- 83.3% would recommend the school to another parent.
- Of parents whose child had been bullied, 43.2% agree the school dealt with it quickly and effectively.
Source: Ofsted Parent View, 10 November 2025 to 6 April 2026. The figures differ by phase: for example, 89.7% of primary parents agree their child feels safe, against 80.1% of secondary parents. Each page shows every phase.
Reaching every family
- Send a personal link by email, and also share one link through your usual app or newsletter, so families without a school email address can still answer.
- Offer the survey in the languages your families speak. Four of our parent surveys, including the Parent and carer survey, are available in 10 languages, English among them.
- Keep it short: the Parent View questions take about 3 minutes.
- Say what you did with last year's answers. Our You said, we did survey checks whether families noticed.
Keeping it anonymous
Parents are more likely to be candid if they know the school cannot see who said what. Ours shows results for a group, such as a year group, only when 5 or more parents in it answered, and removes names from comments before the school sees them. See how anonymity works.
What it costs with Benchmark.Pulse
Running a survey is free, and so is the headline result when it closes. The full report is £149. See pricing.