This year at my school, we sought feedback on various issues such as changes to the school uniform policy and opinions on our mobile phone use policy.

To do this, we used a survey tool to gather information, insights and feedback about the views of our school community on our current policies and proposed changes.

While surveys are not themselves new, the development of new technologies, coupled with long-standing positives and pitfalls, means it is important surveys are used correctly to derive the most useful insights.

1. Ensure representative responses

One of the key considerations when first launching a survey is to consider how to ensure it will be representative of the wider community - rather than just a vocal minority.

To mitigate this, we issued several reminders about taking part over the course of a week and decided to let people respond anonymously so they would feel more confident coming forward. 

We did weigh this up against requiring named responses and the benefits this offers, such as clearly seeing how views from boys and girls differ - but as we wanted as much insight into these issues as possible, we felt anonymous responses were the better option.

Additionally, by explaining the importance of the survey and being clear that responses would inform our approach (rather than it being an empty gesture exercise), we saw a positive response rate of 75% of all our students. 

Clearly at the very least having a majority of students responding makes it a valid representative sample, and in this case, we had far more than that.

2. Avoid influencing answers

The way questions are posed can significantly influence responses, and so time must be given to avoiding writing leading questions that could lead to a particular set of answers.

For instance, asking “How bad an influence do you think phone use is in school?” in our phone survey would presuppose phone use is negative. Instead, we used a more neutral question: “What is your opinion on the use of phones in school?”

In our uniform survey, I knew asking an open question about how pupils felt when being reprimanded over uniform issues would inevitably see them say they were not happy. So we asked, ‘If a student does have to be reprimanded for poor uniform, what is the best way for that to be done by a teacher?’

Doing this meant we were building up a truer reflection of what people thought - rather than an echo chamber based on what we may have ‘wanted’ to hear.

3. Use focus groups

Following on from the above, while survey results are good, it is never a bad idea to follow up with focus groups to validate the data.

Again here, it could be tempting to bias what you want to hear and pick certain pupils, perhaps prefects - but this will not give you an honest insight. As such I always use random selection to pick focus groups so they have a better chance of fully representing their school or year group.

Within one of ours, for example, while the survey highlighted a general preference for the current uniform, focus groups revealed specific concerns about the need for gender-neutral guidance, which we might have otherwise overlooked.

4. Consider AI use

In the past, traditional surveys often relied on simple quantitative responses such as “yes,” “no,” or “maybe”.

These responses, while useful, offer limited insight into the nuanced opinions of respondents. Thanks to AI platforms, which answers can be uploaded to, it is now easier to analyse and quantify long-form responses to extract themes, sentiments and trends.

For example, analysing the open-ended responses about uniform comfort revealed a recurring theme: students found the current uniforms uncomfortable in varying weather conditions. This detailed feedback informed our decision to consider introducing more weather-appropriate options, such as allowing shorts during hot weather.

5. Prove you listened

Finally, it is important that any survey insights that do lead to changes are communicated, so people see why it was worth their time to respond.

For instance, after analysing the survey and focus group data, we used PSHE lessons to show students how their suggestions, such as introducing a more flexible dress code for hot weather and more gender-neutral rules, would be implemented.

We also sent a summary of these changes, along with an explanation for them, to parents so they could see why we had made these changes.  Even more importantly, we did the same with our teachers - given they are the people who enforce our uniform policy.

Luke Ramsden is deputy head of an independent school and chair of trustees for the Schools Consent Project

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