The results of our 2020 Membership Survey are in! 117 of you responded, for which we are very grateful, giving your views about parenting high learning potential young people, the services we provide and the wellbeing of you and your children. The survey gave us lots of information to help us plan services that will give you the support you need.
Parent Wellbeing
Our survey asked parents of high learning potential young people about their own wellbeing. This revealed that many of you experience low wellbeing. In fact, the overall scores showed parents’ wellbeing as hovering on the average/low wellbeing borderline. The lowest scoring items indicated that many of you struggle with low energy and find it difficult to relax. Isolation and not feeling good about yourself were also significant issues identified.
Analysis of the wellbeing of parents of different aged children showed that parents of 8-11 year olds had significantly lower wellbeing than parents of other age groups.
In response to the results of the survey showing low wellbeing for parents of high learning potential children, we will continue to build communities to reduce isolation. We have planned signposting and resources to support you with self-care, as well as listened to your suggestions for what will make your life easier in supporting your children. We will also plan in some suitable workshops at our BIG Family Weekend in October.
Children’s Wellbeing
103 parents completed questionnaires about their children’s wellbeing. This showed overall that parents’ perceptions of their children’s wellbeing were on the borderline between the average and below average ranges, with the Emotional Wellbeing category being in the below average range. Parents were concerned that their child felt they were being ‘bossed around’ by their parents. Other low-scoring answers indicated that parents felt that their children weren’t proud of themselves, didn’t feel pleased with themselves and felt tired and worn out a lot. The positive aspects of the questionnaire showed that parents felt their children were fine at home, had lots of good ideas and were not often ill or had tummyache/headache.
43 children completed the child questions about their own wellbeing. Overall, scores were at the top of the below average range. Emotional Wellbeing and Friends categories were both in the below average range. The main concern for those who responded was feeling different to other children. Other low-scoring answers indicated children were bored often, found school uninteresting and didn’t feel pleased with themselves. The great news is that children were happy at home and felt that they got on well with their parents.
In response to the children’s wellbeing results, we are looking at ways to develop our opportunities for young people to meet up with each other through local events. To combat boredom and provide enriching activities that build skills, we have planned in the creation of activity resources for individuals, families and teachers. We would like to work towards producing a young people’s newsletter through which we can facilitate young people in their self-understanding.
Online Resources
You told us that you love receiving the Focus on Potential newsletter each month with 70% reading the newsletter and blog resources. You said that advice sheets are the best way to access more detailed information, with 82% having accessed them. Some of you said you would also like video or podcast resources. When it comes to social media, overwhelmingly, you told us that you use Facebook (80%) and YouTube (64%) the most.
You told us about the topics you would like more information about. The most popular topic was parenting high learning potential children, closely followed by resources about children’s wellbeing. You also indicated you would like more information about discussing appropriate provision with schools and understanding what appropriate provision is in school/education.
We asked what would be most useful to receive when you first become members. 55% of you said you would like to have received something when you joined or when you renew. The most popular things to receive were links to amazing resources elsewhere and a welcome pack of information about high learning potential children.
Feedback about our online resources and membership has enabled us to plan what material will go into Focus on Potential, what publications we produce during the year and additional training our staff will need to be able to support you. We have plans to produce a membership pack and for this to include a resource to give to your child’s teacher.
New Services
We asked whether you would be likely to use some proposed new services and all of them had a good response. The most popular of these was local family events, with a whopping 92% of you saying you would be likely to attend and giving us an indication of how far you would be willing to travel. The proposed coaching service for young people was also popular with 71% of you saying you would be likely to use this. The other services we proposed were an online parenting high learning potential children course (56% of you said you would be likely to use this – thank you to those giving your email addresses to enable us to contact you about the development of this) and face-to-face parent workshops/groups (69% said you would be likely to use this and to travel a fair distance to access it).
As a result of this feedback we are looking further into how we can cost effectively run events for families in local areas, develop a coaching service for young people, and produce an online course for parents. It will take us time to work through the detail during the coming months. The coaching service would also support young people’s wellbeing and development.
Thank you to everyone who took part in the survey. If you have any further comments you would like to make please email: amazingchildren@potentialplusuk.org
