From the Assistant Principal

“Let’s take a pulse check.”

It seems to be the phrase of the moment in schools and school leadership. We use it to see how things are going, reflect on how something has been implemented, and test our assumptions before jumping to conclusions.

Take a pulse check.

Earlier this year, the School Council sent out a survey to parents and carers to get a better sense of how families are experiencing school and where we might have opportunities to improve. This was in response to some so-so data in our 2025 Parent Opinion Survey.

As the School Council representatives prepared the survey, we were lucky enough to meet with Lauren, an NLPS parent and survey design expert (I know that’s not your official title, Lauren - apologies).

One thing from the conversation really stuck with me: if you ask people for their feedback, you need to close the loop.

And I think that’s the important part of a pulse check. It’s not just about finding out what people think; it’s about paying attention to what you hear or see and deciding what you might do differently as a result.

So, here is our attempt to close the loop.

We received 65 responses to our 2026 School Council Parent and Carer Survey, which is approximately 7% of our parent community. This means we need to be careful about how we interpret the results. The responses give us some useful indications about the experiences and perspectives of those who completed the survey, but they aren’t representative of the views of our whole parent community.

That matters.

For example, there were only eight responses from Grade 6 families. It would be difficult to confidently conclude that those eight responses represent the experience of all Grade 6 families.

So, we’ll take the results as a pulse check, not a diagnosis. They give us things to think about, questions to explore, and areas where we may need to seek further feedback.

What did you tell us?

The strongest-performing domain in the survey was Learning and Growth. This is encouraging and aligns with what we know is a real strength of NLPS. We want our students to be challenged, supported, and continually growing as learners, so it is pleasing to see this reflected in the feedback.

The area with the most room for growth was Communication and Partnership.

There were a few consistent themes within this.

Some families felt that our newsletters can become quite long.

Fair point. I’ll cop that.

We know there is a lot of information competing for your attention, and we will continue to think about how we can make our communication more useful, accessible, and easier to navigate.

There was also feedback around understanding how differentiation and additional support operates at NLPS. We do have processes, policies, and structures in place, but having something in place and making sure families understand how it works are two different things. We can do better at explaining this.

There was feedback about the number of Compass notifications families receive, and whether some communication could be consolidated into more predictable routines or digests. We’ll explore what is possible here.

There was also a request for clearer communication about the rationale behind some recent program changes, including swimming, the Make It Right Room, and Out of School Hours Care (OSHC).

This one is worth highlighting.

We are always happy to explain the 'why' behind decisions. In fact, we would much rather have the conversation than have families wondering about it from a distance. If something doesn’t make sense, come and chat.

Sometimes there are constraints, information, or considerations that aren’t immediately obvious. Sometimes we might have made a decision that could have been communicated better. And sometimes you might raise something that makes us think again.

We hear from families far less often than you might think, so silence can very easily be interpreted as, 'Everything is okay'.

So, over the next couple of newsletters, I’ll write to provide some clarity around a couple of decisions we have made - our changes to the Intensive Swimming Program and the introduction of the Make It Right Room. And if you ask any of our 2025 School Councillors, they’ll be able to give you the full rationale for changing OSHC providers.

But before that… another survey. The official one.

There’s no way around it.

We’re asking you to complete another survey.

This time it is the Parent Opinion Survey, run annually by the Victorian Department of Education.

Yes, I appreciate the irony, and I’m tearing open this feedback loop all over again. The difference is that this is the Department’s state-wide survey, which provides us with another source of information about how families experience NLPS. It also allows us to compare our results with similar schools and with the broader Victorian school community.

(And we do get marked on participation.)

So, as we invite you to complete the Parent Opinion Survey, please take the time to do it. The more families who participate, the better picture we get of our community.

It’s another chance to take the pulse.

For you to tell us what you think.

And then we’ll do our best to tell you what we heard, what we’re going to do about it, and close the loop all over again.

Mat Williamson

Assistant Principal (and please don’t interpret this article as evidence that surveys get my pulse racing)