Feedback is also important in our quest to make Lowther Hall the very best school it can be. My lunches with Year 12 girls continue to provide a wonderful source of information about which of our practices should be retained and which could be improved. It has also been good to meet with parents of Prep and Year 7 girls across the year to hear about the experience of transitioning into Junior School and Senior School and to think about how we can make this an even better process in years to come.

This week, we are seeking your feedback about our student reporting process. Please visit the following website in order to complete a survey regarding the nature and timing of our student reports: www.surveymonkey.com/s/VHLZL7G

Thank you to those parents who participated in the survey regarding the Annual Music Concert. 

259 parents responded to the survey, with a reasonably even spread of year levels represented across the school. 

In terms of the preferred start time of the concert, respondents were almost equally split between preferring a 6:30pm (45%) and 7:00pm (49%) start. Only 5% of respondents indicated that they would prefer a later start time. The preferred length of the concert would be 120 minutes (53%) with a clear agreement that this year’s concert was too long. 

There was strong support for the Recital Centre as being the right venue for the event (85% of respondents either agreeing or strongly agreeing with this statement) and it was the view of the majority (75%) that it should continue to be considered as a venue even though there is limited availability for Friday evenings or a weekend. 

In terms of the concert itself, feedback about the items and the standard was very positive and the majority of respondents enjoyed the fact that the concert included girls from across the whole school. There was a clear 50/50 split between those who believed we should consider separate concerts for Junior and Senior Schools and those who believed that they should remain combined! Many people expressed the view that the stage set ups took too long and that this detracted from an otherwise excellent evening. 

Very positive comments were made about many, many items and it seems that there were different highlights for different families. Probably most valuable though, were the comments from the 174 people who included a comment with their general feedback. So much of this was positive and affirming of the work of the girls and the staff, but there were also very constructive suggestions for how the evening could be improved with specific reference to:
Conditions for the girls back stage

• Food and drink for girls 
• Management of younger girls as part of the event
• Timing for older girls in terms of assessment
• Turn-around time between rehearsal and performance 
• Late start the next day 
• Length of concert 
• Communication 
• Stage movement 

We will try to take on as many of the suggestions made as possible to bring you an even more successful Annual Music Concert next year. Thank you to all who made it such a success this year and again, thank you so much to all those who took the time to give feedback.