Form questions
Student needs assessment questions for week one
Twenty questions is a full start of year assessment and eleven is the version a teenager finishes. Three are essential: what the student wants to be called, how confident they feel in each subject right now, and the one topic that worries them most. The first changes the first lesson, the second sets the plan and the third gives it a starting point.
A week one survey exists to save the first lesson from being spent on discovery, which is the most expensive hour of the year. These questions ask how a student learns, what is actually available at home, and what they are worried about.
The questions
Getting started
What should we call you?Short textRequired
The name the student actually uses, which is not always the one on the enrolment record.
What year are you in?DropdownRequired
What are you hoping to get out of this term?Single choice
A mark, catching up, staying ahead, a specific exam, not sure yet.
Have you worked with a tutor or support teacher before?Single choice
Yes and it helped, yes and it did not, no. The middle answer changes the first session.
How you learn
How confident do you feel in maths right now?Rating grid
Row one of a confidence grid: not confident, a bit unsure, okay, confident.
How confident do you feel in English right now?Rating grid
Row two.
How confident do you feel in science right now?Rating grid
Row three.
How confident do you feel in humanities right now?Rating grid
Row four.
Which of these actually help you learn?Multiple choice
A worked example first, trying it and being corrected, talking it through, notes in your own words, diagrams, practice questions.
What do you usually do when you get stuck on homework?Single choice
Ask someone at home, search online, leave it for a teacher, guess and move on, stop working. The last answer is the one that changes how homework is set.
How do you feel about being asked a question in front of other people?Single choice
Fine, a bit uncomfortable, I would rather not. Ask it, and then respect the answer.
How long can you work before you need a break?Single choice
Bands in fifteen minute steps. It is a session planning question, not a judgement.
What you have at home
Where do you do most of your study?Single choice
A desk of my own, the kitchen, at school or the library, on my bed, it changes.
Do you have a device and internet you can use whenever you need to?Single choice
My own, shared, only sometimes, no. A planning question, phrased so it does not read as an audit.
Is there somewhere quiet you can work?Single choice
What time of day do you work best?Single choice
Before school, straight after, early evening, late at night, weekends only.
Is there anything that regularly stops you finishing homework?Single choice
Include work, caring for family and travel as real options rather than only distraction.
What you want from the term
Which topic or subject worries you most this year?Long textRequired
Ask for a topic rather than a subject. Quadratics is usable in session one; maths is not.
What would a good year look like for you?Long text
A mark, a subject, a habit. Any of them is a starting point.
Anything your teacher or tutor should know before the first session?Long text
Optional, and the answer that most often changes the plan.
Which questions to make required
Only three questions are required, because week one is the wrong moment to make demands of a student who has not met anybody yet. The preferred name is required because it is the easiest question on the form and the one that most changes the first lesson. The year level is required so the plan starts at the right place. The worry question is required because a needs assessment without a named starting point is a personality quiz. Everything about home circumstances stays optional and is phrased as planning rather than as an audit.
- What should we call you?
- What year are you in?
- Which topic or subject worries you most this year?
The form built from these questions
A static copy of a form built from part of the bank, exactly as it renders.
How to change this for a different group
A primary class. Cut it to eight questions, read them aloud, and replace the confidence grid with faces or a three point scale on two subjects only. Add a question about who is at home to help with reading, and ask about friendship rather than about study habits, since a seven year old cannot report their own working pattern but can tell you who they sit with. An adult learner or a vocational cohort. Confidence by school subject is meaningless here. Replace it with confidence against the actual competencies of the course, add questions about how long it has been since the person studied formally, what shifts they work, and whether an employer is paying, because all three shape attendance far more than learning preference does. A student with an identified additional need. Do not replace the formal process with a survey. Use this instrument alongside it, add one question asking what has worked with other teachers, and one asking what people usually get wrong. Those two answers are frequently more practical than the documentation, and students answer them well when the form is plainly written and the survey has made clear that nothing here is marked.
Questions people ask
Should a needs assessment ask about learning styles?
Not as fixed types. The research does not support sorting students into visual or auditory learners, and a label sticks to a child for years. Asking which of these actually help you learn collects preferences a teacher can use next lesson without making a claim about how the student is wired.
Is asking about devices and internet at home intrusive?
It is practical, and it is the question that stops a teacher setting online homework a student cannot do. Phrase it as planning, offer an option that does not require anyone to describe their circumstances, and keep it optional. A student who skips it has told you something too.
Why ask for a preferred name first?
It is the easiest question on the form and it changes the first lesson more than any other answer. Starting there also sets the tone, because it signals that the survey is about the student rather than about the enrolment record, which raises the quality of every answer after it.
When should it be sent?
Before the first session if the contact details exist, and in the first lesson otherwise. The whole value is in arriving before teaching starts. Sent in week three it becomes a check in, which is a useful but entirely different instrument with different questions.
Should parents fill it in instead?
For primary students, a short parent version alongside the student one works well. For secondary, ask the student. Parents answer about the child they remember and students answer about the term they are in, and where the two disagree the disagreement is usually the most useful thing in the file.
What do you do with the worry answer?
Open the first session with it. Nothing builds credibility faster than starting where the student said they were stuck, and nothing wastes a needs assessment more completely than collecting the answer and beginning with the syllabus. If several students name the same topic, that is the first week planned.
How often should it be repeated?
Once at the start of the year and once after the first reporting round, with the confidence grid unchanged so the two can be compared. Repeating the whole instrument every term produces survey fatigue in a group that already fills in enough forms, and the confidence grid alone carries most of the value.
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