Here are some of the best questions for an elementary school student survey about school events, plus tips for crafting engaging, insightful questions. With Specific, you can generate a conversational survey for students in seconds—making feedback fun and meaningful.
Best open-ended questions for student surveys about school events
When you want honest, thoughtful feedback from students, open-ended questions are your best friend. These questions allow elementary school students to express their real thoughts, feelings, and experiences—giving us richer and more authentic responses. However, keep in mind that open-ended questions can sometimes lead to higher nonresponse rates, especially with younger students. Studies show nonresponse rates for open-ended items can be as high as 18%, and in some cases even higher, especially if questions feel too broad or complex for the student’s age and attention span. [1]
So, use open-ended prompts sparingly and frame them to be kid-friendly. Here are 10 of our favorites:
What was your favorite school event this year? Why?
If you could plan a new school event, what would it be?
How do school events make you feel about coming to school?
Can you name one thing you liked most at the last school event?
Was there anything about a school event that you didn’t like? What was it?
How did you participate in the last school event?
Who do you enjoy spending time with at school events?
If you could change something about school events, what would it be?
How do school events help you make friends?
What would you tell a new student about our school events?
Asking open-ended questions encourages students to elaborate, and gives us a better sense of what truly works or what could improve in our school events.
Best single-select multiple-choice questions for school event surveys
Single-select multiple-choice questions are ideal when you want to easily quantify feedback or get a conversation started—especially if your audience is young and might be overwhelmed by open-ended prompts. According to Pew Research Center, closed-ended questions have a much lower nonresponse rate (1–2%), which helps you capture clearer results and higher participation. [1]
It’s also helpful for kids who may find it easier (and less intimidating) to choose from several short answers than to write out their own. Here are three examples tailored for elementary school students and school events:
Question: Which school event did you enjoy the most this year?
Field Day
Science Fair
School Concert
Other
Question: How do you usually feel during school events?
Excited
Happy
Nervous
Bored
Question: How often do you go to school events?
All the time
Sometimes
Rarely
Never
When to follow up with "why?" Use a follow-up "why" when you want to move beyond the basic choice and really understand the student's experience. For example, if a student selects "Bored" for how they feel during school events, a simple follow-up like “Why do you feel bored at school events?” can reveal specifics you’d never find in a closed-ended response alone.
When and why to add the "Other" choice? Adding “Other” lets you catch feedback that you didn’t think of—which for school events, is almost always a good idea. Students often surprise us, so add a follow-up open-ended question when “Other” is chosen. These unexpected insights are gold for improvement.
NPS question for student surveys: does it fit?
NPS (Net Promoter Score) questions are typically designed to measure loyalty and overall satisfaction, but they work surprisingly well for elementary school student surveys about school events—if you phrase them in a kid-friendly way. The NPS format asks students how likely they are to recommend school events to their friends, on a scale from 0–10.
This is a simple, universally-understood metric, and gives us a quick "temperature check" on overall sentiment—plus you can ask a follow-up question for students who rate it low or high, to understand their reasoning. If you want to try an NPS-style conversational survey for your next event, here’s a ready-to-use generator you can explore.
The power of follow-up questions
Automated follow-up questions are what set conversational surveys apart from traditional forms. Following up in real time uncovers supportive details, clarifies confusion, and fills in gaps—making every response that much more useful. Specific’s automatic AI follow-up questions do this expertly: they read the student’s reply, consider the conversation so far, and probe naturally like a skilled interviewer would.
That means you get richer insights, without the need to send multiple emails or worry about missed opportunities. Best of all, it keeps the conversation feeling fun and engaging for students—no awkward gaps, no forced interactions.
Student: I didn’t have fun at the last school event.
AI follow-up: Can you tell me what made it less fun for you?
Student: Science Fair.
AI follow-up: What did you like most about the Science Fair?
How many follow-ups to ask? Usually, two or three follow-ups are enough—especially for student surveys. But having a smart “skip” option (when you’ve gathered all the info you need) keeps things punchy, not exhausting. Specific lets you dial this in for your needs.
This makes it a conversational survey: Kids (and adults!) respond best to a friendly back-and-forth, not a cold list of questions. That’s what makes conversational surveys so inviting for feedback.
AI analysis for open-text feedback: Even if you collect tons of detailed, open-ended answers, the process is painless. With Specific, our AI-powered analysis quickly surfaces themes, key phrases, and unique insights—so you can spend less time wrangling data and more time taking action.
Automated follow-ups in conversational surveys are a relatively new approach—if you haven’t seen it in action, I highly recommend that you generate an example survey and experience the difference firsthand.
How to prompt ChatGPT for great elementary student survey questions
If you’re building your own survey from scratch (or just need a few new ideas), try starting with a prompt like this in ChatGPT or your favorite AI tool:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for elementary school student survey about school events.
But here’s where things get interesting—AI always works better with more context! Instead of keeping it generic, try adding details about your school, your students, or your goals. For example:
I want to gather feedback from our 3rd-5th grade students about school events so we can choose which ones to improve next year. Give me 10 open-ended questions focused on what they enjoyed, what they didn’t, and what they’d like to see in the future.
Once you’ve got your questions, get organized:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
You’ll usually see themes like “Event Enjoyment,” “Suggestions for Improvement,” or “Feelings About Events.” Pick your focus and go deeper:
Generate 10 questions for categories Event Enjoyment and Suggestions for Improvement.
This lets you zero in on what matters (with some help from AI!). For more customization, the Specific AI survey generator lets you generate and edit survey questions conversationally, making the whole process even faster.
What is a conversational survey?
Conversational surveys—like those enabled by Specific—turn the feedback process into a genuine dialog. Instead of a cold, static form, the survey feels more like a friendly chat. This helps kids (and adults) feel at ease, boosting response rates and the honesty of answers. AI-powered conversational surveys can even clarify confusing responses with smart, context-specific follow-ups.
Manual Survey Creation | AI-Generated Conversational Survey |
|---|---|
Manually write & organize questions | Instantly generate questions with AI |
Static forms, no live follow-ups | Adaptive real-time follow-ups like a chat |
Time-consuming to analyze responses | AI summarizes, extracts, and highlights insights fast |
Less engaging for students | Feels friendly, interactive, and fun for kids |
Why use AI for elementary school student surveys? AI survey generators boost both the quality and quantity of responses, eliminate manual setup and data sifting, and allow for highly personalized conversations at scale. This approach helps educators and administrators actually act on what students care about, not just collect data for data’s sake. Plus, platforms like Specific offer seamless conversational surveys with modern UX—making feedback collection and analysis easier than ever.
If you want to learn how to make your own conversational AI survey—even if you’ve never built a survey before—check out our detailed guide on creating surveys for elementary school students about school events.
See this school events survey example now
Try creating your own conversational school event survey for elementary students in moments. You’ll get deeper feedback, better insights, and a smoother experience for everyone—see the power of AI surveys in action today.