School Sport Survey
2015.
Guidance Notes for
Primary Schools
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Primary pupil survey – Guidance note for teachers and
supporting staff
Introduction
This document is designed to help you and your pupils complete the online survey as easily as possible. We recommend you read the document before beginning the survey with pupils as it contains hints and tips if pupils raise questions.
We have included some information to explain why we ask the questions we do and how you can use the resulting information and data
Please be assured that pupils’ responses are anonymous.
The survey has the approval of the Welsh Government, Estyn and the Children’s Commissioner.
Before you start
Speak to your ICT staff. The survey should be easily accessible from PCs, laptops, tablets and smart phones. Your school will need to access the internet to complete the questionnaires online. The recommended technical requirements for schools are as follows:
A reliable Internet connection.
Ability to receive bulk emails used for survey invitations and reminders. The email address used by the system will look like this:
surveys@webhost.snapsurveys.com
Recommended browsers are Internet Explorer version 7 and above, Firefox or any browser compatible with HTML 4.0 Transitional.
A JavaScript enabled browser to allow for dynamic features in the questionnaire.
Setting up and accessing the online questionnaire
Your school will be emailed a unique link and supporting information by the 13th April 2015, the day before the survey begins.
Click on the link or paste it into your web browser to access the survey. This will take you directly to the first page of the questionnaire.
3 Your local sports development team will also have access to this link if you misplace your email.
If you are loading this page onto all the computers in an ICT suite, it might take a few moments for the questionnaire to appear on all screens. Please be patient while it loads – pilots have shown that once loaded the questionnaire functions well. The system has been set up to manage 10,000 concurrent users.
How long does the survey take?
Pilots show that primary school pupils take an average time of 24 minutes to complete the questionnaire. Some pupils take as little as 10 minutes to complete the questionnaire.
Pupils won’t be asked every single one of these questions – depending on their answers they are routed by the questionnaire to the next relevant question. It is likely that pupils who do a lot of sport will need a bit longer to complete the survey; those who do less may be finished in less than 15 minutes.
When completing
Please encourage pupils to think about their answers properly rather than skipping through it, particularly the first section on sports that they do, so that the data collected is of the best possible quality.
All of the feedback from pupils is really important – we want to hear from those who are non-participants as well as those who do a lot of sport, and from pupils of all ability levels.
When and where should I do the survey?
Although this is a survey about sport, it covers issues that affect well-being and access to leisure opportunities in the community.
The survey can take place in any suitable lesson such as ICT, PSE or PE. Schools have also used registration periods, or assembly time.
How long will the survey be open for?
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How many pupils need to take part?
The primary school survey is for pupils in Years 3, 4, 5 and 6.
Your email invitation contains information about the minimum number of pupils needed to complete the survey in order for your school to qualify for a report. Generally, make sure you include pupils from each year group, with a good gender balance, and include pupils of all ability levels. This will help you get a quality report reflecting the opinions and participation rates of all your pupils.
Your local authority lead contact will also have information about the numbers of pupils who need to complete the survey. They will be tracking how many pupils have submitted their responses via a live monitoring system.
Details for your local contact point are shown in the Appendix.
How are other schools making use of the School Sport Survey?
The School Sport Survey web pages contain additional examples of how survey information can be used to make improvements to school sport and take account of the feedback that pupils have given in previous surveys. Please visit the webpages to find out more:
www.schoolsportsurvey.org.uk
Improvements to the 2015 Survey
We’ve listened to your feedback from 2013 and have made improvements wherever possible. Some of the things we’ve done include:
Making the questionnaires shorter so they can be completed easily
Improving the wording of questions for pupils with special educational needs Making the survey available on PC, tablets and smartphones
Extending the invitation to take part in the survey to pupils in Years 12 and 13 and students in further education colleges
See our infographic here for further information:
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The Questionnaire
This section of the guidance looks at the content of the questionnaire for pupils and provides some hints and tips for answering frequently asked questions.
About You
This section provides us with demographic information and helps us see how levels of sports participation may be affected by pupils’ age, gender, ethnicity and
disability.
Pupils are asked to tick a box to indicate their gender, age, and year group. They are then asked two standard survey questions about ethnicity and disability.
Pupils do not have to answer questions about ethnicity and disability if they do not want to. If pupils do have concerns about ticking a response, please assure them that they won’t be able to be identified from their individual responses.
Ethnic group
Once pupils have ticked the appropriate group, a follow up question appears to capture more detail about that particular ethnic group. Pupils only see the section relevant to them.
6 We are often asked why the question is phrased in this way and why the categories are names as they are. This question on ethnicity is a standard question used in the 2011 census and in national surveys in Wales. The categories are as follows.
What is your ethnic group? Main categories in bold are shown, sub-categories appear when option is ticked
White:
Welsh/English/Scottish/Northern Irish/British Irish
Traveller
Any other White background
Mixed/Multiple ethnicity:
White and Black Caribbean White and Black African White and Asian
Any other Mixed/multiple ethnic
Asian/Asian British:
Indian Pakistani Bangladeshi Chinese
Any other Asian background
Black/Black British:
African Caribbean
Any other Black/African/Caribbean background
Other
Arab
Any other ethnic group
HINTS AND TIPS – it is worth stopping the class at this point and reading out this question to pupils in one go, as younger pupils may ask questions about what ethnic group means. Asking ‘What is your heritage?’ is an alternative way of phrasing the question.
Disability
Pupils are asked whether they have a disability or impairment. If they tick ‘yes’, they are asked to tick any options that apply, which include:
Learning disability
Blind or have trouble seeing
A physical disability and I use a wheelchair all the time A physical disability and I do not use a wheelchair I use a wheelchair for sport
Deaf or hard of hearing Long-term illness
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HINTS AND TIPS: Pupils may ask if certain things ‘count’ such as asthma or any allergies. If it is something that the pupil considers to be a disability/impairment they should tick yes and then ‘physical disability/impairment’ or ‘Other’. For example, it might be something that they feel has prevented them doing sport (because it makes them feel unwell, or they haven’t been given the right
opportunities/chances), or as much sport as they would like. A temporary illness or injury such as a broken limb would not count as a disability.
Why do we ask about ethnicity and disability?
We want sport to be accessible and appropriate for all, and the data can show us where there are gaps, as well as where things are being delivered really well. Since the Equality Act 2010, we also have a public sector equality duty. The aim of this duty is to ensure that public authorities and those carrying out a public function consider how they can positively contribute to a fairer society through advancing equality and good relations in their day-to-day activities. It is important that the young people know that giving this information will help sport do a better job at providing the opportunities they would like, in the format that they want.
8 This question aims to collect information on all the sports that pupils have done when they are NOT in PE lessons during the last academic year. ‘Sport’
encompasses a broad range of activities - including dancing, fitness activities, running and jogging and skills such as lifesaving.
Previous cognitive testing has shown that pupils can have difficulties recalling everything they have done, and thinking about their school year was shown to be the easiest timeframe for pupils to understand.
HINTS AND TIPS: Encourage pupils to think about the whole year if they ask,
including the summer term. We want to capture what extracurricular activities they do that have been organised by the school and also the activities they might have done in community clubs, leisure centres, with parents and friends and so on.
Once pupils have completed this sports section, they will be asked some follow up questions about each of the individual activities they ticked.
The list of sports and activities covered in the survey is as follows:
Adventurous activities (secondary pupils only) Netball
Athletics Rounders/Baseball/Softball Badminton Rowing
Basketball Rugby Boccia (pronounced 'Bot-cha') is a Paralympic sport
introduced in 1984. Similar to bowls, athletes throw, kick or use a ramp to propel a ball onto the court with the aim of getting closest to a 'jack' ball
Running or jogging
Bowls (not ten pin bowling) Sailing
Canoeing/kayaking Sitting Volleyball Cheerleading Squash (secondary only)
Cricket Street sports (e.g. skateboarding) Cycling Surfing
Dance Swimming Dodgeball Table tennis Fitness classes (e.g. aerobics, yoga, circuits)
(secondary only)
Tennis or short tennis Football Trampolining
Golf Triathlon Gymnastics Volleyball Hockey Water polo
Horse Riding Wheelchair basketball Lifesaving Wheelchair rugby Martial Arts (e.g. Judo, Karate) Other sports Multi-skills (primary only)
(Dragon Multi-Skills resources:
9 For each activity ticked, pupils will be asked three short questions to find out the setting/location of where they have done that activity. The example below shows the follow-up questions:
The wording for these questions ‘school club’ ‘club not at school’ has been cognitively tested with pupils of all ages across Wales1.
By ‘school club’, we mean any extracurricular sport that has been organised by the school.
By a ‘club not at school’ we mean any community club setting – a sports club, a club at a community centre/village hall or a club that takes place at a leisure centre and so on.
These two settings are intended to capture formal, organised activity that requires an element of supervision from a teacher, coach, leader or instructor.
Have you played (sport) anywhere else? This could be at home, or with your friends, or in the part or at a leisure centre for example.
By this, we want to capture information on informal participation.
1Netting a Winner: tackling ways to question children online. A good practice guide to asking children and young people about
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Additional questions for pupils in Years 5 and 6
If pupils are in Years 5 and 6, and have ticked ‘yes’ to doing organised activity in a school club or a club not at school, then they will be asked how often they take part since they have been in that year group. An example is below.
Pupils should think about a general situation, how often they would usually do something. For example, if they did a term taking part in a school basketball club and went once a week, then they should tick the ‘Once a week’ box, even if they are currently doing a different extracurricular activity instead of basketball.
Hooked on Sport
These next two questions are used to calculate the ‘hooked on sport’ measure of whether pupils take part in sport and physical activity on three or more occasions a week in an extracurricular or community club setting.
The ‘Taking part in school sports clubs’ question aims to collect data on how often the pupil generally does extracurricular sport in school. It does not matter which sports and activities – it is the general frequency of participation that counts.
11 The next question covers the same concept, except it asks pupils to consider how often they do a generally participate in sport or physical activity in a club based in the community. Again, it does not matter which activities – it is the general frequency of participation that counts.
Sport Wales combines the data from these two questions to calculate frequency of participation in sport. If pupils take part in sport and activity on three or more occasions per week (outside of PE lessons) then they are considered to be ‘hooked on sport’.
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Competitive Sport
This question is to find out more about competitive opportunities for. Competing for the school can be utilised as an indicator of a pupil’s sporting ability and confidence to take part, as shown by the infographic from 2013 below:
Sports Club Membership
Pupils are asked whether they are a member of a sports club. This information is been used to indicate a level of commitment to taking part in formal sport.
Places you do sport
This information is used by the Welsh Government in the Children and Young People’s Monitor to help answer Core Aim 4 of the seven core aims for children and young people. These summarise the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and form the basis for decisions on priorities and objectives nationally. Core Aim 4 seeks for all children and young people to have access to a variety of play, leisure, sporting and cultural activities to enhance their health and well-being, regardless of their ability, language, race or gender.
13 More recently, this data has been used for the Active Healthy Kids - Wales Physical Activity Report Card 2014.
The inspiration for the first Active Healthy Kids - Wales Report Card has come from the Canadian Report Card that has been published annually for the last 10 years. Being part of the International ‘Active Healthy Kids’ project will help establish Wales in a Global Framework motivated to promote health and active behaviour in
children. You can find out more about the report card here:
http://www.swansea.ac.uk/sports-science/news/wales-report-card/
Leisure Centres
If a pupil ticks ‘Leisure Centre’ they are asked a follow up question to find out how often they go to a leisure centre to do activity when they are not at school. Leisure Centre data is frequently used by local authorities, partners and students, and is used by Sport Wales to help us understand whether pupils have access to opportunities in the community.
Sports you would like to do
Pupils are asked “Which sports, if any, would you like to do more of?” This question helps us to assess levels of ‘latent demand’ for sport and activity
The list of sports appears on screen. Data from this question can be used to see whether we are generally offering the right sorts of activities to different pupils.
14 Girls and boys tend to have different preferences, and age can also influence
preferences. Previous analysis has shown that pupils want to do more of the things they have exposure to or experience of.
The following question is to help sport and physical activity providers to collect information that allows us to consider barriers to participation and how to help young people get involved in more sport and physical activity.
For example, we know that older pupils, especially girls have different barriers to participation compared with pupils in primary schools. We also found in 2013 that some pupils didn’t feel they were good at sport and lacked confidence. These were the pupils who weren’t being as active as others and were not gaining the same health and well-being benefits from taking part in activities.
Additional options have been added to the 2015 survey to take account of teachers’ feedback. You’ve told us that some pupils can’t take part in extracurricular activity even though they enjoy it because they need to go straight home after school or have other commitments.
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Family and friends
This section helps us understand how pupils’ friends and family can influence their participation levels in sport. Supportive parents who have participated themselves can encourage more participation. Similarly peer group influence among older pupils can play a big part in whether pupils stay involved in sport or not, and in which settings. This was a key finding from the 2013 survey (below) and from qualitative work with young people:
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Well-being
These questions are used to provide evidence for the well-being outcomes in Estyn’s Common Inspection Framework, and are also used as indicators on the Welsh Government’s website ‘My Local School’.
My Local School is a website designed to provide school performance data for parents and others who may have an interest, in particular pupils and governors. http://mylocalschool.wales.gov.uk/
We want to know whether pupils are aware of the health outcomes of being active, and the extent to which pupils of different ages and backgrounds experience PE and school sport.
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HINTS AND TIPS: By ‘comfortable’ we mean whether pupils are emotionally
comfortable when they take part, rather than physically. Are pupils happy in the lessons and not concerned or worried about taking part?
Confidence levels also have an impact on participation levels and can be an indicator of physical literacy. In 2013, School Sport Survey results showed that pupils who were always comfortable taking part in PE and school sport, and were confident trying new activities, were more likely to be frequently active, as shown below.
HINTS AND TIPS: This question aims to collect information to find out more about pupil/learner voice. For example, do pupils have a chance to have their say via a sports council or school council – do teachers and other sports deliverers consult with the pupils? Do pupils feel their opinions are being listened to by the school?
Guidance may be required here for younger pupils who interpret the question very literally. Some think about their friends listening to them talking about PE and sport, and whether people were physically within earshot and could ‘listen/hear’. By ‘listened to’, we mean taken account of, where ideas are acted on if appropriate. It does not have to be the individual pupil who is listened to. Are pupils generally allowed to shape delivery - perhaps by having the opportunity to feed their views into a school council or a consultation exercise such as this survey?
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Enjoyment of PE and sport – in school and outside of school
Enjoyment, ability (perceived or actual) and confidence are key factors influencing the participation levels of pupils in sport and physical activity. For example, a great deal of research shows that older pupils, particularly girls, don’t enjoy PE and sport as much as they could. By tracking enjoyment levels through the survey, schools and Sport Wales can assess the progress we are making to address the issues.
In 2013, we found that pupils who enjoyed doing sport in school clubs ‘a lot’ were almost twice as likely to be hooked on sport and taking part in sport and physical activity three or more times a week.
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Leisure time
This section provides vital information to help us understand how pupils choose to prioritise their time. It also helps us recognise other factors that place demands on their time, such as caring duties, socialising with friends, or doing school work.
We use this information combined with other data in the survey to create a segmentation of young people, to better understand the different needs and preferences of various groups/segments of the population. This will be available soon. Find out more about segmentation here:
http://sport.wales/research--policy/tools-and-resources/people-segmentation.aspx Pupils are then shown a screen of everything they ticked in ‘Leisure time’ and are asked “In a normal week, which three of these things do you spend the most time doing, when you are not at school?”
20 If pupils ticked ‘SPORT’ ‘SWIMMING’ ‘GYM/FITNESS’ or ‘DANCING’ they are asked the following question. This helps us understand more about motivations for doing sport and being physically active.
Travel to school
Finally, there are two questions on travel, which helps us understand Active Travel in Wales.
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HINTS AND TIPS: Pupils may ask questions about how long it takes them to travel
somewhere, especially if they travel by car.
We ask these questions because the data has been shared with Welsh Government as part of their Transport Statistics, and is used to inform the impact of the Active Travel Bill.
This is the end of the survey, and pupils will see the screen below. Please make sure pupils press the ‘Submit’ button so that their responses are logged on the system.
Thank you for helping Sport Wales with this survey. We welcome your feedback on the survey process and your school and pupils’ experience of taking part. If you would like any further information about how the data is used, please contact research@sportwales.org.uk
For information on how to log into the survey and accessing your school’s unique link, please see the email that has been sent to your school or contact your local authority lead, shown in the appendix below.
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Appendix A: Local Authority Contacts
Local Authority Name Email
Bridgend Andrew Thomas Andrew.R.Thomas@bridgend.gov.uk Blaenau Gwent Chris Garrett Chris.Garrett@aneurinleisure.org.uk Caerphilly Carly Jones JONESC27@CAERPHILLY.GOV.UK Cardiff Emma Hill ehill@cardiffmet.ac.uk
Carmarthenshire Carl Daniels cadaniels@carmarthenshire.gov.uk Ceredigion Darryl Evans Darryl.Evans@ceredigion.gov.uk Conwy Osian Williams osian.williams@conwy.gov.uk/ Denbighshire Hollie M Jackson hollie.jackson@denbighshire.gov.uk Flintshire Matt Hayes matt_hayes@flintshire.gov.uk Gwynedd Alun Jones alunjones2@gwynedd.gov.uk Isle of Anglesey Owain Jones owainjones@ynysmon.gov.uk Merthyr Tydfil Gareth Hughes Gareth.Hughes@merthyr.gov.uk Monmouthshire Nick John nicholasjohn@monmouthshire.gov.uk Neath Port Talbot Neil Thomas n.g.thomas@npt.gov.uk
Newport Karl Reed karl.reed@newport.gov.uk Pembrokeshire Ben Field ben.field@pembrokeshire.gov.uk Powys Kate Hamer katie.hamer@powys.gov.uk Rhondda Cynon Taff Gavin Bennett gavin.r.bennett@rctcbc.gov.uk Swansea Sarah McCoubrey Sarah.mccoubrey@swansea.gov.uk Torfaen Helena McDaid Helena.McDaid@torfaen.gov.uk Vale of Glamorgan Ben Williams BWilliams@valeofglamorgan.gov.uk Wrexham Rebecca Phillips Rebecca.phillips@wrexham.gov.uk
