2013 School Sport Survey to good use can be found on the school sport survey .... Ability to receive bulk emails used fo
School Sport Survey 2015 Frequently Asked Questions
What is the School Sport Survey and why should I take part? The School Sport Survey is an online survey of pupils aged 7-18 and teachers who are responsible for physical education (PE) and school sport delivery. It is currently hosted by Snap Surveys Ltd and takes place every two years during the summer term. It is approved by the Welsh Government, and recognised by Estyn as a tool that can be used for self-evaluation. The results provide a valuable source of evidence about pupils’ well-being. Taking part in the survey is a tried and tested way of listening to pupils and taking account of learner voice. The survey explores pupils’ participation in sport and physical activity in school and in the community, as well as their opinions about sport and physical activity. It collects information from teachers about the provision of various PE and sports activities in schools across Wales and teachers’ perceptions about PE, sport, physical literacy and training needs. Schools and local authorities that achieve a sufficient survey response will qualify for an individual, tailored report of their results. This will be provided by Sport Wales free of charge. Examples of how schools and local authorities have been able to put results of the 2013 School Sport Survey to good use can be found on the school sport survey webpage.
Who else is in support of the School Sport Survey? The School Sport Survey is widely recognised as a valuable tool by many individuals and organisations. The quotes below summarise the thoughts of those who will be publically showing their support for the survey. Estyn: “Crucial to effective self-evaluation is using the right information and data. That’s why Estyn is recognising the School Sport Survey as such a potentially valuable source of information for self-evaluation. By using this information schools can plan how to strengthen provision and improve the standards that pupils achieve.” Welsh Government Deputy Minister for Culture, Sport and Tourism Ken Skates:
“The School Sport Survey is important in developing our understanding of the current situation. We need as many schools to take part as possible to get an accurate picture of the attitude of young people across Wales to sport and their level of participation. “It’s important we gather this information so we can see what is working and where improvements need to be made. It helps us to plan any future sport opportunities across Wales and ensures we continue to strive for the best opportunities for our young people to enjoy sport.” Welsh NHS Confederation: “Being active or taking part in a sport keeps you healthy and makes a huge contribution to your general wellbeing and we’d encourage people of all ages to enjoy more active and healthier lives.” ColegauCymru / CollegesWales: “We’re delighted that the School Sport Survey has been extended to the FE Sector. If we all as a sector get involved the FE Sport Survey could provide a wealth of insight allowing us to address an important element of wellbeing among Welsh students.” YA Cymru: “Let’s just about think how good sport and PE could be if we made the voices of young people heard and our opinions count”
When does the survey open? The survey opens on April 14th 2015 and closes at the end of the summer term.
Who takes part? All schools in Wales with pupils aged 7 and over are invited to take part in the survey, including special schools and independent schools. This year, for the first time, we are extending the survey to pupils in sixth forms and further education students - and will be inviting all Further Education (FE) colleges in Wales to take part. This element of the survey is known as the Further Education Sport Survey.
A member of staff from each primary and secondary school is also asked to complete a questionnaire on PE and sport provision at the school.
How long will the survey take? Current piloting is showing that it takes around 15 - 25 minutes for a pupil to complete a questionnaire. This is approximately 5-10 minutes quicker than in 2013. The survey for teachers should take around 20 minutes. This survey can be saved and reopened later if it can’t be done in one go.
How many pupils need to take part in order for me to get a report? Sport Wales will provide each school and each local authority a minimum sample requirement in advance of the survey going live. This is based on each school’s pupil population and the number and types of schools in each local authority. The guidance on the required minimum sample and information on how to access the survey will be issued via email before the Easter holiday. Schools will receive a reminder email containing the same information on 13th April 2015, the day before the survey opens. We want as many pupils as possible to be able to have their say on sport, physical activity and PE in Wales. To this end, we encourage schools to give as many pupils the chance to take part as possible, not just to aim for the minimum. The more pupils that have the chance to take part, the more likely it is that schools and partners in Wales are able to utilise high quality data for planning and decision making. At the same time, it is important that once the minimum targets are reached, schools seek to get a balance of additional pupils taking part. By ‘balance’, we mean that they should come from all Year groups, of all backgrounds and ability levels, and not focus only on boys, or on girls.
Don’t forget the Provision survey! The school report also draws on PE and Sports provision data. In order to qualify for a report, one member of staff at the school will also need to complete a provision
questionnaire. The provision questionnaire is usually completed by a Head of PE or a PE Coordinator. It doesn’t have to be done in one sitting – it can be saved and done at your convenience over the term. We recommend that any 5x60 officers working with the school are consulted about the question on extracurricular provision, so that we capture all the extracurricular activity that is going on via the school and community environment.
How will I know how many pupils have taken part in my school or local authority? In each local authority, a lead for the Survey has been designated. They (and members of their team) will have access to an online live monitoring system in order to check their response rates are on track. They will be able to see how many male and female pupils in each school and year group have completed a questionnaire at any point in time while the survey is live. The live monitoring system refreshes and updates itself every couple of minutes. A simple progress report for each LA will be able to be downloaded from the system as a PDF to be shared with schools and other colleagues. Sport Wales will send local leads additional information on how to access the live system during March 2015.
Sport Wales monitoring and weekly updates In addition, the Research team at Sport Wales will be monitoring the response rate across Wales and will alert local leads if there are gaps in their response that they need to target. We envisage that weekly updates will be sent out, with suggestions of where the response could be improved. Updates are likely to become more frequent during July before the survey closes for the summer.
Do independent and special schools in my local authority count towards my targets and whether I’ll get a local authority report? No. These will appear on the live system under each local authority, for the purposes of Sport Wales monitoring. We would welcome any support you can provide in order for them to take part, but your local authority reports and response rate will not be affected by them taking part or not.
Do sixth form pupils (years 12 and 13) count towards our targets? No. We want to give as many pupils the chance to have their say on sport as possible, but there is no minimum target for sixth form pupils this year.
Will sixth form pupils be included in my school report? To monitor progress consistently over time, the core report will be based on pupils in Years 7-11 only. There will be a section within the report to present data for sixth formers where appropriate - depending on whether sufficient numbers take part or are based in the school.
Are there minimum targets for FE colleges? Will FE colleges get a report? FE colleges will not be set minimum targets this year as this is the first time this cohort has trialled the survey. FE colleges will receive individual reports where feasible, according to the response rate achieved. Sport Wales will only release data at an individual college level if it is of sufficient quality to do so. As with schools, the response rate will be checked against the student population of each site/college.
How do I access the survey? The survey is online and there is a unique link for each school and college in Wales to use. There will be an added verification system this year. To ensure pupils are using the correct link, there will be a question at the start to ask pupils ‘Are you a pupil at school X?’ If they tick ‘yes’, they proceed to the next question in the survey. If they tick ‘No’, they are sent to a screen that contains a message asking them to tell their teacher. If a pupil ticks ‘no’ by mistake then the survey can simply be restarted, using the school’s correct link.
Do I have to use a desk top PC to take part? This year, the survey can be done on a desktop PC, a tablet, or a smartphone, as long as there is internet access. We recommend that younger pupils use a PC or tablet so that all the supporting graphics are shown in the questionnaire to help with reading.
Snap can enable the survey to be converted into plain text, stripping out the images and allowing it to be read by a screen reader, to help visually impaired respondents take part. What are the IT requirements? The technical requirements for schools are as follows:
A reliable Internet connection. Ability to receive bulk emails used for survey invitations and reminders. 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.
Is there any other support to help me complete the survey? Yes. Schools can contact their Local Authority lead if they have any queries or questions. A list of who these are is on the school sport survey webpage. www.schoolsportsurvey.org.uk Local authority staff can contact their Sport Wales Senior Officer, or email
[email protected] In addition to this there are a number of useful resources, handy hints and support documents available on the school sport survey webpage. Young Ambassadors (YAs) can also be a great support both in communicating the reasons for completing the survey to their peers and also in helping support the filling in of questionnaires. YAs within your LA or school should contact the YA Intern covering their area for more information and support on how they can get involved: Natalie Davies -
[email protected] Gareth Janaway
[email protected] Hannah McGoona
[email protected] Cerys Sharples
[email protected]
Will I see anything about the School Sport Survey on social media or in the press? Sport Wales are working with a number of organisations to ensure that support for the survey is given publically via social media channels. For updates on this follow @sport_wales on twitter and get involved using #SchoolSportSurvey or #ArolwgChwaraeonYsgol. The media will also be kept informed of progress on the survey.
What School Sport Survey data is going on the My Local School website? The My Local School website will present eight indicators. These are:
Percentage of pupils who are ‘hooked on sport’ and take part three or more times a week in extracurricular or community club sport Percentage of pupils who enjoy PE lessons Percentage of pupils who enjoy doing sport at after-school or lunchtime clubs Percentage of pupils who are confident in trying new activities Percentage of pupils who think PE lessons and school sport help them to lead a healthy lifestyle Percentage of pupils who feel comfortable taking part in PE lessons and school sport Percentage of pupils who feel that pupils’ ideas about PE and school sport are listened to The average number of minutes per week allocated for curricular PE.
Why are School Sport Survey Results being published on the My Local School website? Results from the Sport Wales School Sport Survey have been added to the My Local School website in recognition of the vital role that both physical education and sport have on a child’s ability to lead an active and healthy life. Welsh Government took the decision to publish results on the My Local School website to help drive regional and local improvements in standard and provision. It is also hoped that inclusion of the results on the website will encourage a wider engagement of children and young people in physical activity.
Is it compulsory that survey results are shown on the My Local School website? The 2013 School Sport Survey results had an opt-out option; however results from the 2015 survey will automatically be published on the My Local School website. This decision has been taken in recognition of the importance of physical activity, sport and PE on the future health of a child.
I am worried that my survey results could compare negatively with other schools when on the My Local School website Inclusion of the results is not for comparison purposes, what it aims to show is that the school is committed to monitoring and acting on the wellbeing of their pupils. The absence of any results could imply that the school does not prioritise pupil wellbeing. Utilising the survey data should also see results improving with each survey; for support in doing this, contact your Local Authority lead or Sport Wales Senior Officer.
Will my school report be made public? No. Apart from the indicators presented above, school reports are only shared with the school staff, and sport and educational staff in the school’s own local authority. Sport Wales will not share your school report publically without your permission. However, Sport Wales would encourage schools to share their report so that the results can be used by deliverers to understand their target audience and to adjust the sporting opportunities offered accordingly. We encourage schools to share and discuss the findings from the report with pupils in the school – perhaps via Young Ambassadors or a forum like the school council or school sports council. We also encourage schools to share their report with relevant governing bodies of sport who work in your locality.
What happens to the data when the survey closes? Once the survey closes, we weight the data so it is representative of the pupils and student population in Wales. We then start to produce reports for
schools local authorities education consortia health boards electoral regions and constituencies
Sets of data tables are also produced.
Can I have confidence in the findings? Yes. We will only publish data that is of good quality. Sport Wales is a producer of Official Statistics, responsible for collecting, compiling, processing, analysing, interpreting and disseminating statistics in line with the principles set out in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.
When will we get the results? We aim to publish the results as soon as possible in the autumn of 2015.
