The School Sport Survey is an online survey of pupils aged 7-16 and teachers who are responsible for physical education (PE) and school sport delivery.

All schools in Wales with pupils aged 7 to 16 are invited to take part.

It explores children’s and young people’s participation in sport in school and in the community, and collects information from teachers about the provision of various PE and sports activities in schools across Wales.

It helps us understand the role that PE and sport play in contributing to the physical, social, and emotional well-being of all pupils.

Data from the survey allows Sport Wales and Welsh Government to track sports participation trends, and provides evidence to help shape sports policy and plan the delivery of sport across Wales.

What is it and what is it used for?

Nearly 40,000 pupil responses were received - over 27,000 responses were received in the final three weeks of fieldwork

580 schools took part in the pupil survey, the provision survey, or both elements (432 primary and 148 secondary).

On average, pupils took 29.5 minutes to complete the survey - 37.8 minutes for primary pupils and 23.7 minutes for secondary school pupils

Sport Wales’ Research team dealt with over 600 queries about the survey during the fieldwork stage, mostly from schools and mostly during the final month of fieldwork.

198 schools – (149 primary schools and 49 secondary schools) qualified to receive individual reports of their results

Blaenau Gwent, Conwy and Pembrokeshire received a full set of results. Caerphilly, Carmarthenshire, Rhondda Cynon Taff, Merthyr Tydfil and Torfaen qualified for two or more elements of survey results.

Recap on School Sport Survey 2011...

Sport Wales and Welsh Government – a base to shape sports policy, monitor and track trends of participation and provision across Wales;

Schools and Estyn Inspectors – it provides evidence on how sport and PE in the school are contributing to pupils’ well-being, focusing on the outcomes in the Common Inspection Framework;

Local authorities/Regions/Consortia – data to inform local planning and delivery;

National Governing bodies – sport specific insight to inform local regional and national planning;

Pupils and Young Ambassadors.

Key audiences

Benefits of taking part

Schools

Schools that achieve a balanced sample of responses will receive an individual report of their results. They will be able to demonstrate:

Levels of engagement in P.E and sport;

Pupils’ participation and enjoyment in learning;

Does school provision meet the needs of all learners?

Are connections being made with the local community?

Evidence of the pupil voice, engaging with the learner and giving them responsibility;

That they are monitoring of progress over time.

Estyn recognise the survey as an effective tool for evidencing well-being in their self-evaluation guidance for schools.

Benefits of taking part

The individual school level report focuses on the four well-being outcomes indicated in Estyn’s Common Inspection Framework for Schools in Wales:

Attitudes to keeping healthy and safe

Participation and enjoyment in learning

Community Involvement and decision-making

Social and life skills

The School Report

Attitudes to keeping healthy and safe:

What do pupils think about the contribution PE and sport make to being healthy and having a balanced lifestyle?

How do pupils feel about taking part in PE and Sport? Are they comfortable taking part?

Do pupils choose to prioritise sport and physical recreation in their leisure time?

Participation and enjoyment in learning:

Do pupils enjoy PE and school sport? Are there differences between boys and girls and different year groups?

Do pupils get involved with extracurricular activities?

Are pupils keen to practice and improve their skills in PE and extracurricular sport?

What can the data tell us about pupils’ well-being?

Community involvement and decision making:

Is there evidence of the learner voice? Do pupils put forward ideas about PE and sport and feel that their opinions are listened to?

What motivates your pupils to take part? What are the barriers?

Do pupils get involved in community club sport and go to leisure centres when they are not at school?

Social and life skills:

Do pupils feel they have the necessary skills to take part? Are there differences between boys and girls and different year groups?

Do pupils help and get involved in PE lessons and sport?

Are pupils confident to try out new activities?

Do pupils encourage their friends and family to get involved, and do they feel supported themselves?

What can the data tell us about pupils’ well-being?

Eight prizes of £1,000 for sports equipment were offered in a prize draw for schools (two per region) and all qualifying schools received a certificate. The 2011 winners were:

Ysgol Syr Thomas Jones, Anglesey

Ysgol Botwnnog, Gwynedd

Monkton Priory CP School, Pembrokeshire

St David's R.C. Primary School, Torfaen

Ysgol Yr Eos, Rhondda Cynon Taf

Treorchy Comprehensive School, Rhondda Cynon Taf

Brynconin C.P. School, Pembrokeshire

Mount Pleasant Primary, Newport.

Benefits of taking part

Benefits of taking part

Local Authorities

Local Authorities that achieve a sufficient number of survey responses will receive a tailored report of their results. This will include:

Participation levels in extracurricular and club sport – how often do young people take part?

Which sports do young people take part in with community clubs?

Which sports do they want to do more of?

What are the barriers to participation, and what would encourage young people to do more sport?

Do young people use the leisure centre and other community facilities such as parks, playgrounds, swimming pools and skate parks?

Have the schools in the authority made formal links with community clubs, and in which sports?

Are young people members of a sports club, and in which sports?

All data is broken down by school year and gender.

Benefits of taking part

Local authority staff can benefit from supporting the survey process - it can help build relationships with schools & pupils and assist in shaping the future planning and delivery of community sport.

1. During the fieldwork phase, staff could offer to assist individual schools while their pupils complete the survey, as this provides an opportunity to discuss sport directly with users and start to understand the customer base.

2. Staff could build in a second ‘feedback’ phase once school and local authority reports have been distributed. These results can be discussed with teachers and pupils and used for future planning. Pupils can be signposted to clubs or local activities and the process provides a means of developing good relationships with school staff and pupils.

The tailored reports will provide an evidence base on which to shape local plans. The survey offers a means of capturing a wide base of information about users and non-users of community sports development and education services.

Benefits of taking part

Primary pupil responses

Primary provision

Secondary pupil

responses

Secondary provision

North Wales 2680 102 4257 31

South West and Mid Wales 4501 118 6529 48

Central South Wales 3599 97 6895 35

South East Wales 5410 80 5769 28

Response rates: Consortia

Primary pupil responses

Primary provision

Secondary pupils

Secondary provision

Bridgend 533 10 769 1

Cardiff 375 16 933 8

Merthyr Tydfil 1379 18 672 3

Rhondda Cynon Taff 1008 38 3360 13

Vale of Glamorgan 303 7 1161 2

Response rates: Central South

= qualified for local level reports

Primary pupil responses

Primary provision

Secondary pupils

Secondary provision

Blaenau Gwent 1569 23 1238 5

Caerphilly 2012 28 2488 9

Monmouthshire 153 6 527 3

Newport 350 7 1001 6

Torfaen 1324 14 505 3

Response rates: South East

= qualified for local level reports

Primary pupil responses

Primary provision

Secondary pupils

Secondary provision

Carmarthenshire 771 31 2013 11

Ceredigion 77 8 457 4

Neath Port Talbot 435 7 729 7

Pembrokeshire 1645 33 1560 8

Powys 647 19 553 5

Swansea 926 12 1216 8

Response rates: South West and Mid Wales

= qualified for local level reports

Primary pupil responses

Primary provision

Secondary pupils

Secondary provision

Isle of Anglesey 60 7 522 2

Gwynedd 350 23 1005 7

Conwy 1654 34 1802 6

Denbighshire 188 7 318 3

Flintshire 64 6 71 4

Response rates: North

= qualified for local level reports

Issue Solutions and actionsCommunication to schools – lack of awareness.

Earlier planning, several alternative ways of communicating with schools will be implemented.

Schools do not want to take part. Advocacy plan, resource development and messaging.

There were issues with IT systems and the server ‘crashing’.

Contractor is undertaking development and testing work – October and November 2012.

Questionnaire - too long. Sometimes difficult for younger pupils. Welsh version needs improving.

Questionnaire review by Research team and external steering group. Will be piloted again with teachers and pupils.

High levels of staff resources required during fieldwork phase.

A good deal of time was spent re-issuing links to schools and LAs. LAs will support this process in 2013.Options for reducing the number of queries about response rates are being built into 2013 plan.

Dissemination of the results was too slow. Schools put in a lot of effort in 2011 and didn’t get a report.

Reporting systems will be set up by the contractor before the fieldwork begins. An option for improving the speed of the dissemination phase is being discussed with partners (via collation of school census information).

Reviewing 2011

Letter to all schools from Sport Wales (July)

August-September: Invitation to tender and appointing a contractor

Planning team briefings – meeting internal colleagues and external partners and beginning the advocacy process.

First School Sport Survey Steering Group meeting held 26th September

Quarter 1: July – September 2012

Developing supporting resources/advocacy tools;

Questionnaire development - Setting up questionnaires online, piloting and testing functions with contractor;

Letter to Directors of Education from Sport Wales;

By year end - identifying local contact points for direct communication with schools;

Quarter 2: October - December

Resources uploaded to website so that schools can access them in advance (including advocacy resources and technical/guidance packs, calculators);

Communication with local contacts about the final process;

Second Steering Group meeting.

Issuing individual log-in links to each school;

LAs collecting Pupil Level Annual School Census (PLASC) data. Submit data to Sport Wales using template provided to PESS teams;

Quarter 3: January – March 2013

Survey begins. Fieldwork phase – April 8th to end July;

End of July – Close survey and weight data;

Analysis and reporting (August/September/October);

Dissemination of reports and other survey outputs: September onwards.

School and local authority reports will be distributed first.

Quarter 4: April – July …and onwards

Using the Excel template sent out by Sport Wales, check that the email addresses for schools are correct to allow automated emails to be sent centrally by Sport Wales and Snap. A named contact in the school to be included in the database where possible.

The local contact in each LA (and/or PESS consortium?) will be supplied with a list of all schools in their area and their individual ‘survey log in’ details. Contact can support Sport Wales by being responsible for re-issuing these web links to schools if they don’t receive or delete their original automated email.

The local contact will receive progress updates on response rates from Sport Wales, and we hope they will be able to have access to the live monitoring system.

Role of the local contact(s)

Complete excel template that has been sent to PESS teams. For each school, based on January 2013 data (i.e. the same data as supplied to the Welsh Government for the School Census output):

Number of boys in each year group (years 3 to 11).

Number of girls in each year group (years 3 to 11).

Percentage of pupils eligible for free school meals.

In return…Information on the sample required for the survey tailored to each school and included in their guidance notes.Quicker release of survey outputs (school reports, headline statistics etc.) as we can use the information for weighting the survey data)

This will require all local authorities to deliver the information – if there are gaps we cannot deliver this to anyone.

Role of local contact – PLASC data

PowerPoint Presentation – slides will be provided for partners to use to promote the survey

Supporting Letter from Director of Education to be sought

Example letters outlining what information PE teachers and IT staff need to know about the survey will be provided by Sport Wales, which can be distributed via local contactsCase studies showing how the survey information has been used to improve local delivery

Example of an individual report for schools - available nowSupporting quotes from partners Use of website, blogs, social media to promote the survey

Development of ‘advocacy’ resources

Planned resourcesGuidance pack for schools

Information booklet for pupils

Certificate for pupils who complete the questionnaire (schools or partners to distribute via download)

FAQ documents – various audiences

Questionnaire examples available online

Calculators for partners to assess and monitor response rates of schools

Access to live monitoring of responses online for 22 nominated partners in LAsHints and tips for running the survey from schools and partners that took part in 2011

Development of practical resources

500 Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 pupils completed the survey during their IT lesson.

The Sport Wales feedback provided a direct comparison with schools with a similar percentage of Free School Meal take up, and with schools across Wales as a whole.

Gender comparisons were made.

The feedback was user friendly and included charts and diagrams.

The report was used to facilitate future planning.

Cowbridge Comprehensive School

Case study provided by Neil Thomas, Head of PE at Cowbridge Comprehensive School

Survey result: 8% of pupils did not feel safe/comfortable in lessons. Impact = All members of the department are now booked to complete a basic first aid qualification.

Survey result – 41% of pupils felt that they had “no voice” in Physical Education. Impact = the department have now created a ‘Sports Council’ to feedback to the school council on sport-specific issues.

Survey result: 90% of pupils enjoyed PE lessons and 80% enjoyed extracurricular PE. Impact = Reinforced perceived areas of strength (the positive learning environment created in lessons). The school also extended the range of activities offered by 5x60 to include Golf, Zumba, Squash and Dodgeball, and pupils had options at KS4

Survey result – fewer girls ‘really enjoyed’ their PE lessons. Impact = Cowbridge conducted an internal survey with all KS3 girls to find out why this was. As a result, the department adapted their curriculum to provide gymnastics rather than dance.

Cowbridge – Results and Impact

Case study provided by Neil Thomas, Head of PE at Cowbridge Comprehensive School

Ysgol Dewi Sant created a School Sport Council as a result of their survey and are applying for Active Marc Cymru due to their positive school results;

Ysgol Y Preseli created a sport forum for their School Council;

Maenclochog primary school increased their PE curriculum time from one hour to two hours as a result of the survey, and have created a School Sport Council;

Prendergast primary school have set up two extracurricular clubs especially for girls as a result of their survey. Attendance for both has regular numbers of 15-20 per week, and the school is applying for Active Marc Cymru.

Tenby Junior School: The PE Co-ordinator shared the results with her School Council, Young Ambassadors, School Sport Captains and Year 6 class. Pupils have suggested they have an input in target setting. They also decided that more parents need to be involved in extracurricular activities and a Health/Athletics club is due to be set up where parents are expected to attend with their children to take part alongside their sons/daughters.

Pembrokeshire – using survey results

Case studies provided by Dan Field, PE and School Sport Manager, Pembrokeshire

“It seems that last year’s School Sport Survey was a resounding success – almost 40,000 pupils took part. The survey itself is an effective way of giving pupils a voice and giving service providers a valuable insight into what’s working and what’s not. Let’s hope we see even more of our pupils taking part this year so that we can get each and every one hooked on sport for life.”Keith Towler, Children’s Commissioner for Wales

“Sport and physical activity play a crucial role in combating a wide range of health problems that we have in Wales and help us to enjoy good health. Children and young people having the basic skills to participate in sport from an early age and having a positive experience of school sport, has the potential to make a significant difference to the health of the nation. The Sport Wales School Sport Survey provides an important evidence base for not only what is being delivered in schools, but also how children and young people perceive what is being offered. This is invaluable in guiding practical actions for schools as well as enabling the development of future policy on a national level”

Chief Medical Officer, Dr Ruth Hussey, OBE

More information on the Sport Wales Community Strategy can be found via www.sportwales.org.uk

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