What children think of school
Wednesday, October 29th, 2008The annual Tellus3 survey of children and young people, published today by Ofsted, the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills, also found that bullying was still a problem, and that smoking, drinking and drugs remain concerns.
The study, staged during spring this year, asked children and young people in Years 6, 8 and 10 from 3114 schools in 145 local authorities in England how they viewed their lives - and how good local authorities are at providing services for young people.
Results indicate a positive picture for the vast majority, though there remain long-standing problems, with the level of drinking, drug use and smoking needing to be addressed (see ‘what young people said’ below).
Tellus3 is the second national survey of children and young people, asking participants to report on how healthy they are, how safe they feel, whether they enjoy school, if they are happy, and if the advice they receive on matters like sex and relationships is sufficient. They were also asked what would make their lives better.
Happiness and helpfulness
The majority of children and young people (69%) said they are happy and almost all (95%) said they have one or more good friends. Fewer than last year answered that they were worried about friendships. Of concern, however, is the small yet significant number of children and young people (8%) who report that they are unhappy about life.
Thirty two percent of 10 to 15 year olds when asked what worried them most responded that they are worried about their body; this is first time this question has been asked.
Better information and advice about sex and relationships was wanted by more than a third of children and young people.
Most young people say they give some of their time to charity work or help others in their neighbourhood.
Although an improved figure from last year, three in five still feel their views are not listened to in the running of their school.
The future
Changes from last year’s survey results show that more children and young people have a positive perspective overall. More than half report that they want to stay on at school and go to university. An increased number would like more information to help them plan their future; 62% compared with 55% last year.
The survey results also show more children and young people are concerned about their future. This result shows one of the largest changes from last year, with nearly half identifying this as a significant concern compared with 30% last year. In line with this concern about their future, exams are also a worry for many (57%).
As last year, most (81%) said they tried hard in school all or most of the time. However, fewer report they enjoy school always or most of the time; 50%, compared with 58% last year. Also similar to last year the majority (81%) said that more interesting lessons are the most important thing to help them learn more.
Bullying and feeling safe
The picture of bullying is a mixed one. Thirty-nine percent of young people said they had been bullied at school. An increased number (11%) said that bullying was not a problem in their school. Despite these more positive findings over a quarter said bullying was a significant worry for them and fewer young people (35%) said their schools dealt with bullying well. Although a smaller number than last year, there is still one in nine who responded that they felt unsafe in school, or going to and from school.
Alcohol, smoking and drugs
Although a smaller number of 10-15 year olds than last year reported they got drunk regularly, this figure is still high at almost one in six. A quarter of them said they had never had an alcoholic drink.
Three quarters of children and young people have never smoked a cigarette. This is a slight improvement on last year’s finding although a small number (4%) smoked every day.
The large majority (86%) of 13 to 15 year olds said they have never taken drugs. This is an increase from last year; however at least 6% responded that they had used drugs in the last four weeks.
Health
As last year, the survey found that the vast majority of children consider themselves to be quite or very healthy. Over 90% report that they eat at least one portion of fruit and vegetables each day, two thirds at least three or four portions, while only a quarter report eating the recommended five portions per day.
More than nine out of ten said they took part in sports or other physical activity for at least 30 minutes in the last week. Just over one third of children and young people spent at least 30 minutes doing sport or other active things almost every day in the last week. Four percent of 10 to 15 year olds said they did not take part in these activities at all.
The full report is at…
