Information on the Survey for School Staff
Click the tabs below for information on the surveys and how to conduct the pupil survey in your school.
Our study is examining what helps young people to engage democratically on race and faith equality issues. We are surveying both Year 10 pupils and all teachers who teach Year 10 pupils from randomly state-funded secondary schools across England. Our approach is designed to ensure that the invited schools and the young people attending those schools reflect the geographic and demographic diversity of schools across England. The schools we randomly select belong to a couple of different criteria. We have grouped schools according to population density, i.e., rural, urban (cities), and urban (towns). We have also grouped schools based on school governance and autonomy over the curriculum, i.e., academy/free schools, local authority maintained schools, and voluntary aided schools. We have made sure we include schools of each type from all nine regions of England. Please be assured that, to maintain the integrity of the research, the selection of schools was utterly random.
Note: Schools that have been invited to participate in the survey can access the full set of survey questions for pupils and teachers at this password-protected link. If invited, you will have received a password in your Headteacher invitation letter and teacher information packs.
In our pupil survey, we ask Year 10 pupils from selected schools about what they think is good/bad for democracy, where they learn about social/political issues, how their school deals with diversity and equality issues, and pupils they respond to things they disagree with or find offensive.
Similarly, we ask teachers in their survey how they engage in civic/political issues in their lives and professional context, how their school deals with diversity issues, and what professional development they’ve received on such matters.
The Ethics Committee at the University of Birmingham has approved the research project, and the survey questions have already been trialed in three different schools with Year 10 pupils and teachers. Participation in this study is voluntary, and participating schools, teachers, and pupils can opt out any time before they complete the survey. Pupils and teachers are also free to skip any questions while taking the survey. Of course, we also ensure that the data collected does not disclose any schools’, young people’s, or teachers’ identities.
If your school is invited, and agrees to participate in our national surveys, we recommend that you read our the guideline below. We understand each school environment is unique. The guideline, nonetheless, is aimed at supporting you in running the survey smoothly and effectively.
Step 1: Note there are separate surveys for both pupils and for their teachers
Teachers can complete the survey individually and privately. Please share the teacher information and teacher survey link, with all those who teach Year 10 pupils in the 2022/23 school year. Pupil surveys need to be administered online, at school, with a member of staff present. The pupil survey is easy to administer and can be supervised by a member/members of staff of the school. Or it can be administered remotely online by one of our project team members, Dr Shajed Rahman or Dr Asli Kandemir, with a staff member present. Please note that the surveys need to be completed by the end of June 2023.
Step 2: Let us know when you want to administer the pupil survey
Please email your contact point from our team Dr Shajed Rahman or Dr Asli Kandemir via phone or email to let them know how and when you want to administer the survey. Please note you can arrange to administer the survey with all Year 10 pupils at once if your school’s facilities allow, or you can administer the survey in a staggered way with different groups. Asli or Shajed will then confidentially email you the relevant pupil survey guidance in an online folder. The folder will include the letter for parents, and a sample pupil survey and teacher survey.
Step 3: Familiarise yourself with the survey
The pupil and teacher surveys are similar. We recommend that the teachers who are administering the pupil survey also take the teacher survey before Year 10 pupils, so that they can explain the nature of the survey to them. Please look at the short guide (password supplied in your information pack) offering top tips and brief guidance to maximise pupil response.
Step 4: Distribute the parent/guardian pack
Please pass on the parents/guardian information and opt-out materials as soon as you receive them via email. Please keep a record of parents/guardians who inform you that they do not want their child to participate in the survey so that these pupils can take other activities. Step 6 explains how to ensure voluntary participation and avoid exclusion of those not taking the survey.
Step 5: Reminder for Year 10 teachers
Please send a ‘one week to go’ reminder to all your colleagues who teach Year 10 pupils to consider completing the teacher survey before March 28th 2023.
Step 6: Conduct the pupil survey online, in your school
All Year 10 pupils are expected to take the survey. We highly recommend that you take a look at the tips again before you start the survey.
You will receive the pupil survey link at least one day prior to administering the survey. Please give the pupils the survey link to type in themselves, or beforehand, open the survey link on all participating pupils’ computers. This link will include an explanation of the survey to pupils which asks for their assent to take part. Please ask pupils to read the first page of the screen carefully before starting the survey.
Shajed/Asli may be present remotely to assist you in conducting the survey. Please remain in the room while Shajed/Asli guides the pupils remotely through the survey.
If a parent/guardian or pupil withdraws consent, or if a pupil stops taking the survey, please facilitate them to take one of the following suggested activities:
Brainpop learning games: https://www.brainpop.com/games/
Video about children’s rights to express themselves: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5kVavuS6IY
Step 7: You can give pupils some limited assistance in competing their survey
You can explain a question to a pupil if they need help. But please do not advise pupils how to answer any question, and please do not watch any individual pupils’ survey responses directly. If a pupil is unsure or has yet to decide how to answer a particular question, they can tick ‘unsure’. Or the may skip a question if they don’t want to answer it.
Step 8: Confirm to the research team that the pupil survey has been completed
Please ensure all pupils who complete the survey click the ‘submit’ button at the end. Please take let Asli/Shajed know by email when your pupil survey has been completed with all Year 10s, and please note with them any issues you had regarding the survey – we will follow up with you quickly. Thank you!
Information on the Survey for Parents and Guardians
Please read each section below if your child’s school has been invited to take part in the national survey.
What is this research study about? This is a University of Birmingham study. It looks at the things that help, and do not help young people to engage democratically on race and faith equality issues. Part of the study involves a survey of Year 10 pupils from state-funded secondary schools across England.
Why is my child’s school invited to take part? We chose your child’s because it is representative of the kinds of school we wish to include in the survey. The surveys are focused on Year 10 pupils as this is an important time for the development of their civic, social and political awareness.
What does the survey involve? Your child will be guided through the 20-minute survey at school this month as part of a group of pupils by a member of school staff who has received guidance from the research team. Using youth-friendly language, we will ask your child their views on what is good/bad for democracy, where they learn about social/political issues, how their school deals with diversity issues, and how they respond to strong disagreement or offense. We ask them to identify their gender, ethnicity, religion/beliefs and socio-economic background so that we can track patterns in the responses of pupils from different backgrounds. As these can be slightly sensitive questions, provide a list support links for parents on these topics at the end our letter to parents, and have provided a separate list for the school and children.
What’s the benefit for my child? We will use the findings to support all schools to further improve how they support young people to engage inside and outside school on important social issues that may affect them. We will also give your child’s school access to a dedicated resource bank which the teachers can use to support teaching about equality and citizenship.
Is the survey confidential? Yes, your child and their school will not be named. We will not be publishing survey data from any schools or people individually. Please note will scan each survey and inform schools if we see a pupil who has indicated they or another is at risk of harm. However, we will not be able to identify any pupil individually.
Can I withdraw my child from the survey? Yes, participation is totally voluntary and you can opt your child out of the survey. You can decide to withdraw your child at any time, up to the time of the survey. The school handles these processes sensitively and respectfully, and there will be no negative consequences for you or your child for not taking part. Your child can also decide to withdraw before or during the survey, and will take part in some approved online learning activities. Once your child has completed the survey, it will not be possible to withdraw their data from the study.
What will happen to my child’s data? We upload the anonymous survey data to our encrypted computers and our secure institutional online platform for the project period (to 2025). The data will be deleted from here once all project analysis is complete. As a normal research practice, our survey data will be held on our secure institutional long term server for 10 years, and then completely destroyed.
Where will I find out about the study results? We will publish our main study findings in a project report on this website, and share them in an online stakeholder launch event. We will also share links to open access academic journal articles and headline national survey results from the study on our website in 2023, which we will let the school know about. We will ask the school to inform you when our main research report is published.
What are the possible disadvantages of taking part? It is unlikely there will be any disadvantage to taking part. However, as we are asking about sensitive equality issues, we will provide your child and you with resources that might be useful to them in thinking about these issues.
Who has approved this study? The study has been approved by the University of Birmingham Research Ethics board, and funded by the Leverhulme Trust.
For parents who have received an information letter about the survey:
– Please read/listen to the Fair Processing Statement at the end of this page or on your information letter.
– If you are happy for your child to take part in the survey, you do not need to do anything else. But remember you have the right to opt your child out of this survey.
– If you decide that you do not want your child to participate in the survey, please let your child’s school know. We provide you with a link to some sample text that you can email the school with if you wish to withdraw your child from the survey.
– If you have a question about the study, please email Shajed on our team at m.rahman.5@bham.ac.uk
We will collect and process your and your child’s personal data to conduct the research project, as explained above on this page. This information is being collected as part of a research project concerned with freedom of expression on race and faith equality issues in young people’s lives by the School of Education in the University of Birmingham. The information which you and your child supplies and that which may be collected as part of the research project will be entered into a filing system or database and will only be accessed by authorised personnel involved in the project. The information will be retained by the University of Birmingham and will only be used for the purpose of research, and statistical and audit purposes. By supplying this information you are consenting to the University storing your information for the purposes stated above. The information will be processed by the University of Birmingham in accordance with the provisions of the Data Protection Act 2018. No identifiable personal data will be published. For further information on your data privacy, please visit this link.