Contact: John Clarke, Deputy Director of Children's Services, Tel 01962 846459 [email protected] or

Chris Wilson, Senior Inspector/Adviser (Strategic Management), Tel 01962 846517 [email protected]

1 Summary

1.1 This report sets out the results of the pupil attitude survey carried out with over 34,428 pupils in primary and secondary schools. The responses are compared with those obtained in the survey of pupil attitudes carried out in the previous five years. There is a marked level of consistency between the results of the last four years' surveys and this year's. This is reassuring and suggests these results are a trustworthy basis from which to plan improvements. Questions on computer use and access to the internet now show that nine out of ten pupils in the older year groups surveyed have access to computers and eight out of ten have access to the internet. Questions asked for the first time in this survey about pupils' experience of bullying and racial abuse in and out of school suggest many more pupils perceive this happening to them than most schools suppose. It is recommended that the survey should continue to be undertaken each year and key indicators reported to this Panel to measure success in raising pupils' expectations of their education.

1.2 This paper supports Aim 1 of the Corporate Strategy (maximising life opportunities) and provides important information about how many children see themselves as being safe and enjoying their time in school, as well as achieving there.

2 Background

2.1 The pupil attitude survey was carried out for the first time in 2000. This year the same year groups, Years 2 and 6 in primary schools and Years 7 and 9 in secondary, were included in the survey. The same set of questions were asked as in the previous two years, with the addition of questions about pupils' perceptions of being bullied in or out of school and their experience of racial abuse in or out of school. The wording of these additional questions was discussed and agreed with representative headteachers through the standing committees for school improvement.

2.2 Completed forms were received from 9056 Year 2 pupils (65.2% of the year group in the county), 9557 Year 6 pupils (66.0% sample), 7951 Year 7 pupils (56.8% sample) and 7864 Year 9 pupils (54.9% sample), a total of 34,428 pupils (60.72% sample of all pupils in these year groups). This was an increase of 1.95% compared with 2004. Pupils in 319 primary and 51 secondary schools provided data, an increase of 30 schools compared with the previous year. Pupils in special schools are not surveyed.

2.3 The year groups for the survey were chosen because Year 2 and Year 6 are respectively the end of Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2. It shows the attitude of pupils leaving these key stages. It would not be possible to undertake similar survey work with younger Key Stage 1 pupils. In secondary schools, Year 7 was chosen because it shows the attitude of pupils in their first year in secondary school and could be compared with attitudes in Year 6, the last year of primary school. Year 9 was chosen because it is the end of Key Stage 3 and shows pupil attitudes before they enter their GCSE courses.

2.4 One of the purposes of the survey was to collect data on pupils in Hampshire schools that was not focused on pupil outcomes alone, for example end of key stage assessments and external examinations, but on others of the five outcomes required by the Children Act 2004. The attitude of pupils towards their learning contributes to their levels of attainment and towards their enjoying and achieving. Improving attitudes towards school should lead to higher levels of attainment. In 2000, this survey was the first attempt to collect comparable pupil attitude information across the whole school system in Hampshire. It now forms a baseline against which changes can be assessed and can be used by schools as evidence to support their own self-evaluation against the five outcomes. Ensuring that schools, parents and carers all work together to encourage positive attitudes by children towards school in pursuit of the outcomes of the Children Act will be a major challenge but the benefits for children's education will be significant.

2.5 A form pre-populated with school information with the same questions was used for Years 6, 7 and 9, but for Year 2 fewer questions were asked and the range of possible responses reduced. Following discussions with headteachers, for Year 2, the phrase "being picked on" rather than "bullied" was used in the additional questions this year. The guidance for Year 2 pupils also suggested that teachers could read the questions out to their children or work through the questions individually with pupils. Guidance was offered to teachers in all year groups about what might constitute bullying (see Appendix 3).

3 Results

3.1 Attached to this report, as Appendix 1, are the results from the questionnaires. There are data for each of the four year groups for all pupils and these are also analysed separately for boys and girls. As with other data from the survey, schools will be able to make comparisons between variations from their own averages and the average and range for the county.

3.2 As the questions for Year 2 pupils allowed fewer responses, three rather than the four on the questionnaires for the other year groups, comparison between the Year 2 responses and those for the other years has to be made with care.

3.3 In all year groups there were some responses that did not indicate whether it was a boy or a girl completing the form. Therefore the total responses for boys and girls do not add to the overall total. The balance between the proportion of boys and girls responding should be kept in mind when considering the overall response.

3.4 The questions asked of pupils in Years 6, 7 and 9 can be broken down into four groups. Questions 1, 5 and 6 look at overall pupil attitudes; questions 3, 4 , 7 and 10 at the pupils' attitudes to their work; questions 2 and 9 to the attitude towards teachers; and questions 8 and 11 to classroom methods. The questions for Year 2 pupils can be split into three groups. Questions 1, 2 and 3 about overall attitudes; questions 4 and 6 about attitudes to work; and question 5 about their attitude to their teacher.

3.5 Overall there is a marked level of consistency between the results of the last five years' surveys and this year's. This is reassuring. It does therefore appear that the survey is providing information that can be relied upon. The developing trends over four years indicate increasingly positive attitudes by children at all survey ages.

3.6 The comments set out below are based on questions where there has been a variation of more than plus or minus 2 percentage points between response in 2004 and 2005: that is, changes that are likely to be significant. Smaller changes could be the result of sampling error and random effects.

4 Overall attitudes to school

4.1 Year 2

4.1.1 There continues to be a positive trend in Year 2 pupils' attitudes to school overall. Compared with previous years more girls now always enjoy being at school, and more girls and boys always get something to do that they are good at. However, there continue to be a number of children in Year 2 who never enjoy being at school. The 7.2% of Year 2 boys who say this, represent 331 boys across schools in the county who responded out of 443 children who say they never enjoy being at school. Whilst these figures are lower than in the previous two years, they still represent a significant minority of seven-year-olds who dislike school considerably. This year group is now in Year 3 in primary and junior schools.

4.2 Years 6,7 and 9

4.2.1 In Year 6 the trend also continues to be positive in pupils' attitudes towards school, with a greater number saying that they usually enjoy being at school compared with previous years in Year 6.

4.2.2 In Year 7 there continues to be a generally positive trend but without any significant change on previous years, although in Year 7 there are now more boys who say that they always do their best at school, but also more who say they never do their best, although not significantly so. This suggests a trend towards the polarisation of attitude in the first year in secondary education, a trend that is not reflected in the opinions expressed by Year 9 students.

4.2.3 In Year 9 the positive trend is particularly marked in girls, where a significant number now say that they usually enjoy being at school, whereas in the past they only felt this sometimes.

5 Attitudes to work

5.1 Year 2

5.1.1 There is a positive trend in pupils' attitudes to work in Year 2, with a significant increase in the Year 2 pupils who say they always have schoolwork to do at home. More girls in Year 2 now feel that their work is just about right for them, and fewer feel that their work is too hard.

5.2 Years 6, 7 and 9

5.2.1 In Year 6 the trend continues to be positive but steady, with a tendency away from extremes of opinion about whether work is never or always interesting. Work continues to be generally well matched to pupils in this age group, although there are more boys than in previous years who feel that their work is often or sometimes too easy, although this is not a significant number compared with previous years.

5.2.2 In Year 7 there is a significant negative trend in boys finding their work less interesting. More boys and girls are only sometimes set homework, with the lowest percentage for three years saying that they are always set homework. This trend would seem to run counter to the general tendency to encourage greater independence of learning. It may be that in Year 7 this concept is insecurely appreciated by pupils in their first year in a secondary school.

5.2.3 In Year 9 there are more girls who say they are only sometimes set homework, compared with previous years, and the trend is generally positive and steady. However, there are a greater number of boys who say their work is always too easy for them than in previous years, a greater number who say it is sometimes too easy, and fewer who say it is just about right. This suggests that the match of work to boys' abilities is less accurate than it has been for some years.

5 Attitudes to teachers

6.1 Year 2

6.1.1 There continues to be a positive trend in Year 2 pupils' attitudes to teachers, with a greater number than in previous years agreeing that their teachers always tell them how to make their work better, with fewer never telling them this.

6.2 Years 6, 7 and 9

6.2.1 In Year 6, whilst the trend is also positive, there is an increase in extremes of views held by pupils, with rather more agreeing that their teachers always tell them how to make their work better, as well as more than in 2004 who say that teachers never do this.

6.2.2 In Year 7 there continues to be a steady and positive trend in pupils' attitudes towards teachers, with more pupils saying that their teachers often tell them how to make their work better rather than only sometimes, a trend replicated amongst girls in Year 9 where generally the trend is steady and positive as well.

6 Classroom methods

6.1 Years 6, 7 and 9

7.1.1 In Year 6 there is a decline in pupils either never or always likely to answer questions in class. In Year 7 this trend is more positive, however, with a significant increase in the number of girls who say that their teachers usually ask them questions in class. This positive trend is continued in Year 9.

7 Access to computers at home

8.1 Pupils in Years 2, 6, 7 and 9 were asked about their access to computers at home and their use of these facilities for homework. More than 87% of Year 2 pupils and 90% of pupils in the older age groups now have access to a personal computer at home, in all cases an increase on the previous year. More than half the Year 2 pupils and eight out of ten of Years 6 and 7 are able to use their computers for homework. A greater number of girls in Year 7 use their computer for homework than boys in this year group. More than nine out of ten of Year 9 pupils do this.

8.2 More than eight out of ten pupils in the older age groups have access to the internet at home and use the internet to help them with homework. There has been a significant increase in the number of Year 7 pupils who make this use of the internet.

8.3 However, as the numbers of pupils with computer access at home increases, there still remains a small number of pupils who do not have such access. In this survey, this means 604 pupils in Year 7 have no such access and 479 pupils in Year 9. Ensuring that this minority of pupils, fewer each year, have equal access to the curriculum remains a challenge to secondary schools, especially in the light of making sure every child matters.

9 Bullying and racial abuse

9.1 For the first time this year, the survey asked questions about pupils' perceptions of being bullied or racially abused both in and out of school. The averages for these responses is given in Appendix 2. The maximum and minimum responses recorded, also given in Appendix 2, show a very wide variation of experience of bullying, or its absence, in the schools contributing to the survey. In some schools, no pupils felt they were bullied in Years 2 or 6, in or out of school. In at least one other school, all the girls in Year 2 felt they had been, although it must be borne in mind that the actual numbers might be very small. It is, however, no less an issue for those few girls.

9.2 The averages suggest that, in the twelve months up to June 2005, 2236 of the Year 6 pupils felt they had been bullied; 1995 from Year 7, and 1612 from Year 9. Over a third of all Year 2 pupils in the survey, 3269 children, said they had been picked on in school in the past year. The figures for bullying outside school are lower, but of a similar scale. Many schools, in their own self-evaluations, express confidence that incidents of bullying are few and dealt with appropriately and seriously. These figures suggest that pupils' perceptions of what constitutes bullying may be at variance with the incidence recorded by schools. More investigation is needed.

9.3 Whilst the incidents of perceived racial abuse might seem very low, the numbers of pupils from black or minority ethnic backgrounds are also small. Across all the primary schools in the county, 4.42% of this age of pupil comes from a black or minority ethnic background, or is from a travelling or Romany heritage. For secondary age pupils, the figure is 3.31%. An interpretation of the responses of the survey of pupils' perceptions of racial abuse is that all these children have suffered such abuse sometime in the twelve months to June 2005. Figures are not collected about the proportion of pupils who belong to different faith groups.

10 Analysis by districts

10.1 Since 2002 a further analysis has been undertaken, breaking the results of the survey down by district council area. As this will have been the third year with district level analysis, the indication of trends will be particularly useful for estimating differences in approach and provision that might be needed across different localities in Hampshire, in response to the attitudes expressed by pupils to their schooling. This may be helpful to the LEA in determining the local focus for school improvement initiatives in the future.

10.2 As the numbers of pupils in each year group in each district vary considerably, care needs to be taken in making comparisons. Furthermore, in summarising only the views of pupils at the extremes in the survey , the balance of positive or negative attitudes might be overstated in those districts mentioned below. In generalising pupils' attitudes from a number of different questions, it is possible for both positive and negative extremes to be expressed by pupils in the same district.

10.3 For Year 2 pupils, overall attitudes to school are most positive in Havant and Fareham, and least positive in New Forest, Test Valley and Rushmoor. Girls, however, are least positive in Gosport. Pupils' attitudes to work are most positive in Fareham and East Hampshire and least in Gosport and, also, in East Hampshire. Personal computer and internet access, and the use for school work, is highest in Eastleigh. Across all district council areas, the range of Year 2 pupils saying they have been bullied in school runs from 30.6% in Winchester to 44.4% in Gosport. Bullying out of school is highest and lowest in the same districts. Racial abuse is perceived to have been worst in Rushmoor and Gosport and least suffered in New Forest and Test Valley.

10.4 For Year 6 pupils, overall attitudes to school are most positive in Havant and least in Gosport. Indeed, with one exception, Gosport pupils express negative views more frequently than those in any other district council where Year 6 pupils responded. However, when less extreme views are taken into account, the overall balance of opinions is more mixed across the district council areas. Positive attitudes are expressed by pupils in Test Valley, Winchester, New Forest, and Basingstoke and Dean. Hart has the highest access to and use of PCs and the internet, Gosport the lowest.

10.5 Bullying is reported as most frequent in and out of school in Gosport, least so in Test Valley, Rushmoor and Hart. Racial abuse is most frequent in school in Rushmoor, least so in New Forest and out of school is experienced most in Havant and least so in Hart.

10.6 Across all district councils, the responses of boys and girls differ for all items in the survey, but the relatively small numbers make comparisons less secure.

10.7 In Year 7 overall attitudes to school are most positive in Basingstoke and Dean, and Gosport; least so in Havant, Winchester and Rushmoor. Attitudes to work are most positive in Rushmoor, Winchester and Eastleigh, least so in Fareham, Havant and Gosport. Attitudes to teachers are best in Havant, and least favourable in Rushmoor and Gosport. Classroom methods most appreciated in Winchester and Havant, less so in Gosport and Rushmoor. Hart and Winchester have the highest access to and use of PCs and the internet, Gosport, Rushmoor and Havant the lowest.

10.8 Bullying is reported as most frequent in schools in Fareham and out of school in Gosport. It is experienced least in Hart, but even here 18.7% of pupils perceived they had been bullied. Racial abuse is most frequent in Fareham, in and out of school, and least in East Hampshire and Test Valley.

10.9 In Year 9, overall attitudes are best in Havant, New Forest and Rushmoor, least favourable in Eastleigh and Hart. Attitudes to work are most positive in Rushmoor, Winchester and Eastleigh, least so in Hart and Havant. Attitudes to teachers are most positive in Havant, least so in Hart. Classroom methods are seen most favourably in Gosport and Rushmoor, least so in Havant and Hart. In all responses for this year group there is variation across the districts in response to the items in the survey. Hart has the highest access to and use of PCs and the internet.

10.10 Bullying is reported as most frequent in schools in Rushmoor and out of schools in New Forest, least so in East Hampshire and Hart. Racial abuse was encountered most in schools in New Forest and out of schools in Test Valley, least so in Eastleigh, Winchester and Havant.

10.11 In the Year 7 and Year 9 responses analysed at district level, it should be borne in mind that as few as 2 secondary schools contributed to the survey in some districts, so there may be significant variation in the numbers of pupils responding across the different areas. The schools contributing to the secondary age survey are given in Appendix 4.

10 Conclusions

10.1 The survey has established itself as a reliable indicator of pupil attitudes and will prove useful to schools in undertaking their own self-evaluation of pupil attitudes and approach to school. Whilst the trend over the past years continues to be positive, the information about pupils' perceptions of being bullied or racially abused appears to run counter to the opinion schools themselves hold about such occurrences. The standards of education and care implied by the five outcomes of The Children Act suggest that all schools should be evaluating the attitudes of pupils, and especially how safe they feel in school and out. Much more needs to be done in working with pupils to reduce their perceived experience of bullying and racial abuse and to reduce significantly the high levels reported, and to narrow the wide variation of experience across schools in different parts of the county to the lower levels of the best.

10.2 It is proposed that further surveys should be undertaken, including the development of survey items appropriate for use in special schools, and all schools strongly encouraged to participate.

11 Legal implications

11.1 None.

12 Financial implications

13.1 None.

13 Personnel implications

13.1 None.

14 Impact assessment

14.1 Race and equality impact assessment has been considered in the development of this report and no adverse impact has been identified.

15 Crime prevention issues

15.1 None.

16 Views of the Local County Councillor

16.1 Not sought in the drafting of this report.

Recommendation

1 That the Panel supports further investigation into the results relating to racial abuse and bullying, and notes that further work will be done to support schools in tackling these issues.

Section 100 D - Local Government Act 1972 - background documents

The following documents discuss facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and have been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

NB: the list excludes

1. Published works

2. Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act

None