What is the Active Lives survey? 

Active Lives Children and Young People is a world-leading national survey by Sport England, designed to measure the attitudes, behaviours and activity levels of children aged 5-16. The survey provides everyone working with children insight into how active young people are – and what we can do to ensure that the provision of physical activity for children meets the needs of local communities.  Schoolchildren across England are asked to take part in this survey,, through their schools. We administer the Active Lives Survey in Lincolnshire.

Watch the video to find out more:

How can schools take part? 

Every year, over 100 schools across Lincolnshire are randomly selected to take part in the survey. As part of our role in education, Active Lincolnshire works with the selected schools to provide everything they need to complete the survey – including advice, information sheets and templates for letters to parents.

If your school has been selected, the head of school will be notified and we will contact you to help guide you through the process. The survey takes about 20 minutes to complete, and can be emailed to students to fill in at a time that suits them. The questions ask about their current levels of physical activity in school and at home, and have been altered to reflect the current climate. 

In some schools, for the youngest pupils in Years 1 and 2, parents are asked to fill out a questionnaire, to give more information about their child's physical activity behaviours.

There’s no need to sign up – if your school has been selected, we’ll get in touch to let you know what to do next. We hope you’ll consider taking part.

As well as providing data for the official statistics via random selection, the survey can be completed voluntarily by schools. Schools that ‘opt in’ to the survey aren't eligible to receive credits to spend, but do receive a report summarising their survey responses, providing enough valid responses are received.

They're also assessed for the HSRS, if the teacher survey is completed.

What are the Benefits to your school in taking part

The Active Lives Children and Young People survey is an incredibly useful tool for schools. By helping headteachers and staff understand how their pupils are engaging with physical activity, the survey gives schools the chance to improve participation – which can have long-term positive effects on students’ behaviour, concentration, and overall physical and mental wellbeing. The report is private with only your school receiving it, with all data being anonymised in line with GDPR guidelines.

Along with this key data about your students, schools are offered a range of incentives to take part in the survey:

• Bespoke Report -Your school will receive a detailed bespoke report (see example below) giving you a deeper insight into your students’ activity levels, physical literacy, swimming proficiency, wellbeing, self-efficacy and levels of social trust. (subject to a certain threshold of responses being received).

• Healthy Schools Rating Scheme - The survey earns your school a score from the Department of Education‘s Healthy Schools Rating Scheme – which can be used as evidence for your Ofsted reports and funding applications.
  
  
• £100 of credits - As a thank you for taking part, Sport England offer at least £100 worth of credits to spend on sports equipment, giving your pupils access to a range of new opportunities to be active.

The survey also helps our team at Active Lincolnshire understand more about how young people across the county are engaging with sport – which means we can direct funding and support to the areas that need it most. Whether that’s improving access to physical education in secondary schools or developing new local facilities, your school’s participation directly supports us in our mission to get young people more active, more often.  

Take a look at a sample primary school report here:

Find out more about Active Lives Children and Young People

Contact us for more information by emailing Communications@ActiveLincolnshire.com

See Lincolnshire’s Active Lives Children and Young People insight or visit Sport England's website for more information.