Dear Parents/Carers
Our school, along with many others across Cumbria, has agreed to participate in a very important Health Behaviour Survey amongst children and young people. We have been asked to take part to help make sure that those services that support children and young people are aware of and are meeting the needs of children and young people, particularly after COVID-19.
As a school, we will also receive some very valuable anonymised feedback from our students so we can improve our own support and provision for them.
Previously, the survey data in schools has also been used in a variety of ways including:
- As a starting point for discussion in classroom activities or lessons
- To improve work on the health and well-being of students
- As a beginning for further enquiry to strengthen existing programmes or curriculum, e.g. PE, Healthy Eating etc.
- To help schools track progress
The survey method that we are using has been developed by the Schools Health Education Unit, Exeter and has been in use now for over 40 years. Over 3000 schools across the country have taken part, many of them regularly repeating the survey.
The age-appropriate questions concern a wide range of health behaviours, for example:
- Home and family
- Relationships
- Emotional health and well-being
- Tobacco, Alcohol, Drugs
- Healthy Eating
- Physical activity
The Local Authority Public Health department will also have a reliable database upon which it can objectively plan provision for children and young people.
Both the Local Authority and the school find the content of the questionnaire acceptable; it has been customised to suit our local setting in Cumbria for Secondary schools.
Each questionnaire is anonymous and confidential, and no student will be identified when the data is returned to our school. The Local Authority will not use data to identify individual students or individual schools in its wider reporting.
I hope you will agree with us that this is an exercise in which we wish to cooperate fully and will be of real benefit in helping to shape provision for our students.
If you have any queries regarding the survey, then please contact us – students will be given time in their PHSE lessons starting this week, to complete the survey.
Yours faithfully
Mr S Gilby
Headteacher