Working Towards A Healthy School
1 Baseline Information
Health-Related Behaviour Questionnaire [HRBQ] survey results provide a detailed evaluation of the current patterns in health-related behaviour of pupils in primary and secondary schools. The full array of questions provide baseline information on pupils' lifestyles, attitudes and feelings with respect to aspects of citizenship, knowledge and experience of drugs, emotional health and well-being, bullying, dietary patterns, physical activity, safety, and sex and relationships.
2 Needs Assessment
Individual school and combined area results can be viewed in comparison with wider data providing the opportunity for an ideal form of needs assessment enabling Healthy School projects to respond to individual school and local needs as well as national priorities.
3 Policy and Practice Survey data provide essential information upon which schools can base policies, such as drugs, bullying, and sex and relationships in line with DfEE guidance. They can be used for curriculum development or directly with pupils in the classroom.
4 Monitoring Change
The HRBQ is an established standardised method of monitoring changes in health related behaviour. Repeated use of the survey can provide initial baseline data and at a later stage, comparative data, against which Healthy School Projects may be evaluated.
5 Educational Materials Educational material for PSHE lessons is available for primary schools based upon their own survey data, beginning with children's current knowledge and experience and providing opportunities for developing life skills at the appropriate age.
6 Supportive networks
Pyramid surveys provide opportunities for linked schools within shared communities to work collaboratively.
What Next?
Health-Related Behaviour Questionnaire [HRBQ] survey results provide a detailed evaluation of the current patterns in health-related behaviour of pupils in primary and secondary schools. The full array of questions provide baseline information on pupils' lifestyles, attitudes and feelings with respect to aspects of citizenship, knowledge and experience of drugs, emotional health and well-being, bullying, dietary patterns, physical activity, safety, and sex and relationships.
2 Needs Assessment
Individual school and combined area results can be viewed in comparison with wider data providing the opportunity for an ideal form of needs assessment enabling Healthy School projects to respond to individual school and local needs as well as national priorities.
3 Policy and Practice Survey data provide essential information upon which schools can base policies, such as drugs, bullying, and sex and relationships in line with DfEE guidance. They can be used for curriculum development or directly with pupils in the classroom.
4 Monitoring Change
The HRBQ is an established standardised method of monitoring changes in health related behaviour. Repeated use of the survey can provide initial baseline data and at a later stage, comparative data, against which Healthy School Projects may be evaluated.
5 Educational Materials Educational material for PSHE lessons is available for primary schools based upon their own survey data, beginning with children's current knowledge and experience and providing opportunities for developing life skills at the appropriate age.
6 Supportive networks
Pyramid surveys provide opportunities for linked schools within shared communities to work collaboratively.
What Next?
1 Baseline Information TOP
Healthy School REQUIREMENT
The local programme must have measures... for assessing school achievement in relation to specific themes.
It will achieve accreditation at a local programme level for:
- Local health profiles and outcomes from needs assessment activities.
- School assessment criteria.
|
NHSS THEMES |
HEALTH RELATED BEHAVIOUR QUESTIONNAIRE AREAS |
|
|---|---|---|
|
Citizenship |
Ethnicity* Money* Family background* |
National Lottery Locality* Paid work |
|
Drugs, alcohol and tobacco |
Alcohol consumption* Smoking* Medication |
Knowledge and experience of illegal drugs* |
|
Emotional health and
well-being |
Bullying* Problem sharing* Dyslexia Self-esteem*, autonomy |
Gambling Social activities* Leisure pursuits* Worries* |
|
Healthy eating |
Dental care* |
Diet* |
|
Physical activity |
Bicycle use* Physical activity* |
Fitness & sports* Travel to school |
|
Safety |
Accidents* Stranger danger ** |
Personal safety Travel to school |
|
Sex and relationships |
AIDS/HIV* Relationships with adults Dating |
Sexual health Puberty* Social activities |
|
Recognising success |
Knowledge of family planning services, |
Attitudes to health, healthy eating, drug risks and physical activity |
|
Other relevant themes |
Asthma and eczema Hygiene* Doctor visits |
Internet access Homework |
Please note that these topic areas occur in the secondary HRBQ only, unless starred.
* also in Primary HRBQ
** only in Primary HRBQ
An HRBQ survey in your school or group of schools will not only produce valuable insights into the young people’s lives at home, at school, and with their friends, but will provide a mass of data relevant to NHSS themes. These data can inform programmes, suggest targets, and form the basis for evaluation.
Figures are returned to the school in a readable report.
2 Needs Assessment TOP
Healthy School REQUIREMENT
[These three examples illustrate how the HRBQ information can be used to set priorities for action.]
2.1 Schools are different
Survey results from a group of schools can show wide variations. Comparisons between individual schools can help to make specific targets more realistic and suggest priorities for education and intervention programmes and the allocation of funds. The example shows the variation in the percentage of Year 10 pupils diagnosed as having asthma, within 9 schools in one group survey.
Are you confident that all your pupils with asthma are getting support?
Asthma prevalence: Variations between schools in one group survey (Year 10, both genders combined).
2.2 Changes with age
This example shows how the behaviours of different age groups can be compared side by side. The question Do you know anyone personally who you think takes drugs? reveals the proximity of young people within a local community to a potential supply of drugs. See ‘pyramid surveys’ below.
How does this fit with your sequence of drug education?
Knowledge of drug users: The percentage within a secondary school and its three feeder primary schools that are fairly sure or certain they know a drug user.
2.3 Schools in context
A school’s data can be compared with the data from all the other local schools that took part in the survey, or of aggregated data sets collected by SHEU in the course of its survey work.
If this report represented your school, how could you help the 79% of all smokers who would like to give up smoking?
3 Policy and Practice TOP
Healthy School REQUIREMENT
The school has a policy, which is owned and implemented by all members of the school including pupils and parents, and which is delivered in partnership with local health and support services. (Sex and relationships education)
The school has a planned sex and relationships education programme… which is based on pupils’ needs assessment and a knowledge of vulnerable pupils. (Sex and relationships education)
Here are two examples of the ways in which SHEU survey data can offer a firm basis for developing policies and practice within the NHSS framework.
1 Drug education Drug-related incidents Bullying Sex and relationships
The survey data will provide schools with objective information such as pupils’ current levels of smoking, alcohol consumption and the use of other drugs, their fear of bullying and what is their main source of information about sex. This information will enable schools to develop or revise their policies for aspects such as drug education, drug-related incidents, bullying and sex education, in line with DfEE guidelines. It is also an important prompt for curriculum development.
2 Review of the current PSHE curriculum
The survey data will enable schools to review the content and timing of their current PSHE curriculum. This will enable them to target appropriate teaching according to need to correct age groups, and survey data can be a powerful stimulus for discussion by pupils in the classroom. Current advice on good practice in drug education programmes states that teachers must begin with what pupils already know. Although they will be able to gain a sense of this through discussions with pupils, the HRBQ is confidential and anonymous and undoubtedly will elicit information which pupils would not offer within an open discussion.
Sources of sex information
Here are a school’s results from questions 61 & 62 in the current Health Related Behaviour Questionnaire: What IS and what SHOULD BE your main source of sex information? The Year 10 females’ responses are shown.
These would be relevant to its sex and relationships programme, and would be a useful starting-point for discussion with pupils, governors, and parents!
Questions to be considered might include:
Which of these are the most accurate sources?
Which are the most accessible?
How do you think parents would feel looking at these data?
4 Monitoring Change TOP
Healthy School REQUIREMENT
Targets will be set through negotiation with the local programme and will be based on the outcomes of an audit undertaken to ascertain the school’s stage of development.
Schools can prioritise themes according to their needs and local and national practice. If schools meet the criteria set, they will be given recognition for their achievements.
The local programme must identify, at the outset, monitoring and evaluation processes to show effectiveness.
Strategic planning of repeated surveys provides information whereby schools and other potential partners, such as Drug Action Teams may monitor changes in health related behaviour patterns for their area. A sampling strategy which anticipates a repeat survey after an interval of two years requires that alternate year groups are sampled, so that the repeat survey will catch the same groups at a later stage of their development. This is the usual pattern of surveying in all regions of the country where the Schools Health Education Unit is currently working.
The entire survey database contains the results of over 600,000 pupils across the primary and secondary age range, dating from 1983 to the present day. Using these data, pupils can study long-term changes in the health-related behaviour of young people of their own age.
Smoking trends in one region: The percentage of Year 10 pupils that had smoked during the previous week, recorded in a long-term monitoring project.
The following diagram shows a programme of repeating surveys across the primary and secondary transition that several Health Authorities, and two regions, have adopted to assess priorities and to monitor change.
A year group comes up for survey every two years. Longitudinal tracking may give a very different picture to cross-sectional studies.
5 Educational Materials TOP
We are not just producers of survey reports. Our aim is to promote good health education practice in schools, and we have produced resources to be used in the staffroom, the classroom, with parents, and with community partners.
Computer-readable data
The data recorded in a school’s survey can be returned in a form suitable for classroom use. None of the information can be attributed to individual pupils. The Lifestyles resource is an example -- it allows pupils to interrogate the data, discover age and gender differences, and even investigate links between different behaviours.
At a simpler level, the tables printed in a school’s survey report can be supplied as individual files, allowing the pupils to experiment with different ways of presenting the data.
Healthy School Series
This set of five books, are selections taken from the successful Preparing for Life after Primary School series. They have been re-organised into easy to use Healthy School themes. The principal authors are experienced primary-school teachers who have used the School Health Education Unit's material in their schools. They bring fresh insights into how health-related behaviour data can be used in primary schools, not only within the classroom and the staffroom but to encourage closer links between the school, the parents, and the local community. Each resource book studies a topic from these various viewpoints, and includes an overview, suggestions for policy review and action, lesson themes, photocopiable worksheets and scenarios, and in some cases model letters.
We have produced substantial classroom resources for sex education and alcohol education, and published numerous reports on aspects of health education in schools, based on survey results. We have published the annual Young People report since 1986 — an unmatched year-by-year summary of adolescent lifestyles. Our journal Education and Health, first published in 1983, features articles relevant to those concerned with the healthy development of young people including teachers in primary and secondary schools.
6 Supportive networks TOP
Healthy School REQUIREMENT
The local programme must involve school staff in planning. Components include:
- Cross-phase school involvement in programme planning.
- Making the programme responsive to the school’s needs.
Governors & parents |
Drug Action Teams |
Directors of Public Health |
Education Authority |
Healthy School Coordinators |
Potential Partners |
Primary Care Groups, GP practices |
|
Teachers |
Health Promotion Units
|
||
Pupils |
School Nurses & Counsellors |
Police and Youth Services
|
Social Services
|
Examples of such partnerships include:
- Parents and community partners (for example, transport, leisure services) being involved in policy development.
- Parents and external partners (for example, Drug Action Team, Family Planning Nurses) being involved in the task group for developing ‘healthy schools’ activities.
'Pyramid' surveys: a partnership between a local secondary school and its feeder primary schools
| Secondary School | ||
Feeder |
Feeder |
Feeder |
Many of the current HRBQ surveys are linking secondary schools with the largest of their feeder primary schools. This group is then termed a ‘pyramid’. Much of the data from the respective questionnaires can be linked so that a community can look at the health-related behaviour of the young people across both the primary and secondary age range. The opportunities for collaborative working within linked schools are fostered and good practice can be shared. The key to this work is the local data.
Here is an example from a pyramid survey involving 400 pupils belonging to a secondary school and its three feeder schools. The data show the responses from pupils in Years 5, 6, 8 and 10 to the question Do you know anyone personally who you think takes drugs?
| Year 5 | Year 6 | Year 7 | Year 8 | Year 9 | Year 10 | |||||||
| B | G | B | G | B | G | B | G | B | G | B | G | |
| No or not sure | 81 | 83 | 72 | 73 | - | - | 63 | 62 | - | - | 38 | 32 |
| Fairly sure or certain | 19 | 17 | 28 | 27 | - | - | 38 | 37 | - | - | 61 | 69 |
It will be seen that the pupils in Years 7 and 9 were not sampled, but their likely responses can be interpolated.
What next? TOP
How to bring SHEU into your Healthy Schools Standard initiative
- Talk to us.
- Contact the groups you feel will benefit from the survey results.
- Agree a timescale and survey size.
- Invite schools to participate in the survey.
- Select the schools from those wishing to participate.
- Train the teachers in ways of collecting the best data.
- Return the completed questionnaires to SHEU for processing.
- Allow time for the results and reports to be returned to you and to the schools.
- Plan further local meetings to explore the best ways of using the data.
| School Coordinator | Area Coordinator | |
| GIVES | 70 minutes of curriculum time for three classes in each year group involved | Planning and co-ordination time |
| GETS | Administration manual Baseline tables (year groups and genders separated) School report with aggregated group data for comparison Book of suggestions for use of the data in policy and in the classroom Individual confidential reports for pupils |
Aggregate baseline data Stimulus for schools’ own programmes Books of data for partner organisations (e.g. Drug Action Teams, Primary Care Groups) |
| CAN GET | Data on disc for ICT work Data in chart form Primary classroom materials |
Data on disc Data in chart form Customised reports |
| NEEDS | Support from senior management team Support from area coordinator |
Budget or funding coalition of interested partners |
Funding coalitions
Typically, the costs of surveying are expensive for any school to afford by itself. But Primary Care Trusts, Drug Action Teams and Local Education Authorities share an interest in the data. Funding and organising coalitions that draw on these groups have been successfully formed in many areas of the country, and many areas have come back to survey on two or three occasions since their first exercise.
For further clarification, or information on costs, please contact Angela Balding