For their contribution to the Heritage Project, the Humanities Department decided that a school census would be of interest to students, parents and to the school. Monitoring trends in academic and social needs in school and the home life of our students was thought to be a useful tool for future policy making. In addition it could be seen as a historic document.
A questionnaire was devised of over thirty core questions. This has given a snapshot view of some aspects of students' lives; for example, methods of transport to school, pastimes and career choices.
It was originally thought that this could be compared in ten years time to another cohort of Year 7 students. However, there have been suggestions that this may be an annual event giving a closer look at trends, which may be of more use to the school.
Some of the questions first posited were thought too sensitive; for example asking about family structure. The final format decided upon was the result of a lot of discussion between the balance of our wanting to know more about our students' lives, and the individual student's right to privacy in answering questions about their home situations. Possible parental sensitivities were also taken into account. The census was also anonymous.
The final format therefore, is a light-hearted census; it was fun for the students to complete and totally non-threatening. It was made clear that if students wished to skip a question, they could.
The Maths Department was approached to see if they would like to use the census as a 'real life' data collection and analysis exercise. Their results are shown on the site.
It has been suggested that if we run the census
on an annual basis, a dedicated database could be set up to process the information
more efficiently every year. This year, the information has been 'batched' giving
a representative view of several questions.
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