What is the Active Lives Survey?

The Children and Young People Active Lives Survey report summarises the activity levels of 5 to 16-year-olds in England during the academic year.

The insight collated by the Children and Young People Active Lives Survey is used to provide policymakers, local authorities, government departments and the entire sport and physical activity sector with the insight and knowledge into the physical activity habits of children and young people.

The latest report covers the period from September 2020 to July 2021 and provides an update on the sport and physical activity behaviours of children and young people (aged 5 to 16) in England, as well as covering continued disruption from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The report summarises sport and physical activity participation behaviours as ‘Less Active’; ‘Fairly Active’ and ‘Active’. The definitions are as follows:

Less Active: Less than an average of 30 minutes a day.

Fairly Active: An average of 30-59 minutes a day.

Active: An average of 60+ minutes a day.

The Chief Medical Officer guidelines suggest that an average of 60+ minutes a day of sport and physical activity constitutes an ‘Active’ child. See our Active 60 info for more.

How does the survey work?

• We will contact schools that are selected to take part.
• One class in up to three different year groups will be asked to fill out the questionnaires.
• Not all schools will be asked to take part.
• We estimate that schools will be asked to take part every three or four years.

What does the questionnaire involve?

• The survey is easy for schools to administer.
• Simple and enjoyable for pupils to complete and are tailored to different age groups.
• The survey can be done at any point in the relevant term, depending on what works best for the school. 
• We will provide schools with everything they need, including templates for letters to parents, information sheets for teachers and pupils, and technical guidance.
• Can be completed on desktop computers, laptops or tablets.
• Will take around 20 minutes to complete.
• One teacher from each school will be asked to complete a 10-minute survey to give some broader context to the pupils responses.

For the youngest pupils in Years 1 and 2, we are also asking parents to fill out a questionnaire to give further information about their child’s physical activity behaviours. Some schools may, therefore, be asked to let parents know about this.

What are the benefits to schools?

• Each school that takes part will be given a bespoke report summarising their own results from the survey (if at least 30 pupils complete the questionnaire).
• This report will cover measures of children’s activity levels, physical literacy, swimming proficiency, wellbeing, self-efficacy and levels of social trust.
• The reports will give staff evidence and insight into how their school is performing in terms of engaging its pupils in sport and physical activity.
• These will not be published or used to compare schools, but are purely designed for the benefit of the individual school.  
• Completion of the teacher survey will provide the Healthy Schools Rating.
• Each participating school will receive at least £100 of equipment of their choice to thank them for their involvement in the study.

Completing the survey voluntarily

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 will not receive a cash payment for completing it but will receive a report summarising their survey responses (see ‘What are the benefits to schools’ above), providing at least 30 pupils complete questionnaires.

Want to find out more?

Visit the Sport England site for greater detail. https://www.sportengland.org/research-and-data/data/active-lives