This is now defined as volunteering at least once in the last 12 months to support sport and physical activity.
Examples of volunteering activities include raising funds for sport, being a sports leader or ambassador, coaching, refereeing, umpiring and stewarding, helping with set up and clearing away, helping with refreshments and any other activities which support sport and physical activity.
Activities which only help family members are not included. Activities which involve sport and activity to raise money for sport were not previously included in the measure, although pupils were asked about them but now they count.
Prior to academic year 2023-24 (Year 7) the key measure was volunteered at least twice in the last 12 months, but now it is just once. In the academic year 2023-24 report, data for previous years has been updated to match the new measures.
These questions were asked to pupils in school year 5-11. Pupils in school year 5-6 and school year 7-11 were asked about a different range of activities (appropriate to their age) and so information on roles is presented in separate tables for these two year groups.
Pupils were asked whether they had ‘volunteered or given your time to do any of the following activities’. The question for pupils in school years 5-6 included the clarification: ‘Think only about when you do them to help with sports, exercise or dance’. Pupils could report on other activities not on the list.
These were subsequently back-coded and ineligible activities such as helping at Brownies or running cake sales were excluded.
All pupils who had reported that they helped with at least one type of activity were asked whether they had given their time for these activities more than once in the last year. Only those who had done so more than once were included in the measure.
Note that while ‘coached or instructed’ is a separate category for school year 7-11, for school year 5-6 any back-coded answers for coaching are included in ‘other’.
Similarly, ‘setting up or clearing away’ is a separate category for school year 5-6 but for school year 7-11 any back-coded answers of this type are included in ‘other’.
The results for school year 5-6 and 7-11 are presented separately because of the differences in codes.
Attitudes
There were five questions about attitudes included in the school year 3-11 questionnaire. These were based on the 2016 concept of physical literacy (‘Whitehead, M. (2016) Physical Literacy’, International Physical Literacy Association).
From academic year 2024-25 (Year 8) the attitude-related questions have changed in response to a newly published physical literacy consensus statement from September 2023; however, in academic year 2023-24 (Year 7), the questions were the same as in previous years.
School year 3-6 pupils were asked the first four and school year 7-11 pupils were asked all of them.
Pupils were asked to respond on a scale with the following categories: strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree, can’t say.
The data tables report on the percentage strongly agreeing to each statement.
- I enjoy taking part in exercise and sports (enjoyment)
- I feel confident when I exercise and play sports (confidence)
- I find exercise and sports easy (competence)
- I understand why exercise and sports are good for me (understanding)
- I know how to get involved and improve my skills in lots of different types of exercise and sport (knowledge)
School year 1-2 pupils were asked about their attitudes in a short questionnaire. They were asked:
- Do you like playing sport? (I love, I like, I don’t like, I hate… data tables report on the percentage saying I love) (enjoyment)
- Do you find sport easy? (yes, no, don’t know… data tables report on the percentage saying yes) (competence)
- Do you like being active? This includes things like running games, riding a bike or scooter, walking, and dancing. (I love, I like, I don’t like, I hate… data tables report on the percentage saying I love) (enjoyment)
- Do you like swimming? (I love, I like, I don’t like, I hate, I don’t know… data tables report on the percentage saying I love) (enjoyment) but included under swimming in reporting.
In the published data it is levels of strong agreement which are reported on (strongly agree or love doing).
Motivations
Following cognitive testing, new motivation questions were added to the school year 3-11 questionnaire in academic year 2020-21 (Year 4) and have been included since including in academic year 2023-24 (Year 7). These were introduced to provide further details on motivations.
In academic year 2023-24 (Year 7) the first of these (opportunity) has been included in the data tables. The other motivation statements are not reported on in the tables.
Pupils were asked to respond on a scale with the following categories: strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree, can’t say.
School year 7-11 pupils were asked all six and school year 3-6 pupils were asked the final question:
- I feel that I have the opportunity to be physically active
- I exercise to stay fit and healthy
- I exercise to help me relax and worry less about things
- I feel guilty when I don't exercise
- I exercise socially for fun with friends
- I exercise because someone tells me I have to
Priorities
New questions about how young people prioritise physical activity compared with other activities were introduced in 2022-23 academic year (Year 6) and these questions were also included in 2023-24 academic year (Year 7). These are not included in the report and tables.
Respondents were asked about their agreement to these statements:
- ‘Taking part in exercise and sports is a good way to spend time with my family’.
- ‘I'd rather spend time doing other things that aren’t sport or exercise such as listening to music, playing video games or watching TV’.
Preferences for activity
Following cognitive testing, new questions about whether children would like to do more or less activity were added to the school year 3-11 questionnaire in academic year 2020-21 (Year 4) and have been included since, including in academic year 2023-24 (Year 7), but are not reported on in the data tables.
‘In the future would you like to do more, the same amount, or less exercise and sport than you do at the moment?’. This question was asked to pupils in school year 3-6 and school year 7-11. Answer options were ‘More’, ‘The same amount’ and ‘Less’.
Respondents who answered ‘More’ were then asked a follow-up question – ‘Thinking about doing more exercise or sport in the future, which statements apply to you?’.
The statements were ‘I want to do more of the exercise and sports I do now’, ‘I want to do different or new exercise or sports’ and ‘I don’t mind whether I do more of the same or do different exercise or sports’ with ‘Don’t know’ and ‘Prefer not to say’ options as well.
Ability to ride a bike
Following cognitive testing, a new a question about ability to ride a bike was added in academic year 2020-21 (Year 4) and has been included since, including in academic year 2023-24 (Year 7), but are not reported on in the data tables.
‘Can you ride a bike?’. This was only asked to pupils in school year 5 and 6. Answer options were ‘Yes, without stabilisers’, ‘Yes, with stabilisers’, ‘Yes, an adaptive bike or adaptive trike for children with disabilities or special needs’, ‘No’ and ‘Don’t know’.
Wellbeing and individual and community development (Outcomes)
Three dimensions of mental wellbeing are presented: happiness, life satisfaction and the extent to which they feel the things they do in their life are worthwhile. For school year 1-2 a smiley face question was used, which is expressed as three categories in the tables: happy, neither happy nor sad, sad.
For school year 3-6 the standard ONS happiness yesterday question was used. For school year 7-11 the standard ONS happiness yesterday, life satisfaction and worthwhile questions were used.
- Happiness: "How happy did you feel yesterday?" (school year 3-11)
- Life satisfaction: "How satisfied are you with life nowadays?" (school year 7-11)
- Feeling your life is worthwhile: "To what extent are the things you do in your life worthwhile" (school year 7-11)
These three questions are answered on an 11-point scale from 0 to 10, where 0 is not at all and 10 is completely. The results are presented as mean scores. The standard ONS wellbeing question about anxiety was not included as it is not recommended for use in children under 14 years old.
Individual and community development was captured from school year 3-11 pupils through a question about trying difficult things (positive perceived self-efficacy) and a question about trusting peers (positive levels of social trust).
Each question is asked on a five-point scale from strongly agree (5) to strongly disagree (1). The questions asked were:
- Individual development: Using the resilience question "If I find something difficult, I keep trying until I can do it" (school year 3-11)
- Community development: Using the trust question "How much do you feel you can trust people who are a similar age to you?" (school year 3-11)
Since academic year 2018-19 (Year 2), the results for strongly agree have been shown, which differs from the academic year 2017-18 (Year 1) report when combined agree and strongly agree results were shown.
The tables show the wellbeing and development indicators by demographic characteristics as well as split by level of activity and volunteering behaviour. See previous sections for activity and volunteering definitions.
The findings for these variables can be found in Tables for Levels of Activity and Volunteering. In the Outcomes tables they are just used to look at levels of wellbeing and development split by level of activity and volunteering.
The means for wellbeing tables are the mean calculated across the groups, to which the answer relates from the scores of 0-10 which were used as answers to the questions.
Loneliness: In academic year 2019-20 (Year 3), the harmonised ONS loneliness question was included for the first time for pupils in school years 7-11 and continued to be asked subsequent academic years, including academic year 2023-24 (Year 7).
This asked “How often do you feel lonely?” with answers of often/always, some of the time, occasionally, hardly ever, never. The data tables do not include the loneliness measures in academic year 2023-24 (Year 7), though they were included in previous years.
Sports spectating
This is measured as having watched two or more live sports events, whether professional or amateur, over the previous 12 months.
Pupils were asked:
- Have you done this activity (attended a live sports event) in the past 12 months?
- How many live sporting events have you been to see since last year?
Additional information provided was: ‘Include all matches and competitions, including professional sport as well as watching family and friends compete. Please do not include any events that you took part in yourself, or events you watched on TV.’
Answers of ‘twice’ or ‘three or more’ were included in this measure.