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Appendix Four National Pupil Survey Questionnaire

School and Work

Questions for Young People in Scotland

Personal and Confidential

How to answer

Please use Black or Blue ink

For most of the questions there is a list of possible answers with a box beside each one. Please chose your answer and put a cross in the box beside it. For example,

Do you like EastEnders?

yes

no

If you make a mistake please cross out the whole box and then put a cross in the correct answer.

Do you like EastEnders?

yes

no

A few questions ask you to write in a number, for example

Ignore the numbers in the boxes in the right-hand margins, they are just there to help us.

If you are unsure about anything, please ask.

Thank you for your help in answering these questions. If you would like to tell us more in your own words, please write in the space on the last page.

© University of Edinburgh, University of Paisley and University of Strathclyde

Guidance for the administration of the questionnaires

Background

The Scottish Executive is undertaking a large national study into the nature and implications of the part-time employment undertaken by school pupils. A fundamental part of this research is a nation-wide survey of pupils in S3 to S6. TNS are undertaking this study in collaboration with researchers from the Universities of Edinburgh, Paisley and Strathclyde.

XX High School has agreed to take part in this exercise, and this note provides some background guidance for the administration of the questionnaires.

Administration of the questionnaires

This is a self-completion survey administered in secondary schools to half of all S3, S4, S5 and S6 pupil in each school surveyed.

The administration of the questionnaires should be relatively straightforward and will consist of

….reading the introductory script to the pupils
….allowing the pupils complete the questionnaire
….collect the completed questionnaires in the envelopes provided.

There are four different versions of the questionnaire. It is very important that the different cohorts are asked to fill in the correct version of the questionnaire. If the 'sitting' contains more than one year group - for example S5 & S6 pupils - we would be very grateful of you could take care to ensure that the pupils get the right version of the questionnaire.

S3 pupils should be given CREAM questionnaires
S4 pupils should be given GREEN questionnaires
S5 pupils should be given BLUE questionnaires
S6 pupils should be given PURPLE questionnaires

Once all the pupils have been given questionnaires, please read out the introduction script. This is a brief introduction to the questionnaire and should self-explanatory. We have also provided a number of envelopes for pupils to put their completed questionnaires in. This is to ensure that pupils realise that their answers are confidential.

In some schools we have found that one or two pupils have had help in completing the questionnaire from a teaching assistant. This is likely to be the case if the pupil has special needs. In these cases, please ask the teaching assistant to write on the front page 'Completed with the help of ……'

Some pupils may ask questions about the questionnaire. The section below details some of the queries that might be asked and how you should respond.

Possible Queries and How to Respond to Them

The following points should help you deal with any questions that are raised when you are gathering this data.

1. Pupil identification.

Some pupils may raise the issue of why they have to give their names. There are two reasons for this. First, we need to know their names so that in the case of pupils giving us an answer that we do not understand we can possibly follow-up any queries that we have.

Second, at the end of the questionnaire we ask if pupils would be willing to participate in the next part of the study, which will take place later this year. If they are willing to help us out in this next part then they provide their contact information. The second part of the study will involve talking to us about school, careers, enterprise and part-time work in more detail. This will normally take place during school hours.

If the pupils still feel wary about giving their name, they can, of course, leave it blank.

2. Routing through the questionnaire.

You may find some pupils have some questions about which part of the questionnaire they fill out. The issue of routing through the questionnaire depends on a pupils part-time work status. There are three categories; those that have a paid part-time job at present, those who have had one in the past but are not currently working and those who have never had a part-time job. The 'never worked' group is divided into those who have applied for part-time work and those who have never applied. Each category has a different route through the questionnaire.

3. Definition of paid part-time job.

Some pupils might ask you about whether their activities constitute 'a job', for example, babysitting. In this study babysitting is included if it is paid babysitting.

You could use the following to help you decide:

• Is the activity paid
• Is it regular, though it is worth remembering that 'causal' work can be intermittent
• Is there an 'employer'

If you find yourself answering 'yes' to some of the above then it should be included as a paid part-time job.

It is also worth noting what we are excluding from our definition of paid part-time work. Formal school organised work experience is excluded, as are activities like washing the car or doing the dishes in the house for 'pocket money'. In the latter case these activities are treated as household chores and there is a section of the questionnaire that deals with them.

4. More than one paid part-time job.

Some pupils may have more than one paid part-time job. In this case the pupils are asked to indicate how many jobs they have. However, they answer the remainder of the questionnaire based on their dominant job. We define 'dominant' as the one that involves the greatest number of hours per week.

5. Parental information

There are some detailed questions regarding parental occupation and parent's educational background. You may find some pupils are not sure what their parents do or their qualifications. Please encourage pupils to give us the best information that they have short of guessing.

6. Other queries

For other queries, use your own judgement about how they should answer. If you have several queries of the same nature that aren't dealt with above, would if be possible to keep a note of these and inform us about them.

If you have any comments on the administration of the survey that you feel would help us understand the data more fully please pass your comments on to us. For example you may have noticed that a lot of the pupils that you surveyed had specific questions that were difficult to answer or that they had an issue with a specific question.

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