CensusAtSchool 10 (10/11)

These results are based on the findings from the online CensusAtSchool questionnaire for 2010-2011. The counts for these results were taken in September 2011, there were 30,156 responses from boys (14002) and girls (16154) with age range 5 to 18 inclusive.

Break down of regional responses

From the table we can see that the greatest number of responses were from the South of England, as might be expected.

Age distribution by School Year

The bar chart shows that mainly children from Key Stage 3 answered the 2010-2011 questionnaire.
The sample for the age distribution is smaller as age of the child did not correspond to the year group they claimed to belong to.

Number of Parents and Guardians Responses by Gender

Parents, guardians and carers (from here collectively referred to as ‘parents’) of the children had the opportunity to take part in this questionnaire. 57.9% of all children who contributed data (16,154 girls and 14,002 boys) input their parents’ responses to the online questionnaire. The gender bar chart above suggests that in this sample girls are more likely to ask their female parent, and boys are more likely to ask their male parent to complete their section of the 2010-2011 questionnaire.

The top three most popular UK football teams by region

The graph above shows that for the children who answered the 2010-2011 questionnaire Manchester United is the most popular UK football team for each of the regions. It needs to be noted that the school from Jersey was a girls-only school.

Childrens top ten favourite Olympic sports to watch

The table above shows the Olympic sports in which the UK won medals in 2008 compared to their popularity with children. The chart shows, in order of popularity, the childrens’ favourite Olympic sport to watch.

The events the UK win Olympic medals for tend not to be the ones children like to watch, apart from swimming.

Top ten favourite Olympic sports to watch by gender

The bar chart above shows how the boys and girls in the sample differ in the Olympic sports they most like to watch. Perhaps not surprisingly, boys most like to watch football and athletics, while girls most like to watch gymnastics and swimming.

How children and parents get the news by gender

Children and their parents selected the favourite way they keep up with the news. Male parents in the sample prefer to read a newspaper (29%) or watch the news on the television (45%), whereas female parents, boys and girls seem to prefer to watch the news on the television (53%, 51% and 42% respectively). It is interesting that some children do read a newspaper and that girls like to keep up with the news by talking to friends.

Children’s favourite type of news story by gender

These results suggests that boys like sports’ news whereas girls like to keep up with entertainment news. Girls are also more interested in health news than the boys.

Children’s favourite type of TV programme by gender

The bar chart above suggests that comedy is the most popular type of programme for both boys and girls. Sport is more popular for boys and the soaps are more popular with girls. There is very little difference between the percentage of boys and girls whose favourite programme is the movies.

In the 2009-2010 questionnaire we asked which subject children would like removed from the English school curriculum. The results are surprising, with most boys and most girls wanting to remove Religious Education with Mathematics coming third.

Children and parents favourite subject at school

In 2010-2011 questionnaire we asked both children and their parents to state their favourite subject at school. The results are displayed in the percentage bar chart above. Maths and English are ranked the sixth and eighth favourite subject by children whereas parents have ranked these as second and third respectively.