A new study by The Key and Edurio reveals how safe pupils feel in school, out of school and online.
An article by Nicola West Jones, Director of Insights and External Relations at The Key Group
Working in partnership with Edurio, we managed to reach what we believe to be the biggest sample size ever seen in a safeguarding survey in England, with almost 70,000 pupils taking part, from year 3 to year 13. Those pupils are broadly regionally representative, and come from 373 schools and 41 trusts. This considerable data set has allowed us to sub-segment in multiple different ways, meaning that we have robust, statistically significant data on everything from a particular year group, to particular gender identities or sexual orientations.
Pupils took this survey digitally in school, so we can be sure that the survey conditions were similar across all participants. It was strictly anonymous, and tested in advance with pupils of different ages, to ensure they fully understood the questions. We had an average of 5,000 participants from each year group, meaning cohorts are sizable enough to analyse that data with a high degree of accuracy.
So what did pupils tell us? Firstly, we asked them how safe they feel in school, out of school and online. 75% reported feeling “very” or “quite” safe in school. However, “in school” received the lowest score for safety, compared with “out of school” at 78% and “online” at 88%. The fact that pupils can’t easily opt out of school if they feel unsafe, in the same way they can choose not to go to places outside of school or online (for example, by choosing not to be on certain platforms), could be a factor explaining this relatively low score.
Please note that The Key are part of a paid for partnership with Forum Strategy. When selecting our partners we do so with careful reference to their expertise and their ethos and values.
