Gathering baseline data for your outcomes
Don't be put off by the idea of data! We hope that much of the information you need will be easily accessible and mostly available at school in one form or another.
For our purposes, data will include information from school records, information gathered in surveys of all kinds (including informal ones) and notes of observations made by staff, pupils and / or parents.
Sources of data in school that you might use include:
- Pupil, parent and staff questionnaires, for example, you could use the Children's questionnaire developed by Biscovey Junior School. Also, many schools use the Kirkland Rowell surveys with parents, pupils and staff.
- Information gathered by the pupils. We developed an audit tool for primary pupils to use: Your school wants to be a Healthy School! Schools that have used this tell us that pupils see things from a different perspective and may identify things that have not otherwise been noted. (We're also developing a secondary school version.)
- RAISE online
- The Fischer Family Trust is an independent research organisation (set up as a charity) that specialises in survey work in the education sector
- Pupil assessments / SATs data
- PESSCL data
- School meals information
- IEPs and other pupil records
- Ofsted reports
- Church school inspection reports
- School Nurse health surveys / profiles
- NCMP (weighing and measuring) data
- Dental surveys
- Records of visitors to school
- Informal surveys / shapshots / hands up surveys
- Walk to School and School Travel Plan data
- Behaviour / bullying logs
- Attendance / exclusions
- Attendance at after-school clubs / breakfast clubs / extended provision
- PSHE / SEAL assessment / evaluation information
- Some secondary schools have used the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Test with pupils
- School Development Plan / Vision Action Plan
- School SEF
Gathering baseline data (or knowing where it might be) is a key step at the beginning of your work towards gaining National Healthy School Status (NHSS). As a guideline, baseline data used in your outcomes shouldn't be more than two years old.
We are happy to help you look for suitable data or identify useful data you have in school, contact us, putting "help with baseline data" as the subject of your message.
Healthy Schools Plus and the Healthy Schools enhancement model both encourage schools to gather and analyse data to help identify priorties and plan actions. More detailed information is available in those sections.
Our own data tools
We are working closely with the Schools Health Education Unit (SHEU) to offer schools access to a powerful survey tool for pupils (and one for parents and carers) that will support all this work and provide good data for ECM outcomes and the Ofsted Pupil Wellbeing Indicators. See our SHEU / Cornwall HS Every Child Matters Survey page for more information.