Data editing and management: Overview

For example, data on watching live sporting events and volunteering is only available for pupils in school year 5 and over.

For sports participation, where the pupil is routed past certain questions for different year groups or parents, assumptions have been made to allow for creation of the standard variables.

For example, for school year 1-4, the location (indoors or outdoors) of activities taken part in has been assumed using a standard set of rules for each activity and whether it was during normal school hours or outside normal school hours.

The User Guide and Code Book provide information on who was asked each question.

In this section, we describe some of the data editing and assumptions which were used in creating derived variables. Details on specific values and assumptions used can be found in the Code Book.

School year 1-2 questionnaire

No changes in academic year 2024-25 (Year 8).

School year 3-11 pupils and parents of school year 1-2 questionnaire

A variety of changes were made to the questionnaire for academic year 2024-25. A few changes were also made in the first half of the autumn term 2024.

Time questions

The wording of the time questions was changes for all pupils and parents based on feedback and testing with children and young people.

Clock icons were added next to each response code at Time_bcd, Walk_bcd and CycleSch_bcd for pupils in years 3-6: 

1. Less than 10 minutes (unchanged)
2. About 15 minutes (previously About quarter of an hour)
3. About 30 minutes (previously About half an hour)
4. About 45 minutes (previously About three-quarters of an hour)
5. One hour (unchanged)
6. More than an hour (unchanged)
7. [if b] ‘Don’t know’ [if c or d] ‘Cannot give estimate’ (unchanged)

In the second version of the script introduced a few weeks into the autumn term, for pupils in years 3-6 the first icon presented was slightly modified to look more like 10 minutes.

Agree/disagree scale

Thumbs up/down icons were added to the response codes for questions using the strongly agree to strongly disagree scale for pupils in years 3-6.

However, these were removed a few weeks into the autumn term in version two of the script as the icons were having an unforeseen impact on the number of pupils selecting ‘strongly agree’.

1. Strongly agree
2. Agree
3. Disagree
4. Strongly disagree
5. Can’t say

Physical literacy

In year 8, the new physical literacy consensus statement was adopted by Sport England, which resulted in changes to some attitudes and motivation questions.

The knowledge statement for years 7-11 only, “I know how to get involved and improve my skills in lots of different types of exercise and sport”, was removed and replaced with PLInvolve “I know where and how to get involved in exercise and sports”.

Some additional statements were asked in relation to physical literacy (using the standard agree/ disagree scale):

• PLWell_bc I work well with other children when doing exercise and sports (year 3-11).
• PLMatter_bc Taking part in exercise and sports matters to me (year 3-11). 
• PLBetter_bc Exercising and doing sports makes me feel better about myself (year 3-11).
• PLIdea_b The adults who run my exercise and sports activities listen to me when I have an idea (year 3-6).
• PLGood1_c I am good at exercise and sports (year 7-11).
• PLKind_c I am kind when playing and being active with other children when doing exercise and sports (year 7-11).
• PLChall_c I keep taking part in exercise and sports when it is challenging (year 7-11).
• PLVal_c I feel my opinions are valued by the adults who organise my exercise and sport activities (year 7-11).
• PLWelc_c Outside of school there are places I can exercise that are inclusive and welcoming (year 7-11).
• PLSim_c I see people who are similar to me if I exercise outside of school (year 7-11).

The question wording at MO_Opp_c was updated from “I feel that I have the opportunity to be physically active” to “I feel that I have the opportunity to exercise and play sports”. 

The question wording at MO_Fit_c was updated from “I exercise to stay fit and healthy” to “I exercise and play sports to stay fit and healthy”.

The question wording at MO_Relax_c was updated from “I exercise to help me relax and worry less about things” to “I exercise and play sports to help me relax and worry less about things”.

Removal of questions about motivations, priorities and preferences for activity

With the introduction of physical literacy, these questions were removed to avoid overburdening respondents.

Motivations and priorities statements asking about agreement and disagreement:

• I feel guilty when I don't exercise
• I exercise socially for fun with friends
• I exercise because someone tells me I have to 
• ‘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’.

‘In the future would you like to do more, the same amount, or less exercise and sport than you do at the moment?’. Answer options were ‘More’, ‘The same amount’ and ‘Less’. 

‘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.

Swimming

The question wording at SwmLake_bc was updated to remove the reference to how far 5 metres is (previous question mentioned “this is about the length of a car) and added an image:

Imagine that you fall into a large lake. The lake is deep and you can’t touch the bottom. You have all your clothes on, and you are about five metres away from the land. Could you get back to the land without someone helping you?

1. Yes 
2. No

The question for years 7-11 about which swimming strokes they can do were removed.

Volunteering

The follow-up question about how many times in the last year they had volunteered was removed.

Happiness

The follow-up question after the happiness question asking whether this is how they usually feel was removed.

Community development

The question wording at Trust_bc was updated from “How much do you feel you can trust people who are a similar age to you?” to “How much do you trust children who are your age”.

However, the question wording reverted to the academic year 2023-24 version early in the autumn term after the change had unanticipated impacts on data. 

Demographic questions

The answer codes about gender at Gend_c were amended in academic year 2024-25, removing the options for ‘Non-binary’ and ‘Prefer to self-describe’ and adding ‘prefer to type in’.

The question wording for ethnicity at Eth_bc was updated from “Which one of these best describes your background or race” to “which one of these best describes you” and two categories were reworded. ‘Mixed race’ became 'Mixed e.g. White and Black, White and Asian’ and ‘Other’ became ‘Another group (please type in)’ as a result of feedback and testing with children and young people.

Teacher questionnaire

One change was made to the teacher survey for academic year 2024-25. For the start of the summer term, three new questions were added.

CONTACT1 asks teachers if they would be willing to be contacted by Ipsos within the next two years about potentially participating in consultation or advisory groups to help Sport England develop the Active Lives Survey.

CONTACT2 asks those who agree for their name, while CONTACT3 asks for their email address.