PROGRESS Stories

Using data to find out what is going on

Antidote was working in a primary school, where data from the Environment for Learning Survey (ELS) showed that the children generally felt safe, included, accepted and listened to.

There was just one area of slightly lower scoring that the school was interested to find out more about. Why did 23% of responses indicate that children almost never felt connected to each other (included in relationships – left chart) while only 15% of responses indicated that they almost never felt others were interested in their thoughts and feelings (included in communication – right chart).

There is always a temptation for staff looking at this sort of data to leap to conclusions about meaning. Senior staff, class teachers and support staff alike will all have their own view on why the graphs are a particular shape and why children have scored a particular way. The explanations can range from somewhat defensive ‘explaining away’ of the data to strong reactions based on the adult’s personal experience of the school and the children.

Our experience is that the only way to find out what the graphs mean is to ask the children, in an open-minded and curious way.

In this school, the children who led the inquiry were members of the school council. They consulted their peers through class council meetings. What they discovered was that some children found the playground an inhospitable place. They were excluded from or disinterested in the main games, such as football, preferring quieter, more reflective activities. Although the school did provide a wider range of such activities, these children found the playground too exposed to enjoy them.

Having used the data to identify the problem, the students could now get working on finding a solution.


PROGRESS Stories