Background
Methods
Recruitment targets and protocols
Schools
Pupils
Parents and guardians
Process evaluation
Data collection
Data analysis
Results
Recruitment rates
School recruitment rates
Integrated | Controlled secondary | Catholic maintained secondary | Controlled grammar | Voluntary Catholic grammar | Voluntary other-managed grammar | All | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Number of schools contacted | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 8 | 6 | 21 |
Number of schools recruited | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 |
School recruitment rate (schools recruited / contacted) | 100 % | 100 % | 67 % | 100 % | 13 % | 17 % | 38 % |
Pupil recruitment rates
Integrated | Controlled secondary | Catholic maintained secondary | Controlled grammar | Voluntary Catholic grammar | Voluntary other-managed grammar | All | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Number of eligible pupils | 132 | 121 | 91 | 98 | 149 | 123 | 155 | 158 | 1027 |
Number of parental withdrawals of consent | 12 | 11 | 2 | 2 | 9 | 10 | 6 | 18 | 70 |
Number of pupil opt-outs at baseline | 17 | 10 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 32 |
Number of pupils absent at baselinea
| 0 | 24 | 5 | 6 | 2 | 40 | 1 | 16 | 94 |
Number of pupils recruited at baseline | 103 | 76 | 84 | 88 | 136 | 72 | 148 | 124 | 831 |
Pupil recruitment rate at baselineb
| 78.0 % | 62.8 % | 92.3 % | 89.8 % | 91.3 % | 59.3 % | 95.5 % | 79.1 % | 80.9 % |
Parent/guardian recruitment rates
Reasons for participation and non-participation
Schools
Number of Catholic maintained secondary | Number of voluntary Catholic grammar | Number of voluntary other-managed grammar | All school types | |
---|---|---|---|---|
No space in LLW curriculum | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
Currently involved in other research | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
Not a suitable time due to staff changes | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
Declined without providing reason | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
Intervention incompatible with ethos | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Intervention incompatible with needs | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
All non-participating schools | 1 | 8 | 4 | 13 |
Number (%) | |
---|---|
Belief that the intervention would be useful to pupils | 8 (100 %) |
Credibility of the intervention/research | 8 (100 %) |
Desire to improve RSE provision within the school | 6 (75 %) |
Compatibility of the intervention with pupil needs (teenage pregnancy a concern) | 5 (63 %) |
Positive experiences with previous research | 1 (13 %) |
Involvement in research perceived as beneficial for upcoming inspection | 1 (13 %) |
If [an invitation] just comes as an email there is a fair chance it’ll end up in the bin […] If it’s preceded by a phone call there is probably a better chance [it’ll be considered]. (Principal, Catholic maintained secondary)If you just send something in and it comes to me, it could go over my head. If you send it to my teacher or you engage somebody or you phone the school up and say ‘Could I come in to chat to the Principal?’ or ‘Could I come in to speak to somebody?’ rather than sending a letter, I think that’s the way to hook people in. (Principal, integrated)
Firstly, if there’s any credibility in what’s being done. Secondly, if it can be fitted in with minimum disruption. If it’s going to affect exam classes there’s almost no chance. (Principal, Catholic maintained secondary)R: What kind of things do you consider before you decide whether or not you want to take part?P: Well, the first thing I would look at is, is it in an area of interest that we can contribute to that is very specific to my school? Is it an area that the students can benefit from? So, with the Jack project, I felt it was a wee bit innovative and that there were potential useful resources from it. The [other] things that I look at are what are the time constraints and the commitment for the students and the staff? (Principal, integrated)
If you’re wanting to do it with year 11 to 14, especially year 11 and 12, there’s hardly a week goes by where they’re not involved in some kind of controlled assessment […] I won’t take kids out of English and Maths or maybe even other GCSE subjects to do [research]. (Principal, voluntary other-managed grammar)
[I would immediately decline to take part in research projects] that are going to be very time-consuming … or, where projects put the onus on the school – ‘Could you get us a group? Here’s the list – could you go away and do it, and when you’re finished, could you bring it back to us and I’ll pick it up from you?’ and you’re like ‘What?!’ (Principal, integrated)
R: How important are monetary or other incentives, such as getting the Jack resource to use at the end?P: Very important. They would be the enticement to get you involved. It sounds very mercenary and I don’t mean to be mercenary in this day and age, but if I’m going to… if it’s going to be time and energy with students and staff and commitment, and if the benefits are not solely related to students and staff and outcomes, then there’s got to be a reason why you would do it. (Principal, integrated)I think more schools would take [participation] into consideration, especially given how tight budgets are getting. (Principal, Catholic maintained secondary)If somebody was coming in and saying […] ‘If you take part in this, we’re going to give you a thousand pounds’, you know, a thousand pounds directed to one specific thing to support pupils in school is quite a lot of money. But if somebody comes in and says, you know, ‘We’ll give you some money for this – here’s a hundred pounds’, well, that’s not going to be an incentive one way or the other. (Principal, voluntary other-managed grammar)
Pupils
Parents and guardians
My son was a little embarrassed by the subject matter being shown and discussed and requested that I did not attend.
Reason for not attending | Number (%) |
---|---|
I was unable to attend due to other commitments | 15 (68 %) |
It was not at a suitable time of day | 4 (8 %) |
I did not know about it | 2 (9 %) |
I did not need information on how to talk to my child about avoiding teenage pregnancy | 1 (5 %) |
I thought it might be embarrassing | 1 (5 %) |
It did not interest me | 1 (5 %) |
R: Why do you think other parents didn’t come?M1: [They] can’t talk about it.M2: Probably they didn’t have, part of it, didn’t have the time, part of it’s time, working…M1: Can’t talk about it, don’t … can’t deal with it.M2: And, again, as you said [indicating M1], for some, it’s just ‘bury your head in the sand’ type thing.M1: Yeah, they don’t want to talk about it.M3: Or they’ve already talked about it with their child and they don’t feel the need to go down that route again. (Parent focus group, Catholic maintained secondary)