Study title

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.Tellus is a national survey which gathers children and young people’s views on their life, their school and their local area. Findings from the survey were used to inform policy development and to measure progress and performance, at a local and national level, across the five Every Child Matters (ECM) outcomes. The Tellus Survey was originally developed to provide Ofsted with information for inspection events including the annual performance assessment and joint area review programmes. The first Tellus Survey was delivered as a pilot in a small number of LAs in 2006 before being developed as a national survey by Ofsted with support from the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) who wanted to use the survey data to inform five of its national indicators. The subsequent waves of the Tellus Survey (Tellus2 and Tellus3) were delivered by Ofsted in 2007 and 2008 respectively. These early surveys are not currently available from the UK Data Archive. The planned Tellus5 Survey mentioned in the documentation was cancelled. In October 2008, the DCSF commissioned the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), to develop and deliver the Tellus4 Survey. This survey was undertaken online by 253,755 children and young people in Years 6, 8 and 10 in 3,699 primary, secondary and special schools and Pupil Referral Units in the 2009 autumn term. A representative sample of 40 primary schools, 20 secondary schools, 4 special schools and 2 Pupil Referral Units were selected from across each of the 152 English local authorities to take part. Local authorities were also invited to extend this sample if they wished to, to include up to 60 primary schools and all secondary schools. Participating schools were asked to include a randomly selected class (one class of Year 6 pupils, two classes of Year 8 pupils and two classes of Year 10 pupils). Schools were however encouraged to extend this...