Form questions
School climate survey questions for students
Twenty four questions is a full annual round and ten is what a single year level will finish in a lesson. Three cannot be dropped: how safe the student feels in each named place, whether there is an adult at school they would go to with a problem, and whether they feel they belong. Everything else explains those three.
A school climate survey asks students what the place is actually like, in words a twelve year old reads the same way an eighteen year old does. Safety is asked place by place rather than in general, because that is how it is experienced.
The questions
About you
What year are you in?DropdownRequired
The only identifier the survey should hold, and it is reported only above a set floor.
How long have you been at this school?Single choice
This is my first year, a couple of years, most of my schooling.
How do you usually get to school?Single choice
It gives the travel safety question below something to attach to.
Feeling safe
How safe do you feel in class?Rating gridRequired
Row one of a grid running never safe, sometimes safe, usually safe, always safe.
How safe do you feel in the yard at recess and lunch?Rating gridRequired
Row two.
How safe do you feel in the corridors between classes?Rating gridRequired
Row three.
How safe do you feel in the toilets and change rooms?Rating gridRequired
Row four. Consistently the lowest scoring place in secondary school climate surveys.
How safe do you feel getting to and from school?Rating gridRequired
Row five.
In the last month, how often has someone at school said or done something that upset you?Single choice
Never through most days, plus prefer not to say.
If that happened, did an adult at school do something about it?Single choice
It separates a school where nothing is reported from one where reports go nowhere.
In the last month, have you seen another student being treated badly?Single choice
Bystander questions produce higher and more honest numbers than self report ones.
Do you know what to do if something happens online between students?Single choice
Respect and belonging
Students here treat each other with respectRating gridRequired
Row one of a frequency grid: never, sometimes, often, always.
Teachers treat students fairlyRating gridRequired
Row two.
People here accept students who are different from themRating gridRequired
Row three.
I have at least one friend I can rely on at schoolRating gridRequired
Row four.
I feel like I belong at this schoolRating gridRequired
Row five, and the single row most worth trending year on year.
Is there an adult at school you would go to if you had a problem?Single choiceRequired
More than one, one, not sure, no. A short list with no middle comfort option.
Are the school rules applied the same way to everyone?Single choice
Consistency is what students mean by fairness, and it is asked here directly.
How often do you look forward to coming to school?Single choice
Learning and support
Do teachers explain things in a way you understand?Single choice
Can you get help with schoolwork when you need it?Single choice
What would you change
Which of these would make school better for you?Multiple choice
More yard supervision, somewhere quiet at lunch, faster responses, clearer rules, more to do, or nothing needs changing.
What is one thing you would change about this school?Long text
Say in the label that nobody should be named.
Which questions to make required
This survey is anonymous, carries no name field and records only the year level, which is reported above a stated floor. Three things are required: both grids, because a partly completed grid cannot be averaged, and the question about having an adult to go to, which is the single most actionable answer in the instrument. Nothing about being upset, seeing others treated badly or what the student would change is required, and every one of those questions offers a prefer not to say option or can simply be skipped.
- What year are you in?
- How safe do you feel in class?
- How safe do you feel in the yard at recess and lunch?
- How safe do you feel in the corridors between classes?
- How safe do you feel in the toilets and change rooms?
- How safe do you feel getting to and from school?
- Students here treat each other with respect
- Teachers treat students fairly
- People here accept students who are different from them
- I have at least one friend I can rely on at school
- I feel like I belong at this school
- Is there an adult at school you would go to if you had a problem?
The form built from these questions
A static copy of a form built from part of the bank, exactly as it renders.
How to change this for a different age group or audience
A primary school. Cut it to twelve questions, read them aloud, and replace the four point safety grid with three plain options. Drop the corridors row, which means nothing in a primary setting, and add one about the walk between the classroom and the toilets. Ask about having someone to play with rather than about belonging, because that is the same construct in language a seven year old can answer. A staff version of the same survey. Ask teachers the same respect and fairness rows so the two sets of answers can be laid side by side. The gap is the finding: staff almost always rate the yard safer and the rules more consistent than students do, and a school that measures only one side never sees it. A parent version. Parents cannot report the corridors or the toilets, so ask what they observe instead: whether their child seems safe, whether they hear about incidents from the school or from the child, and whether they believe a report would be acted on. Run all three versions in the same fortnight and report them together, because the value is in the comparison rather than in any single set of numbers.
Questions people ask
How should the wording change for younger students?
Short sentences, one idea each, and no negatives to agree with. Never safe to always safe is easier to answer than a disagreement scale, and it reads the same way to a Year 7 student and a Year 12 student, which is what lets one instrument cover a whole secondary school.
Can a school climate survey be anonymous?
It has to be, or the answers about respect and safety are worthless. Year level is enough to act on, and a reporting floor of twenty responses per year level keeps small cohorts unidentifiable. Say the floor on the last screen, because students assume the school can identify them otherwise.
What if a student discloses something serious?
An anonymous survey cannot be a disclosure channel, so the first screen has to say where to go instead and the last screen has to repeat it. Name the wellbeing office and its hours rather than a generic instruction to tell a teacher, and have someone available on the day the survey runs.
Should students complete it in class?
Yes, in a supervised lesson with the screen turned away from other students, which is the only way to get a response rate worth analysing. Email surveys to secondary students routinely return under fifteen per cent, and the students who answer are not the ones the survey was written for.
Why ask about specific places?
Because safety is not experienced as a general feeling. Corridors, toilets and the trip to and from school score very differently from classrooms, and only a grid finds out where the problem is. A single how safe do you feel question produces a reassuring average and no action.
Is the bystander question better than asking directly?
It is a useful complement. Students under report what happened to them and report what they saw more readily, so asking both gives a fuller picture. Neither number is a prevalence measure, and neither should be presented as one in a report to a school board.
What should happen after the survey?
Pick the lowest scoring place on the safety grid, change something about it, and tell students what changed and why. A school that publishes a chart and does nothing teaches a cohort that the survey is decoration, and the following year response rate will say so.
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