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Children's voices are being heard loud and clear in Belfast

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The old adage that children should be seen but not heard appears to be becoming a thing of the past, at least in Northern Ireland, according to a new survey, with questions even being designed by children themselves. Around three out of four children who were polled felt that their views were sought and were taken seriously in their school on issues such as what they do in the classroom and how to make the school better, while four out of five children believed it was easy to give their views.

More than 3,700 final year primary school pupils across Northern Ireland responded to the online questionnaire designed to measure youngsters’ perceptions of how seriously their views are taken by adults in schools and within the wider community. The results of the survey will be unveiled in November as part of the national Festival of Social Science, organised by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

The survey suggests, however, that the wider community has some catching up to do. In response to the question 'In my community the adults ask me for my views', only around half the children agreed that this happened quite often, very often or always, while the other half said it happened seldom or never. Six out of ten children believed their views were taken seriously much of the time within the community.

The questionnaire was sent out as part of Kids' Life and Times, an annual online survey of final-year primary school children in Northern Ireland launched in 2008 that seeks children’s opinions on a range of issues relevant to them.

The questionnaire was designed by children themselves. Researchers from the Centre for Children's Rights (CCR) at Queen's University Belfast worked with six 10-year-old children from St Ita's Primary School in Belfast to develop the questionnaire as a way to measure children's participation rights within society.

"Over the last number of years we have developed and applied a children’s rights-based approach to a wide range of research projects," said Lesley Emerson, Deputy Director of the CCR. "This approach seeks to ensure that children are engaged actively in the research process from the design of the questions through to analysis and interpretation of findings. It ensures that children’s views and children’s perspectives are placed at the fore of our research."

The results of the survey will be unveiled at St Ita's Primary School and presented by the children involved on 6 November as part of the Festival of Social Science, where children, parents and teachers will be given the opportunity to discuss the findings of the survey.

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Notes for editors

  1. Event: Big Breakfast: findings Kids' Life and Times
    Organiser: Dr Katrina Lloyd
    Date: 6 November 2013 09.30-13.00
    Venue: St Ita's Primary School, 4 Alderwood Hill, Belfast BT8 6YY
    Audience: Schools
    Further information: Dr Katrina Lloyd www.ark.ac.uk/klt
  2. The Festival of Social Science is run by the Economic and Social Research Council and takes place from 2-9 November 2013. With events from some of the country's leading social scientists, the Festival celebrates the very best of British social science research and how it influences our social, economic and political lives - both now and in the future. This year's Festival of Social Science has over 170 creative and exciting events across the UK to encourage businesses, charities, government agencies, schools and college students to discuss, discover and debate topical social science issues. Press releases detailing some of the varied events and a full list of the programme are available at the Festival website. You can now follow updates from the Festival on Twitter using #esrcfestival.
  3. The Economic and Social Research Council is the UK's largest organisation for funding research on economic and social issues. It supports independent, high quality research which has an impact on business, the public sector and the third sector. The ESRC's total budget for 2012/13 is £205 million. At any one time the ESRC supports over 4,000 researchers and postgraduate students in academic institutions and independent research institutes.

Susie Watts 
Email: susie.watts@esrc.ac.uk 
Telephone: 01793 413119

The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)

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Economic and Social Research Council Festival of Social Science