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April 2006 CensusAtSchool Newsletter - Edition No. 10
Contents
The Questionaire: A tale of Two Schools
Handy Hints From Teachers Who Have Done The Questionnaire
What Teachers are Saying ...
Looking for a bit of extra work?
The Questionnaire: A Tale of Two Schools
Schools from all over Australia are taking part in CensusAtSchool, but what is actually happening with the project in the classroom? The following are some experiences from schools that have already completed the questionnaire.
Brisbane State High School
 Darren McGregor, a teacher from Brisbane State High School, has organised over 500 students to fill out the online CensusAtSchool questionnaire. He describes the value of the CensusAtSchool questionnaire in the following way:
“Students get to see first hand the way data is collected with an online survey. Students are studying statistics and statistical literacy within our courses here and they dissected the whole process surrounding the questionnaire and the reason for the questionnaire as part of their studies.”
McGregor hopes that students feel 'connected' with the survey questions and data, since the teachers at Brisbane State High School plan to use the data sets that result from the CensusAtSchool project as "starting points for analysing and presenting data in meaningful ways."
Happy Valley Primary
 In South Australia, Happy Valley Primary School teachers D’Arcy Jones and Simon Mueller coordinated their grade 6/7 classes to complete the questionnaire, and describe how the students found the experience:
“The student responses to the different questions and the personal reaction tests were that they had a lot of fun and were very interested in the results coming out … There was a lot of comparing answers with one another.”
Happy Valley Primary School plan to use the CensusAtSchool project to educate their wider community. “We are now all looking forward to checking the results with other schools after July 11th and helping our parents understand the purpose of the actual Census in August.”
Over 2400 schools have registered to take part in this national online project. Teachers and schools are now encouraged to get as many students as possible to complete questionnaires, an idea supported by Darren McGregor, “I think the more students that get involved, the more use it will be. I am sure that students get value from programs like this.”
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Registered Schools |
as at 01/03/06 |
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ACT | 46 |
NSW | 726 |
NT | 34 |
Qld. | 386 |
SA | 265 |
Tas. | 80 |
Vic. | 661 |
WA | 257 |
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Total: | 2,455 |
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Handy Hints From Teachers Who Have Done The Questionnaire
Here are some handy hints from practising teachers on how to successfully complete CensusAtSchool Questionnaire with your students:
Advice from Darren McGregor:
Generate SAN's and then distribute individual lists to teachers to use with their class
“The Student Access Numbers (SAN’s) were distributed in lots of 30 to each class that was involved on the first day. I copied these SAN’s from the ABS website to a MS Word document and then gave these to the teachers. Some teachers decided to cut the sheet into 30 strips and distribute them to the students, while others went around and gave it to students individually and crossed them off as they went.”
Create more SANs after several classes have completed the questionnaire
“The ... only concern was that I could only access 300 SAN’s at any one time. I waited until most of these were used and then applied for more and distributed these with any unused ones.”
Advice from D’Arcy Jones and Simon Mueller:
Print and distribute SANs to students and get them to stick them in their diary/excersise book
“We would … advise teachers to print out the student access codes and give one to each student to stick in their diaries. This avoids the awkward question later; "What is my code? I've forgotten it."
Organise students to find out their height, foot length and belly button height for homework.
“To make the task of gathering the information easier we printed a copy of the questionnaire and students were given some of the measuring tasks as homework assignments.”
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What Teachers are Saying...
"This is a terrific site, links are clear, information is clear - it is a very good resource for teachers..."
- Jennifer Johnson - Southern Cross Primary School, Victoria, Leading Teacher
“I think the teachers enjoy the variety programs such as CensusAtSchool introduce into the standard curriculum.”
- St Joseph’s Principal, Patricia Spannagle
"We are a small school with 8 senior students participating in the project. They have all done their questionnaire. Very easy for us as they all have a laptop. We did it as part of their reading. The project fits well with the Quality Teaching Framework for NSW schools."
- Sue Hobbs, Bungwahl Primary School Principal
" [the students] appreciated the opportunity to use real 'live' data in their studies."
- Christopher Meadows, Westside Christian College School Principal
To submit your comments, please send an email to: censusatschool@abs.gov.au
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Looking for a bit of extra work?
 The first stage of the massive recruitment drive for the 8 August Census has been completed. About 3,500 Area Supervisors have been employed across the nation.
Now the Australian Bureau of Statistics is looking for about 26,000 Census Collectors Australia-wide to help deliver and collect Census forms to 10 million households.
Applicants are particularly being sort in rural, regional and inner city areas.
Collector recruitment will begin on 8 April. Collectors are employed from 30 June until September 9.
Collectors work part-time and will require their own vehicles. The majority of Collectors will earn between $800 and $1,500, depending on the workload.
Census information is used for a range of planning purposes by all levels of government, private institutions and the community.
 To apply for a position go to www.abs.gov.au/recruitment or ring 1300 236 787. Collectors will be recruited from 8 April. |
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| If you have any questions or general CensusAtSchool project enquiries, please contact the ABS, National Education Service Unit, CensusAtSchool Team by email censusatschool@abs.gov.au or on free call 1800 623 273 between 9:00am and 5:00pm (AEST) Monday to Friday. |  |
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