This post is written by Corinna Geppert

Some months ago I wrote a blog post called “When numbers turn into meaning…”. At this time we had just launched our WAVE 1 survey report . This report included data from over 2300 students in TALE schools all over the country. I was very excited about it and even more excited about the fact that there was to be another round of data collection. This second wave would tell us how good our early results were.

This time we had more students completing paper and pencil questionnaires rather than online surveys. This meant that there were many, many boxes filled with questionnaires stored in our office. And all this data had to be entered. This might sound to be a really boring task, but in fact, it is quite interesting. When I enter the data I already get a feeling about it.

Some patterns began to emerge while I was doing the data-entry, and I got to know each school even better. The data told me for instance that there are some areas where specific sports activities are really popular and students seem to be enthusiastic about them – regardless of their gender – like rugby or football. And there are some areas where students are really keen on getting involved in cultural activities in their hometown. And there are other areas where it seems to be hard for students to get involved in any cultural activities outside of school at all.

All of these insights are now combined in the final survey report. The final report uses data from 4.500 students, collected in 2016/17 and 2017/18, in TALE schools all over the country.

Some of the main findings are:

1. Students are enthusiastic audience members – they attend live music events, cinemas, dance performances and art museums regularly and they are interested in arts learning out of school. Many join arts groups and enjoy performing.
2. Students are creative in their spare time as they create stories, plays or poems on their own, write and create music or even create computer games. Photography, drawing or painting are quite popular activities and about one out of four students regularly engaged in crafts activities.
3. One out of two students says that engagement in the arts promotes a sense of personal wellbeing. It helps them to relax and relieve stress.
4. School has a significant impact on students’ engagement with the arts. One out of two students says that school supports their interest in the arts. School is also the place where almost all arts engagement takes place (more than one out of three students agreed to this proposition in the survey).
5. Families are also important in encouraging young people’s engagement in the arts. Overall, more than one out of three students think their family supports their interest in the arts. However, about one out of four students do not receive encouragement from their families.
6. The arts feature strongly in students’ plans for the future. More than one out of three students plan to continue to participate in the arts in their own time. More than one out of four students have plans to study an arts subject and another quarter hope to get a job in the arts.

You can download and read the full report here. Overall_School_Report_16_05_2018