See the live dashboard for CensusAtSchool 2023-2024
News › 2011

Thanks so much to everyone who has taken part in CensusAtSchool so far…
We’re almost at 10,000 responses!

If you haven’t taken part yet, there’s still time. Please help us get the number of students taking part to be as big as possible.

We’d love your feedback if you’ve taken part so far – we’ll be doing a proper survey later in the year but if you have any little stories or feedback you can send in, I’d love to share it with everyone. Could you reply to this email with those?

Have a question? Email: censusatschoolnz@gmail.com

Facebook is Kiwi teens’ favourite social networking tool by a big margin, according to early results of the national online survey CensusAtSchool.

A total of 84% of the first 1800 teenagers surveyed said they have a Facebook page, compared to 33% in the last CensusAtSchool, in 2009.

The early results of the biannual educational project, which runs from May 2 – June 10, also show how fast once-popular social networking sites can crash from favour. Just 27% of the 13 to 18-year-old students surveyed have a Bebo page (down from 63% in 2009) and 7% a MySpace page (down from 17% in 2009).

“The numbers show how quickly social networking sites can go from hero to zero among teenagers,” says CensusAtSchool co-director Rachel Cunliffe, a University of Auckland-trained statistician and owner of several internet enterprises. “Young people are early adopters and they’re also fickle – they’ll go where their friends are going. And, of course, that means that although Facebook has the top spot among New Zealand teenagers at the moment, there’s no certainty that it will stay there.”

Cunliffe was surprised to see that hype about the rapid spread of the Twitter short-messaging system isn’t matched by usage – just 20% of the teenagers had a Twitter account.

Supervised by more than 700 teachers, thousands of students aged between 7 and 18 (Year 5 to Year 13) are answering 31 online questions about themselves, from their arm-span measurement to how they travel to school, and even how many hours’ sleep they had the night before.

This year’s CensusAtSchool also asks whether students think the All Blacks will make the Rugby World Cup final – and if so, against which team. The 15-minute survey is available in English and Māori.

CensusAtSchool is hosted by the Department of Statistics at the University of Auckland in association with Statistics New Zealand and the Ministry of Education. This is the fifth time New Zealand has held CensusAtSchool, which is also run in Australia, Canada, Ireland, Japan, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States.

“CensusAtSchool is about showing pupils the value of statistics in everyday life,” says Cunliffe. “Students and teachers will get data back that they will analyse together in the classroom, and that will provide even more learning opportunities.

“Students will also end with a unique view of themselves – and we’ll all have an insight into New Zealand life for young people that we couldn’t get in any other way.”

For more information on schools participating and any other inquiries, please contact Rachel Cunliffe (CensusAtSchool co-director) on 027 3833 746 or visit http://www.censusatschool.org.nz

3 News video

TV3 tonight?

Unfortunately we were notified at the very last minute that the CensusAtSchool story was pulled from 3 News last night due to the late breaking Osama bin Laden news yesterday which took up a lot of the news hour.

We hope that the story will screen on 3 News tonight!

Welcome back… we’re SO excited that CensusAtSchool launches today!!!

Please get your students to take part by visiting: censusatschool.org.nz
(Make sure you register first – you’ll be automatically emailed a code for your class to use.)

FAQ

When can my students take part?
Any time during school hours from May 2 – June 10

What should I do to prepare beforehand?
Read through the Making Measures document

Help! I can’t find my registration code, what do I do?
Simply re-register

Have another question?

Email: censusatschoolnz@gmail.com

For urgent inquiries, phone Rachel Cunliffe: 027 3833 746

We’ll get back to you quickly!

3 News story

Just a quick note to let you know a story on CensusAtSchool is being filmed right now for 3 News tonight!

We’ll let you know the link when it’s up online too, but thought you might like to tune in and tell your students!

The Press is running a story today on CensusAtSchool.

New Zealand pupils returning to school next Monday will be taking part in an international children’s census.

The Year 5-10 students will be taking all sorts of measurements – from the length of their hair and fingers to the weight of their school bags – for CensusAtSchool, an educational project hosted by the Department of Statistics at the University of Auckland in association with Statistics New Zealand and the Ministry of Education. This is the fifth time CensusAtSchool has been held in New Zealand, and it is also run in Australia, Canada, Ireland, Japan, South Africa, UK and USA says the project’s co-director Rachel Cunliffe.

Although the Statistics New Zealand’s national 2011 Census which had been planned for March 8 was not held in the wake of Christchurch’s February 22 earthquake, the online CensusAtSchool, a separate initiative, has been able to continue says Cunliffe.

“CensusAtSchool is about teaching pupils the value of statistics in everyday life. The data will be analysed together in the classroom, and they’ll end up with a unique view of themselves – and we’ll all have an insight into New Zealand life for young people that we couldn’t get in any other way.”

Cunliffe says the CensusAtSchool, to be run by over 700 teachers will also test the pupils’ memory and reaction skills through two simple games. They will also be asked to predict which two teams will come out on top in this year’s Rugby World Cup and the teams’ scores.

Cunliffe says pupils will also be quizzed on their favourite school subject and that of their mothers. When the data is returned to them to use in the classroom, they’ll be able to explore whether there’s any connections between the two sets of preferences.

It’s almost the end of the term and we know you’re looking forward to a well-earned lovely two week break!!

We just wanted to remind you that it’s time to take part in CensusAtSchool when you get back.

3 things you can do now:

  1. Register if you haven’t already
  2. Book in computer lab time for your class if needed
  3. Download and read the teacher information pack (Word file)
  4. Oh and… please spread the word to other teachers!

Stay tuned for more updates.

Preview the 2011 questions!

You can now preview the questions for this year’s CensusAtSchool:

http://www.censusatschool.org.nz/2011/questions/

New questions include:

Asking the students for their mother’s favourite learning area when she was at school (in addition to their own favourite learning area). It will be fun to explore if there are any patterns between these two!

A matching pairs memory game. Who’s the fastest?

Rugby World cup predictions – which teams will be in the final and what will be the final score?

Let us know what you think of these!