FAQs for mothers, fathers and carers
How do I take part now?
How was I chosen for this study?
What's involved?
Your child
The online or telephone interview
What if I only live with my child some of the time or my child lives at a different address to me?
What if I need help to complete the survey?
Will anyone know what I say?
How will teachers and schools be involved?
Who is carrying out the study?
Who has approved this research?
What will happen to the information I give?
Do I have to take part?
What if I change my mind after the interview?
Where can I use my voucher?
Who do I contact if I still have questions, want to seek further information, or verify the research?
How do I take part now?
If you’ve been invited to this study, you should have received a letter and leaflet explaining how to take part. If you can’t find these, you can find them at the Documents for Participating Families page. Alternatively, get in touch with us at Freephone 0800 652 4568, or at FiveToTwelve@natcen.ac.uk.
You can also visit our Taking Part page where you can click on the link to start your survey online.
How was I chosen for this study?
You will have been invited to Five to Twelve if your family very kindly took part in the study in its first year (2023-2024) when your child was in Year 1, or if you are now the primary caregiver for a child who is enrolled in the study. Now in its second year, Five to Twelve is a longitudinal study, which is following children as they go through primary school in England.
The study is looking at the experiences of children and their families all over England. We are now inviting families to the second year of Five to Twelve, now that their children are a year older and in Year 2 of primary school (children no longer enrolled at school can still take part). These children and families are part of a group that will represent all children in their particular age group. Children were randomly selected from the National Pupil Database (NPD), held by the Department for Education, which holds details of all pupils in state education in England.
Around 8,500 families took part in Year 1 of Five to Twelve. Thousands of teachers also very kindly took part.
What's involved?
We would like to invite you to an online questionnaire, which should take between 15 and 30 minutes. To do this, you can use your own personal access code (included on the email and/or letter sent to you) to access the questionnaire here: survey.natcen.ac.uk/FiveToTwelveY2
If you are not able to participate online, don't worry - we may call you to invite you to take part over the phone. You can also call us to let us know if you would prefer to take part over the phone, on 0800 652 4568.
It’s important for us to include views from all perspectives of a child’s life. Therefore, like last year, we will also invite your child’s other parent(s) / carer(s) to take part. We will ask you to confirm their details when you start the questionnaire.
Five to Twelve is a longitudinal study, which means we will ask you to tell us how your child is getting on over several years. This means we will be following up with you again as your child gets older.
Taking part is completely voluntary. If you do take part, you can choose not to answer any question, and you can change your mind and withdraw from the study at any time.
We will get back in touch with you when it is time to take part again. Please let us know here if your contact details change.
Your child
In the first year of Five to Twelve, we chose your child at random using data from the Department for Education’s National Pupil Database. This is to make sure we have a truly representative picture of primary school children in England throughout the study. After you took part in the first year of Five to Twelve, we are following up now that your child is older. Your child and your family’s views are extremely important to us: your child cannot be replaced by another child. Every child in the study is unique and we are looking forward to hearing how things are going for you and your family as your child grows up.
The online or telephone interview
You can easily go online to do the interview using the access code and link provided on your invitation letter or email.
There’s no need to prepare for the interview. You don’t need any special knowledge, we just want to find out about the lives of you and your child, and their experiences of school. Most people enjoy taking part.
Topics covered in this interview include:
- Your child’s infancy, including childcare, such as birth weight and health before the age of five
- Your child’s experience of school
- Their activities, such as after-school clubs, outside of school
- Their health and any special educational needs
- The home environment and time spent together
- Use of technology in the household
- Parenting styles and relationships with other parents
- Your health
- Family finances, living situation and public services
Your questionnaire may not contain all these topics, as some might be answered by a different parent of your child.
What if I only live with my child some of the time or my child lives at a different address to me?
As part of this study, we are really interested in understanding how all mothers, fathers and and carer’s in children’s lives make a difference. So we are really keen to hear from all parents involved in a child’s life, even if the child doesn’t live with you or just lives with you some of the time. Up to three parents can take part for each child. We would like to ask Own Household Parents – that is, fathers or mothers of a child whose main address is somewhere other than the address provided to us by the Department for Education or yourselves – to also complete a short web questionnaire. The survey will ask about your education and employment, health and wellbeing, behaviours and your family relationships.
Participating in the survey will not affect the contact you have with your child. No information about whether or not you participate, or any details of anything you say, will be passed to your child or their other parent. Everything stays strictly confidential.
What if I need help to complete the survey?
If you need help to complete the survey, please call us on 0800 652 4568. You can complete the survey over the phone if you prefer, just let us know.
Will anyone know what I say?
Each person will take part in the study separately and will not know about the responses given by anyone else in the study.
All answers will be kept confidential and anonymous, and shared only with researchers working on the study. It’s up to you if you want to talk to other people about what you tell us.
How will teachers and schools be involved?
If you, as the child’s mother/father/carer, give us your permission, we will also contact your child’s teacher to ask them some questions. This is so that we can ask them about the child’s experiences at school, which will help us get a more complete picture of their life and understand how school impacts on children’s experiences. You can still be part of the study without agreeing to your child’s teacher taking part.
Who is carrying out the study?
The study is being carried out by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen), the largest independent social research organisation in Britain, commissioned by the Department for Education (DfE). We work in collaboration with the National Children’s Bureau (NCB) and the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER).
Who has approved this research?
The study has been reviewed by an independent group of people called a Research Ethics Committee, to protect your safety, rights, wellbeing and dignity. This study has been given ethical approval by the NatCen Research Ethics Committee A (Reference no. P17959).
What will happen to the information I give?
Once we have collected all the answers from everyone who takes part, they will be looked at together as a group, anonymously. By this, we mean that there will be no names attached to the answers, and we will not know which person said what. We will then write up the findings into published reports. To make the answers you give us even more useful we will attach them to data held by your child’s school. Just like with the other information you give us; this will be done in such a way so that you can’t be identified in the data. There are more details in our privacy notice.
Do I have to take part?
No. We really hope that you will take part and give your views but if you don’t want to, that’s fine. You can stop the interview at any point.
What if I change my mind after I complete the survey?
If you change your mind after completing the survey, or if you no longer want your information to be processed, please get in touch with us as soon as possible using our contact details.
In these cases, it may be possible to remove individual responses. However, in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), where your data is processed under Article 6(1)(e) “processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller”, requests to withdraw your answers at a later date (for example, months or years after the interview) will not be possible. Attempts at withdrawing your information later on would impair the analysis of the results in a robust and consistent way, and therefore reduce the functionality of the study.
Where can I use my voucher?
Your Love2Shop voucher can be spent in a wide range of over 80 high street brands across the UK, including Argos, Boots and M&S. A full list is available at http://www.love2shop.co.uk/.
If you have a physical gift card, this is activated and ready to use when you receive it. If you have a digital e-gift card, you will need to activate this at https://www.love2shoprewards.co.uk/login.php.
Who do I contact if I still have questions, want to seek further information, or verify the research?
As the study progresses, we will keep in touch with study families and will send you updates about what we have found out so far.
The National Centre for Social Research are delivering the study and can answer any questions you may have about the research and your participation. You can contact us using our contact details.
To contact the Department for Education, you can call the main helpline on 0370 000 2288 (Mon-Fri, 9.30am-5pm) or submit your question online at the Gov.uk website. Please quote Five to Twelve study.