Children and Young People Active Lives Survey

Active Lives Children and Young People Survey gives anyone working with children aged 5-16 key insight to help understand children's attitudes and behaviours around sport and physical activity.

Children sat in chairs in a sports hall playing boccia

What is the Children and Young People Active Lives survey?

Active Lives is a national survey, commissioned by Sport England, providing a world-leading approach to gathering data on how children and young people engage with physical activity and sport.

By growing our understanding of young people’s attitudes and behaviours towards physical activity and sport, we are all in a better position to shape high-quality opportunities for them to be active.

The latest survey (academic year 2022/23) found that 32.2% of children and young people in Greater Manchester are doing less than 30 minutes of physical activity a day.

If your school has been selected to take part - visit our Participating Schools webpage.

How does the survey work?

Further details please contact

  • Approximately eight schools per borough, per term are chosen to take part in the survey.
  • Each school has three year groups randomly chosen to complete the survey which are sent to the school then they're informed that they have been selected.
  • One class from each year group is then randomly selected in partnership with the school teacher and Greater Manchester Moving.

How your school benefits:

  • Taking part in the survey makes schools eligible to receive a Healthy Schools Rating. The Department for Education Healthy Schools Rating celebrates the positive actions of schools to promote physical activity and healthy eating whilst identifying the next steps for schools to further improve their provisions. You can opt in to the survey to be eligible to receive your rating.

Find out more about the Active Lives survey:

  • Schools who are part of the random sample will also be eligible for vouchers for sports and wellness equipment from ESPO. The 2021/22 brochure is available here.
  • All schools who take part will receive a school report based on their results, provided enough responses are received. Reports are created dependent on the years surveyed, with separate reports for infants, primary and secondary schools. The requirements for receiving a report can be found here. 

Case Studies:

Irlam Endowed Primary School in Salford improved their school sport and physical activity provision by utilising the results of the CYP Active Lives survey. 

Find out how they used the results to improve their provision here.

Watch the video below to learn how The Valley Community School fitted the CYP Active Lives survey into their school day.