Active School Travel Survey
About the survey
- Active travel means getting around using your own body, including walking, using a wheelchair or scooter, or riding a bike.
- Active Travel England (ATE) has asked the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) to evaluate ways to help children travel actively to school.
Why take part and what will it involve?
The survey findings will help ATE make walking, wheeling and cycling to school easier and safer for children.
Your school will have sent you a link to a short online survey. You can use this link to answer the questions until 31st August 2026.
- It takes about 10 minutes.
- Taking part is your choice.
- There are no right or wrong answers.
- You only need to complete the survey once, even if you have more than one child.
The survey will include questions about:
- How your child travels to school
- What you think about changes to help children travel actively
- What helps or makes it hard to walk, wheel or cycle
As a thank you for taking part, your school will receive a £30 Love2Shop voucher when the survey ends in August 2026. If 50 parents and carers of pupils in your school take part, then your school will receive a £75 Love2Shop voucher instead.
Why have I been selected to take part?
Your child’s school has been selected to take part in an important government evaluation on active school travel. Schools have been selected in areas with schemes to improve walking, wheeling and cycling to school, and some without. We are writing to invite parents and carers of pupils in reception, year 1, year 5 and year 6 at your school to complete a short online survey about their child’s travel behaviour and attitudes.
Who is carrying out the survey?
NatCen is an independent organisation that carries out research studies to find out about what people think, feel and do. This information is used by government and others to make better decisions and policies. You can find out more about NatCen at www.natcen.ac.uk.
Sheffield Hallam University is a public research university that will be working alongside NatCen throughout the evaluation.
What will happen to the information I give?
The information collected in this evaluation will only be used for research purposes. If we collect your email address, it will only be used to share with you the results of the survey if you agree and to invite you to future research.
No pupil, parent/carer, or school will be named or identified in any reports from this survey. Your school will not be able to see your answers.
The information you give will be treated as confidential as directed by the Code of Practice for Statistics. Data collected will be stored securely on NatCen's secure computer system in line with UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018. Only the NatCen research team will have access to the data in its raw and aggregate form.
You can read more about how we collect, share, and store data, and how you can withdraw from the evaluation, in the project’s privacy notice.
All data will be stored safely and follow UK data protection law (UK GDPR). NatCen will permanently delete any personal details within 12 months after the final stage of the evaluation project (no later than December 2027).
Contact us
Project Email: ASTSurvey@natcen.ac.uk