Dear Parent/Carer
The School Health Research Network is led by Cardiff University in partnership with the Welsh Government and Public Health Wales. Every two years, learners attending secondary schools in the Network are invited to take part in The SHRN Student Health and Well-being Survey. The information collected in the survey is used to compile a bespoke report for each school, which supports their work to improve their learners’ health and well-being. Importantly, no individual learner can ever be identified within this report as only aggregate data is shared.
Our school is taking part in The SHRN Student Health and Well-being Survey this term. The survey is being managed by Ipsos on behalf of Cardiff University and is completed on-line under the supervision of a member of school staff. It contains questions on health behaviours, including diet, physical activity, smoking, alcohol, drugs, school life and relationships. Learners in Year 9 and above only will be asked a small number of questions relating to sexual behaviour. Each learner chooses whether or not they want to complete the survey and they can omit any question they do not want to answer.
At the end of the survey, learners are invited to give their name, date of birth and postcode for the purpose of data linkage research. This enables researchers to connect survey responses across different rounds of the two-yearly survey, in order to investigate how and why health and well-being change through adolescence. It also allows answers to be anonymously linked to other data that is routinely collected about them by trusted organizations like the NHS and Welsh Government such as GP appointments and GCSE results. Read more about data linkage in this leaflet.
It is made clear to learners that this is voluntary, and they do not have to provide this information if they do not want to. The school will show learners a video recording about this, which you can view here: www.shrn.org.uk/gdpr along with further information about data linkage. If you cannot access the video or website, please email shrn@cardiff.ac.uk or contact your school to request a leaflet.
All data will be treated in accordance with the Data Protection Act (2018) and the General Data Protection Regulations, and you can read our data privacy notice here: www.shrn.org.uk/gdpr. The survey is strictly confidential unless a learner response raises concerns about their welfare, in which case we will notify the school’s safeguarding officer if we have the learner’s name. Cardiff University use the survey data to compile The SHRN Student Health and Well-being Reports and for research into adolescent health.
These Student Health and Well-being Reports contain only aggregated data, eg the percentage of Year 7 boys who eat breakfast daily.
I hope that you will be happy for your child to take part. If you have any queries, or would like to withdraw your child from the survey or from data linkage research, please notify me via the school email stcenyddschool@sch.caerphilly.gov.uk as soon as possible and by the deadline of 20 November 2025.
Yours sincerely
Mr Lee Dickinson
Assistant Headteacher
