Survey ResultsSurvey Results

Ireland

Surveys Completed

Ireland has the smallest percentage of surveys completed. We believe this is because we had problems accessing computers and we have a small school population.( under 500)

Subject : Maths

Our maths results are very similar. We believe the curriculum is similar in all schools. Also there is a percentage of the worlds population who are mathematically minded.

Native language

Irish people find our native language more difficult because it is taught as a second language in most schools. In Gaeltacht areas it is the first language and there are also Irish schools. There is a lack on interesting resources eg films, books etc.

Science

Ireland has a higher percentage who do not like Science. Science is an elective subject and some students do not get their favoured options . Some students doing the survey would not do science as a subject.

Social Science

We feel we cannot comment as the curriculum varies through each school and even within our school some students would have different opinions as to which subject make up social science.

History

We think more Irish people enjoy history as it is taught in an interesting way in primary schools so students come into secondary with an open mind. We have a broad range of films and historical novels. Ireland also has an interesting social and political history.

Computer Studies

We are living in a computer age and our computer facilities are on a par with most of our partner schools. Computer studies is not a school subject generally and so it is often a novelty for a student to use a computer to work on school work or projects.

Foreign Language

There is a great incentive for other students to learn English as it is used all around the world,. There are also great resources for other countries to learn English eg films, pop songs. In Ireland most students begin to learn a foreign language in secondary school so it is new and interesting. However there is not a great incentive to learn it.

Handicraft

We feel that more students enjoy handicrafts as it is an elective subject so students are in the class by choice. Also Ireland has a historic tradition of handicrafts, like knitting, sewing, crochet, carpentry, metal work, pottery.

P.E

Sports are very popular within our school. We have good facilities and a broad range of activities, for example we have a fully equipped gym and a wide range of sports equipment. We have many school sports teams and participate in leagues and competition with other schools.

Religion

There is a big difference here. More Irish students like religion class. Traditionally religion is very important in Ireland . It features in our school curriculum, but our religion classes are not exclusively about religious topics,. We discuss topics such as suicide and sex education. We learn a lot about other world religions as well as about our most common religion, Catholicism.

Spare time: School Work

Irelands results concur with the overall results. We think that homework is a universal thing, that all teenagers deal with it in the same ways, for example the number 5 (always) is below 10% on both graphs, because students would not spend all their free time working, the number 1 is bigger but still quite small as students will all do some work, the most popular choice number 3 shows that teenagers find a balance in their schoolwork and personal life.

Videogames

Irelands results are almost equal to the overall results. A few more Irish students did play videogames, videogames are universal and things like the Xbox allow people to play games with each other all over the world.

Computer Games

We can see from these results that computer games are not very popular. They are no longer a luxury or a novelty.

Social Media

Irelands results are almost equal with the overall results. We have a few more students that spend a lot of time on social networks but that is universal, they are a way to communicate with friends and family all over the world,. Even in this project we are able to speak to each other using social media, to stay in touch and prepare work for this project.

Sport

Again the Irish result are similar to the overall results. Sports is international and each country and school has there own type of sport. Irish sports are things such as Gaelic football and hurling, which is the fastest sport in the world. In our school basketball is the biggest sport , our boys team has been national champions 3 years in a row, also in our school we have 3 members of the Ireland under 18 football team. One of our female students represents Ireland at international BMX championships.

Time with friends

The results are almost equal here, we believe this is because , especially in teen years, friends are important to everybody. We will all always make time for our friends. We think that maybe family should have been included in this question as in Ireland and other countries time with family is also very important.

Reading

These are disappointing results, but in modern society young people are too interested in things like Facebook and TV to read. Young people need to reintroduced to reading, They see it as work because it is done in school,. In the Irish school system novels need to be read, studied and analysed. This can take the fun out of reading and discourage people.

Writing

Again these are disappointing results, but writing outside school may not seen as appealing as students spend a whole day in school writing and don't want to go home to write more. Ireland has a rich history of poets, writers and storytellers . Creative writing is still popular among our students.

Drawing

These results are understandable as drawing and other arts are talents, young people generally wouldn’t spend time on something unless they are good at it. Our school encourages art work in our students with work shops and competitions. We feel this should have been called arts as that would included things like music, craft works and painting and other forms of artistic expression.

What do you normally read?

The results on what people read show that a lot of people would read online as well as the traditional hand held book.

How often do you read?The results seem about even and promising as most people surveyed read everyday which is what we want to promote.

How much time do you spend reading?

We can see from the results that most students spend under an hour reading, this may be because young people only have a short amount of time to spend reading between school work and work at home.

Where do you read?

The fact that in bed is the most popular decision shows that most people read before they go to sleep.

How do you read?

We can see from the results that that reading the traditional way is still the most popular choice, but modern ways of reading such as kindles are used as well.

What genre do you read?These results are really diverse, as every person has their own taste so we cannot generalise genre preference.

How many novels have you read in the last 3/6/12 months?

The Irish students have a slightly higher percentage of books read, we attribute this to the book reading initiative that is happening in our school at the time of the survey. Students were challenged to read 3 books in 3 weeks

What was your reason for reading?

Within these results it is great to see so many people thought that reading for school was also fun, we want to encourage more of this thinking and for young people to read more just for fun.

What language do you prefer to read in?

Ireland’s results for reading in the native language are low. This is because Ireland’s native language, Irish, is a second language to most of our population. Most Irish people read mainly in English, which is the most widely spoken language in Ireland.

Have you ever read a “talking” book?

A talking book is not very common as they are specialised, expensive and hard to find.