Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance Use Survey (SALSUS): Mode Effect Study Report 2015

Appendix A: Head Teacher advance letters

Letter for school delivering online administration

Dear Head teacher

Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance Use Survey ( SALSUS) 2015

We are writing to ask you for your support in connection with the Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance Use Survey ( SALSUS). The Director of Education for your local authority has confirmed that they are happy for us to approach schools to participate in the survey.

The survey

SALSUS is the Scottish Government's main source of information on alcohol, drug and tobacco use among Scotland's young people and has been running since 1982. It is vital to the Scottish Government, with data from the survey acting as the official measures of progress towards targets for reducing smoking and drug use, and to monitor their priority of addressing harmful drinking. The Scottish Government has commissioned Ipsos MORI to undertake the latest wave of SALSUS in the autumn of this year.

While in previous waves SALSUS has been carried out on paper, in this autumn's wave it will be administered online for the first time. We've piloted this approach to ensure that it runs as smoothly as possible and, in the process, found that pupils tended to prefer completing the survey online.

If you would like more information on SALSUS, including previous findings, free teaching resources and a copy of the most recent questions, please see the study website: www.ipsos-mori.com/salsus.

Survey administration

The research comprises an online survey for Secondary 2 and Secondary 4 pupils and should be administered during an appropriate mixed ability class, such as PSE, under 'exam conditions'. Pupils will be able to complete the survey in a single school period. The survey does not require a researcher to visit the school, and a set of materials will be provided for each class that contain a survey link, anonymous pupil login details, instructions for administering the survey, parent consent forms and pupil information leaflets.

Confidentiality

All responses are completely confidential: neither individual schools nor pupils will be identified in the reporting of the data. To enable analysis of the data by different types of area, pupils will be asked for their postcode. However, they do not have to provide this if they do not want to. The parent consent form informs them about this.

What happens next?

A member of the Ipsos MORI team will be in touch with you in the near future to request your support with this important survey. At that point we will provide you with the details of the number of S2 and/or S4 classes that have been selected to take part from your school. We will also request the contact details of a member of staff to act as the liaison and all subsequent arrangements will be made through them.

We hope very much that your school will take part. The participation of all schools selected is very important in order to achieve a representative picture of pupils in Scotland as a whole.

If you require any further information or have any queries, please contact Carolyn Black on 0131 240 3261 or at carolyn.black@ipsos.com.

Yours faithfully

Letter for schools delivering paper survey

Dear Head Teacher

Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance Use Survey ( SALSUS) 2015

We are writing to ask you for your support in connection with the Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance Use Survey ( SALSUS). The Director of Education for your local authority has confirmed that they are happy for us to approach schools to participate in the survey.

The survey

SALSUS is the Scottish Government's main source of information on alcohol, drug and tobacco use among Scotland's young people and has been running since 1982. It is vital to the Scottish Government, with data from the survey acting as the official measures of progress towards targets for reducing smoking and drug use, and to monitor their priority of addressing harmful drinking. The Scottish Government has commissioned Ipsos MORI to undertake the latest wave of SALSUS in the autumn of this year.

If you would like more information on SALSUS, including previous findings, free teaching resources and a copy of the most recent questionnaire, please see the study website: www.ipsos-mori.com/salsus.

Survey administration

The survey comprises a self-completion questionnaire for Secondary 2 and Secondary 4 pupils and should be administered during an appropriate mixed ability class, such as PSE, under 'exam conditions'. Pupils will be able to complete the survey in a single school period. The survey does not require a researcher to visit the school, and packs will be provided that contain the questionnaires, instructions for administering the survey, parent consent forms and pupil information leaflets.

Confidentiality

All responses are completely confidential: neither individual schools nor pupils will be identified in the reporting of the data. To enable analysis of the data by different types of area, pupils will be asked for their postcode. However, they do not have to provide this if they do not want to. The parent consent form informs them about this.

What happens next?

A member of the Ipsos MORI team will be in touch with you in the near future to request your support with this important survey. At that point we will provide you with the details of the number of S2 and/or S4 classes that have been selected to take part from your school. We will also request the contact details of a member of staff to act as the liaison and all subsequent arrangements will be made through them.

We hope very much that your school will take part. The participation of all schools selected is very important in order to achieve a representative picture of pupils in Scotland as a whole.

If you require any further information or have any queries, please contact Carolyn Black on 0131 240 3261 or at carolyn.black@ipsos.com.

Yours faithfully