Dear Parent / Carer
YEAR 7 HEALTH SURVEY
Health and wellbeing are important for effective learning. The ACT Health Directorate is pleased to let you know about the annual Year 7 Health Survey (Y7HS) - formerly known as the Year 7 Health Check Survey - which will be made available to all Year 7 students in ACT schools in Term 3 2022.
WHAT IS THE Y7HS?
Year 7 represents a time of significant change in young people’s lives: they face a new school, study schedules and social life while navigating the developmental changes of adolescence. The Y7HS monitors the health and wellbeing of Year 7 students during this time of change and to help us design better health programs and initiatives for Canberra’s young people.
Ethics approval for the Y7HS has been provided by the ACT Health Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC), which has been accepted by the ACT Government Education Directorate.
WHAT IS INVOLVED?
The Education Directorate is administering the 2022 Y7HS on behalf of ACT Health. Year 7 students will complete the survey in class at the same time as they complete the School Satisfaction and Climate Survey. The Y7HS will collect information on the nutrition, physical activity, sedentary behaviour, sleep and emotional wellbeing of Year 7 students. The survey should take less than 10 minutes to complete. If you do not agree to your child participating in the Y7HS, please contact the front office by 19 August 2022 so that your child can be excluded.
WHAT WILL WE DO WITH THE RESULTS?
ACT Health will be provided with the Y7HS responses, however no personal identifying information will be provided to ACT Health or to any school. In the future, survey responses will be linked over time through a process of encryption used by the Centre for Health Record Linkage to protect confidentiality and gain a better understanding of survey result patterns. More information about data linkage can be found at: https://www.cherel.org.au/how-record-linkage-works
Analyses of the Y7HS responses will be reported at a population level - individuals, schools, regions, and education sectors will not be identified. ACT Health and the Education Directorate will handle all personal information in accordance with the Territory Privacy Principles set out in the Information Privacy Act 2014. Details about how personal information is stored and used are available at https://www.education.act.gov.au/functions/privacy#act. A brief report of the population-level Y7HS results will be made available on the ACT Health website (Year 7 Health Survey | Health (act.gov.au)).
WHO SHOULD I CONTACT IF I HAVE ANY QUESTIONS?
More information about the Y7HS can be found on the ACT Health website or by emailing the project team at Y7HS@act.gov.au. For concerns or questions about how the Y7HS will be conducted, contact the HREC by email to ethics@act.gov.au or by phoning (02) 6174 7968.
Thank you for helping us to improve the health and wellbeing of ACT children and young people.
Yours sincerely
Maria Travers
Executive Branch Manager, Policy, Partnerships and Programs Division, ACT Health Directorate