PLACE & BELONGING: NATIONAL PUPIL VOICE SURVEY
What do children and young people think about where they live?
What do children and young people think about where they live?
Place & Belonging is a free national pupil voice survey helping schools and colleges understand how their pupils feel about where they live, what they know about their local area, their access to local history and heritage, and whether they would like more opportunities to explore place through their education.
Taking part gives schools a simple way to gather meaningful pupil voice around place, belonging, curriculum and cultural capital, while contributing to a wider national picture of children and young people's experiences across the UK.
The survey takes around 5–10 minutes, with versions for ages 7–11, 11–16 and 16–18. Participating schools and colleges can request a summary of their own results to support curriculum review, enrichment planning and conversations about local opportunities and partnerships.
Free to take part. Quick to administer. Useful for your school. Part of a national picture.
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Place & Belonging is a national pupil voice project exploring young people's relationships with the places where they live.
Rather than testing what pupils know about local history, the survey asks about their experiences and views.
We are interested in questions including:
Do young people feel that they belong where they live?
How much do they know about their local area and its past?
What opportunities do they currently have to learn about place?
Are young people accessing museums, historic places and other local heritage?
Would they like more opportunities to explore their local area through school or college?
The first national survey will run throughout the 2026–27 academic year.
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The surveys explore five broad areas:
Place and belonging
How connected young people feel to where they live.Local knowledge and curiosity
What young people feel they know about their local area and whether they want to know more.Learning opportunities
Whether pupils currently have opportunities to explore their local area through school or college.Access to local places and heritage
Young people's experiences of museums, historic buildings and other places connected to their local area.Demand for more
Whether young people would like more opportunities to explore place through different subjects, visits and activities. -
Place & Belonging is designed to be both a national pupil voice project and a useful tool for individual schools and colleges.
Taking part is free, and the survey takes around 5–10 minutes to complete. Schools and colleges can choose the scale that works for them, from a single class or year group to a wider whole-school response.
Short classroom slides are available for each age group to introduce the survey and explain key vocabulary. Pupils can then access the survey using a direct link or QR code.
Teachers can read questions aloud and explain vocabulary where needed, but should avoid suggesting answers. We want to hear what children and young people genuinely think.
Schools and colleges can also request a summary of their own results. This can provide useful pupil voice around:
pupils' sense of place and belonging
knowledge and curiosity about their local area
opportunities to learn about place through the curriculum
access to local heritage and places
appetite for more place-based learning
To receive a school or college breakdown, encourage pupils to enter the name of their school or college when completing the survey. This question remains optional for individual pupils.
Once your pupils have taken part, complete our short results request form and we will use the school or college information provided to identify your responses.
School-level findings will only be provided where there are sufficient responses to report them appropriately. Individual pupil responses will not be shared.
The findings could support curriculum review, pupil voice, enrichment planning, cultural capital and conversations about developing relationships with local heritage and community organisations.
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Taking part is simple and free.
Choose the survey for the appropriate age group and download the accompanying classroom slides.
The slides provide a short introduction to the project, explain key words pupils will encounter and include the survey link and QR code.
You can administer the survey in whichever way works best for your setting. Pupils can:
follow the survey link on their device
scan the QR code using a tablet or phone
access the link shared through your school's usual digital platform
The survey should take around 5–10 minutes to complete.
Teachers are welcome to read questions aloud and explain vocabulary where needed, particularly for younger pupils. Please avoid suggesting answers or giving examples that might influence pupils' responses. We want to know what children and young people genuinely think.
Schools can choose how widely they participate. You might survey one class, a year group, a key stage or pupils across your school.
https://forms.cloud.microsoft/e/4dSEYey0q1
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We have created short classroom slides to help schools and colleges introduce the Place & Belonging survey before pupils take part.
The slides explain the purpose of the survey, introduce key words such as place, belonging and heritage, and remind pupils that there are no right or wrong answers.
Please use the appropriate slides before sharing the survey link or QR code with pupils.
The survey itself should take around 5–10 minutes.
Teachers can read questions aloud and explain vocabulary where needed. Please avoid suggesting answers or giving examples that might influence pupils' responses. We want to hear what children and young people genuinely think.
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Place & Belonging is not only a national survey. It can also provide your school or college with useful pupil voice about place, belonging, local learning and access to heritage.
Once your pupils have completed the survey, you can request a summary of your school's responses using the form below.
[REQUEST YOUR SCHOOL'S RESULTS]
You will be asked to provide your contact details, school or college name and some basic information to help us identify the relevant responses.We will only provide school-level results where there are enough responses to report them appropriately. Individual pupil responses will not be shared.
Your results could help inform discussions around local history, curriculum development, cultural capital, enrichment and partnerships with local heritage and community organisations.
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Responses will be combined to build a national picture of young people's experiences of place and belonging.
Local History Hub plans to publish findings from the 2026–27 survey, including an interim update and an annual report.
We will explore patterns by factors such as age, region and whether young people live in a village, town, city or the countryside.
Where sample sizes allow, we will also explore relationships between pupils' reported sense of belonging, their knowledge of their local area, access to local heritage and the opportunities they receive through education.
The survey is not designed to rank individual schools or areas.
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Local History Hub exists to make it easier for schools, heritage organisations and communities to work together around local history, place and belonging.
We believe the voices of children and young people should be part of that conversation.
Place & Belonging will help us build a clearer picture of what young people currently experience, what matters to them and where opportunities may be missing.
The findings will help inform our work with schools and heritage organisations and contribute to wider conversations about local history, place and belonging in education.
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We have designed Place & Belonging to collect only the information needed for the project.
We do not ask pupils for their name, email address, date of birth or home address.
Pupils are asked their age, country, broad geographical area and the type of place in which they live. Providing the name of their school or college is optional.
Individual pupil responses will not be shared with schools or published.
Taking part is voluntary. Pupils can stop at any point.
If anything in the survey makes a pupil feel worried or uncomfortable, they should stop and speak to an adult they trust.
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Place & Belonging begins in the 2026–27 academic year.
As the project develops, we will publish findings and reports here.
Coming in 2026–27:
Interim findings
National annual report
We hope that, over time, Place & Belonging will build a growing evidence base about how children and young people experience place, local history and belonging across the UK.
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Who can take part?
Schools and colleges across the UK can take part. There are separate surveys for ages 7–11, 11–16 and 16–18.Does it cost anything?
No. Taking part is free.How long does the survey take?
Approximately 5–10 minutes.Does a whole school have to take part?
No. Schools can choose the scale that works for them, from an individual class or year group to a wider school response.Can teachers help pupils?
Yes. Teachers can explain vocabulary or clarify what a question means, but should avoid suggesting how pupils should answer.Do pupils have to give their school name?
No. School or college name is optional.Can we receive our school's results?
Yes. Participating schools can request a summary of their own results, subject to sufficient responses to report them appropriately.When will the results be published?
Local History Hub plans to share interim findings during the academic year, followed by a national report after the 2026–27 survey cycle.