Summary Report on Survey of the Youngest Age Group (5 to 9 years)

Introduction

Children at Wedmore First School were given self-completion questionnaires with three questions:

1. What is the best thing about living in your village?
2. What is the worst thing about living in your village?
3. What would you most like to change?

They were also provided with a blank version of the Community Appraisal roundel, and invited to enter a competition to design a logo to fill the central circle. The winning entry is shown above.

Twenty eight children responded in all, representing a 12% response rate and a tremendous effort on the part of all of them and of the teachers who taught them to write so well!

Summary of findings

1. The single biggest issue of concern to these children is identical to that of the adults, namely traffic/roads/pavements. In fact, when asked to state the worst thing about living in their village, 12 of the 28 mentioned this - the exact same proportion (43%) as the mentions received in the adults’ ‘Yellow Pages’ comments. The same subject also came top of the children’s list of things they wanted changed, with nine comments in all.
2. The best thing about the Isle of Wedmore, according to these youngsters, is their social scene and the enjoyment of being near friends, family and nice neighbours. This category received 11 positive comments.
3. After that came the shops, with 8 mentions, and one shop in particular - the sweet shop! Two liked the number and variety of shops , but a somewhat disgruntled group of seven would adjust the balance so that there were toy shops, a bike shop and, perhaps puzlingly, a card shop. It would seem that, although the newsagents is undoubtedly exciting, the rest of Wedmore’s shops are not interesting to children. Children in the outlying villages, it seems, would be grateful to have any shops at all.
4. Children living in outlying villages - Blackford, Heath House, Cocklake - were appreciative of the relative peace and quiet, as well as access to nature/wildlife, that their locations offer them.
5. A minority complained that the play areas are too small/boring, and a number would prefer the Wedmore play area to be more central in the village so that they could walk to it. One five year old, perhaps with a practical eye on his parents’ social life, would like ‘a pub with a play area’.
6. There is an underlying frustration, based on the fact that they are dependent on their parents to drive them everywhere, either because they live too far out of Wedmore, or the roads/pavements are too dangerous for them to walk or cycle. In this respect, again, they echo the complaints made by adults in their Comments added to the main survey. It seems that nobody in the Isle of Wedmore likes to drive when they could walk or cycle, but road conditions leave them no choice.

Detailed Findings

1. What is the best thing about living in your village?

2. What is the worst thing about living in your village?

3. What would you most like to change?