1. Let’s Count! Our School Census
Years 1 to 6
Let’s Count! Our School Census
Every 10 years the census gives us a complete snapshot of the nation. It allows us to see what’s changing across the United Kingdom because the similar questions are asked each time and the information is recorded in the same way.
The census provides information that the government needs to develop policies, plan and run vital public services, and allocate funding – it’s vital to help plan everything from schools to hospitals.

2. Let’s Count! Our School Census
The census provides information that government needs to develop policies, plan and run public services, and allocate funding.
Census 2001: the population of Wales was 2,910,200.
Census 2011: the population of Wales was 3,063,456.
Wales

3. Let’s Count! Our School Census
Planning our school census.
Which questions will we ask?
How many questions should we ask?
What sort of questions work best in a survey (open or closed questions)?
How many possible answers should each question have?

4. Let’s Count! Our School Census
Planning our school census.
We will:
Collect data
Present the data
Interpret the data

5. Let’s Count! Our School Census
To collect data: Let’s ask the question:
What is our favourite animal?
To present data: Let’s fill in our Tally Chart
Animal
Tally Examples
Frequency
Cat
Dog
Guinea Pig
Hamster
Rabbit
Other

6. Let’s Count! Our School Census Let’s Count! Our School Census
Interpreting the data:
This pictogram shows which were the most popular pets in the class.
The scale in this pictogram counts up in 1s.
Interpreting the data:
This pictogram shows which were the most popular pets in the class.
The scale in this pictogram counts up in 1s.
Each picture of a coloured square represents
1 child’s choice. 8 8
Each picture of a coloured square represents
1 child’s choice. 7 7 6 6 5 5 4 4 3 3 2 2 1 1
Cat
Dog
Guinea Pig
Hamster
Rabbit
Other
Cat
Other

7. Let’s Count! Our School Census
Interpreting the data:
This pictogram shows which were the most popular pets in the class.
The scale in this pictogram counts up in 2s.
Each picture of a coloured square represents
2 children’s choices. 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2
Cat
Dog
Guinea Pig
Hamster
Rabbit
Other

8. Let’s Count! Our School Census
Interpreting the data:
This pictogram shows which were the most popular pets in the class.
The scale in this pictogram counts up in 2s.
Each picture of half a coloured square represents
1 child’s choice. 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2
Cat
Dog
Guinea Pig
Hamster
Rabbit
Other

9. Let’s Count! Our School Census
Interpreting the data:
This pictogram shows which were the most popular pets in the school.
The scale in this pictogram counts up in 10s.
Each picture of half a coloured square represents
5 children’s choices. 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10
Cat
Dog
Guinea Pig
Hamster
Rabbit
Other

10. Let’s Count! Our School Census
Interpreting the data:
This pictogram shows which were the most popular pets in the class.
The scale in this pictogram counts up in 4s.
Each picture of a quarter a coloured square represents
1 child’s choice. 32 28 24 20 16 12 8 4
Cat
Dog
Guinea Pig
Hamster
Rabbit
Other

11. One image represents 1 tally mark. So each image represents
Favourite Animals
Use your tally to create a pictogram. Copy and paste the images below to represent one tally mark.
What does the key tell us?
What scale shall we use for our data? And why?
What steps will the numbers go up in?
If there were 6 blue squares in the dog column, how many children have dogs?
One image represents 1 tally mark. So each image represents
1 child’s choice. 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Cat
Dog
Guinea Pig
Hamster
Rabbit
Other

12. Each picture of half a coloured square represents 1 child’s choice.
Favourite Animals
Use your tally to create a pictogram. Copy and paste the images below to represent one tally mark.
What does the key tell us?
What scale shall we use for our data? And why?
What steps will the numbers go up in?
If there were 6 and a half blue squares in the dog column, how many children have dogs?
Each picture of half a coloured square represents 1 child’s choice. 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2
Cat
Dog
Guinea Pig
Hamster
Rabbit
Other

13. Each picture of half a square represents
Favourite Animals
Use your tally to create a pictogram. Copy and paste the images below to represent one tally mark.
What does the key tell us?
What scale shall we use for our data? And why?
What steps will the numbers go up in?
If there were 4 and a half yellow squares in the rabbit column, how many children have rabbits?
Each picture of half a square represents
5 children’s choices. 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10
Cat
Dog
Guinea Pig
Hamster
Rabbit
Other

14. Each picture of one square represents
Favourite Animals
Use your tally to create a pictogram. Copy and paste the images below to represent one tally mark.
What does the key tell us?
What scale shall we use for our data? And why?
What steps will the numbers go up in?
If each square represents 10 children’s choices, how will we represent 5 children’s choices?
Each picture of one square represents
10 children’s choices. 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10
Cat
Dog
Guinea Pig
Hamster
Rabbit
Other

15. Let’s Count! Our School Census
Let’s prepare a bar chart!
What does the data tell us about the most popular animal in the class?
Helpful note: To edit this bar graph, click on the chart. Then in the tool bar select ‘Chart Design’ (or the ‘Design’ option within ‘Chart Tools’). Then click on ‘Edit Data’. Alternatively, you can create your graphs on the Census Schools website!

16. Let’s Count! Our School Census
Let’s prepare a pie chart!
What does the data tell us about the most popular animal in the class?
Favourite animals 3 8 4 5 7
Helpful note: To edit this pie chart, click on the chart. Then in the tool bar select ‘Chart Design’ (or the ‘Design’ option within ‘Chart Tools’). Then click on ‘Edit Data’. Alternatively, you can create your graphs on the Census Schools website! 4

17. Let’s Count! Our School Census
Questions on our data:
What have we found out from the data?
What do we not yet know?
How might we use this data?

18. Let’s Count! Our School Census
Year 6
Year 6
Special tasks for year 6:
Interpret and construct pie charts and line graphs.
Use them to solve problems.
Calculate and interpret the mean as an average.

19. Let’s Count! Our School Census
Year 6
Now here’s an extra challenge
The population of Wales across census years 1991, 2001 and 2011.
What might this data look like on a line graph?
Can we identify any trends from the line graph?
Census Year
1991
2001
2011
Males
1,390,723
1,408,671
1,504,475
Females
1,482,275
1,510,561
1,559,283
All population
2,872,998
2,910,232
3,063,758

20. Let’s Count! Our School Census
Nursery & Reception
Let’s Count! Our School Census
Every 10 years the we hold a census across the whole country.
This allows us to have a complete picture of people’s lives: For example, people’s work, where they live – and how many people there are in the country!

21. Let’s Count! Our School Census
The 2001 Census showed us that the population of Wales was 2,910,200 (a lot of people!).
The 2011 Census showed us that the population of Wales was 3,063,456 (even more people!)
Wales

22. Let’s Count! Our School Census
A census helps us to find things out.
We are going to do our own class survey to find out about our favourite things!

23. Let’s Count! Our School Census
My class question of the day
Yes
TOTAL No
Let’s count who likes ice cream?
Whose favourite sport is football?
Whose favourite sport is swimming?
Whose favourite day of the year is their birthday?
Whose favourite day of the year is Christmas?
Another question of your class’s choice.