Young people are overwhelmingly healthy, sporting, community-minded and conscientious about school, says a major survey published by Ofsted, the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills.

But it also reveals concerns about bullying, a desire for better advice on careers, sex and relationships - and claims of cigarette, alcohol and drugs use among a minority.

This revealing picture is painted by the results of TellUs2, a major online survey which asked children aged between 10-15 in England how they view their lives and how good local authorities are at providing children’s services. More than 111,000 children took part in the survey which ran from 24 April to 14 June across 141 local authorities.

TellUs2 found an overwhelmingly positive picture for most children living in England today, but with some long-standing problems and important areas needing improvement. The level of smoking, drinking and drugs misuse is significant amongst some young people, the survey, developed jointly with the Department for Children, Schools and Families and Ipsos MORI, reveals.

TellUs2 is the first national survey of its kind and reflects the importance that Ofsted and the Government attaches to hearing the voice of children and young people, and responding to what they say. It asked participants to say how healthy they are, how safe they feel, if they enjoy school, if they think they are doing well and if they help others. They were also asked what could be changed to make things better in their local areas.

The survey found that the vast majority (86%) of children consider themselves to be quite or very healthy. Some 73% of respondents say that they take part in sports or other activities such as cycling and running about for at least 30 minutes on more than three days a week. Seventy-three per cent also say they have never smoked a cigarette and 80% of the older children asked say that they have never taken drugs.

The survey shows that involvement in their local community is important to children and young people. A strong sense of community spirit emerged from the results. All but 15% of those in years 8 and 10 said they had done something to help another person. Meanwhile 65% of all respondents have helped to raise money for charity or for a local group. Additionally 52% of year 8 and year 10 pupils feel that their views are listened to in the running of their school.

Children and young people also have clear views about what would help them to do better in school. A significant minority of Year 8 and 10 respondents think they need better and/or more information and advice on healthy eating (20%), alcohol (27%), smoking (26%), drugs (31%) and sex and relationships (37%). When asked about their future, 50% of respondents have ambitions to go to university when they leave school, with 55% of year 8 and 10 pupils saying they wanted more or better information and advice when planning their future.

But while the overall picture was positive, some concerns also emerged.

Almost half (48%) of all children between 10 and 15 claimed they have had an alcoholic drink. One in five (19%) said they have been drunk at least once in the past four weeks.

The proportion of children saying that they have tried an alcoholic drink increases with age. While 21% of children aged 10-11 said they have had an alcoholic drink the figure for 12-13 year olds is 50% and for 14-15s it reaches 74%.

Claiming to have been drunk also accelerates. Five per cent of 10-11 year olds say they have been drunk more than once in the past four weeks, 17% of 12-13 year olds and 37% of 14-15 year olds.

Sixteen per cent of the oldest group claim to have been drunk three or more times in that period.

One in five of all children surveyed (21%) said they had smoked a cigarette.

Again, the incidence of smoking appears to rise by age. Five per cent of 10-11 year olds said they had smoked. That figure rose to 19% for 12-13 year olds and 41% for 14-15 year olds.

Some 15% of children aged 12 to 15 said they had tried drugs. Of these, 9% of all children said they had smoked cannabis (4% for 12-13 year olds and 13% for 14-15 year olds).

Overall, 3% said they had sniffed solvents such as glue or gas aerosols (3% for 12-13 year olds and 4% for 14-15 year olds).

Three per cent of all children surveyed said they had used other drugs such as cocaine, LSD, ecstasy, heroin, speed or magic mushrooms (2% for 12-13 year olds and 4% for 14-15 year olds).

Some 30% of children said they had been bullied at least a couple of times in the last four weeks and 31% ‘want fewer bullies. Fifty-seven per cent of pupils say they think bullying is handled quite or very well, 30% say it is handled not very or not at all well, 4% say that bullying is not a problem in my school, and 9% say don’t know.

The results indicate that more needs to be done to encourage healthy eating, with less than a quarter of respondents saying that they manage to eat five portions of fruit and vegetables every day.

An overwhelming 79% of pupils called for more fun and interesting lessons at school. Forty per cent wanted more help from teachers along with the same number wanting quieter and better behaved classmates.

The biggest worry on the minds of children is exams (51%) followed by friendships (39%), school work (35%), being healthy (32%) and ‘my future’ (30%).

More information about the report is aviailable from the Ofsted website.