Our youngest children are not getting enough exercise. Only 9 per cent of two- to four-year-old boys and 10 per cent of girls meet the current guidelines for at least three hours of physical activity a day, according to the NHS Health Survey for England. Meanwhile, figures from Public Health England show that only 17.5 per cent of older children and young people meet current guidelines for those over the age of five, taking part in physical activity for at least 60 minutes a day every day of the week.
Schools have an important role to play in encouraging physical activity – after all, children spend most of their time at school during term time. Increasingly, however, the opposite is happening. Primary schools are reducing the amount of outdoor playtime available: research from University College London (UCL) last year showed five- to seven-year-olds have 45 minutes less break time per week than was the case in 1995.
BENEFITS
Physical activity boosts confidence
Physical activity in the early years has countless health benefits, both for the child and for the adult they will become. Research shows physical activity in children as young as three benefits blood vessel health and cardiovascular fitness, and is key to the prevention of early risk indicators that can lead to adult heart disease.
Increased activity can have a positive effect on behaviour, memory, concentration and sleep. Exercise reduces the risk of obesity, which can have a significant impact on both physical and psychological health. The latest NHS figures show 22.4 per cent of Reception children in England are overweight or obese and 9.5 per cent are obese.
In the early years, children don’t just need the kind of physical activity that gets the blood flowing and the heart pumping, or even just the kind of activity that will develop their gross and fine motor skills. They also need activity that will encourage their neurological development. ‘The need to move is very profound for children and if you prevent that, then it is as harmful emotionally as physically,’ says Jan White, professor of practice at the University of Wales Trinity St David and strategic director of Early Childhood Outdoors.
Our body’s vestibular system helps maintain balance and allows us to control our body in relation to gravity and movement. Many other sensory systems, such as vision, hearing and proprioception function in co-operation with it. Proprioception tells us where our body is in space, where it starts and finishes and how parts of our body are moving, without having to look at them. Development of the vestibular system begins in the womb and depends on children having the opportunity to move in different ways – such as rocking, swinging, sliding, tumbling.
Ms White explains, ‘If young children don’t engage in these kinds of experience, they are unlikely to move a lot later because they will never feel quite safe enough in their body.’
BARRIERS
Interest is growing in encouraging 'active schools'
There are a number of barriers that schools face when it comes to providing children with enough of the different kinds of physical activity they need. Classroom learning environments often encourage prolonged periods of sitting down, at tables or on the carpet. Many schools, especially older builds, are not set up to provide easy access to the outdoors and have limited classroom space for indoor activities, while staff ratios can also limit children’s access.
Even if a school is able to offer free-flow access to the outdoors, the deployment of staff can send children the wrong message, says Professor White. ‘It seems that often the teaching assistant will go out and the teacher stay in,’ she says. ‘That is an issue because of the value given to physical activity and the outdoors as an educative environment – the teacher can be perceived to do “important learning” indoors.’
A lack of training is also a barrier. ‘Many school staff are poorly trained and have little confidence in this field,’ says Dr Lala Manners, director of Activematters. ‘They get worried about losing control, noise, children hurting themselves, staff hurting themselves.’
The proposed new Early Learning Goals (ELGs) for Physical Development could also act as a barrier by oversimplifying physical development, says Dr Manners. ‘The new ELGs are disastrous for the field,’ she says. ‘Health and self-care has been removed from PD and placed under PSED, so we are left simply with gross and fine motor skills. Motor skills are only part of what physical development is actually about.’
Professor White adds, ‘The body and brain is one combined system, and hands, for example, do not develop separately to the rest of the body. We talk about pincer grip, and palmer grip, but the way children actually use their hands is very complex. To achieve dextrous hand use, children have to reach a place where they can manage their body and arms well and have strong spatial awareness and eye control. All the work for that comes from whole-body outdoor play – activities like digging, mixing and constructing.’
BREAKING OUT OF THE SILO
It is important not to silo play and PE as something separate from everyday life, and to provide it across the school day
It is tempting for schools, under pressure to deliver results in literacy and numeracy, to limit physical activity to break time and PE lessons. This kind of physical activity silo, however, can lead some children to disengage and to view exercise as something separate from everyday life. ‘You are wearing specific clothing, you have to do it at a certain time, there are various behavioural expectations behind it all,’ says Dr Manners.
Introducing physical activity across the whole of the school day has a number of benefits. A free-flow approach, for example, gives children many different opportunities to be active, using a wide range of resources such as wheeled toys, hoops, planks, swings, logs and loose parts. However, close observation is key: schools should not assume that just because a child is outside they are taking part in physical activity. Activity can take place indoors as well.
Incorporating activity into the school day as a whole not only encourages movement without compromising on literacy and numeracy, but can help children learn. Research published by UCL and the University of Sydney last year found that when children engaged in physical activity during lessons, it had a significant effect on educational outcomes. A Netherlands-based study found primary school children who took part in physically active lessons three times a week over two years made four months extra progress in spelling and mathematics.
‘Whatever you do, start with their bodies,’ says Dr Manners. ‘You can teach anything by first embedding it in a movement context and then adding layers of more complex conceptual ideas. You have got a way better chance of getting children to understand a concept if it is properly anchored in their bodies from the start.’
There is an increasing amount of interest in encouraging ‘active schools’. The Active School Planner, created by PGL and the Youth Sports Trust, is a free tool for primary schools to track and improve physical activity levels in their pupils. The Heatmap tool, for example, helps identify long periods of inactivity within the school day, while the action planning tool suggests ways to introduce activity into traditionally sedentary parts of the timetable. Last year, Public Health England published a best-practice guide for schools looking to increase physical activity (see More information).
In Stockport, there are now more than 200 Physical Development Champions across schools and early years settings, accessing training, sharing good practice and promoting and taking responsibility for physical development within the EYFS. The champions scheme is part of a wider physical development pathway, an assessment and intervention approach that is currently being embedded across schools and early years settings in the area.
‘What really has an impact is when all staff have training, and it’s a whole-school approach,’ says Helen Grimsditch, lead early years consultant at Stockport Council.
CASE STUDIES
St Catherine’s Academy, Sheffield
St Catherine's Academy Sheffield
When Foundation Stage leader Emma Sefton arrived at St Catherine’s Academy five years ago, she says children were not even allowed to run in the outdoor area. Things are very different now. ‘Our rule is walk, calm and quiet inside, and when we are outside we can be loud – and we can definitely run,’ Ms Sefton says. ‘Some children say “I know I need to run, I’m off outside”.’
In order to get staff on board, Ms Sefton took meetings outside. ‘Sometimes you get staff thinking children are just running around and being naughty,’ she says. ‘It takes someone with passion to share the research and show them the benefits. We have had staff making dens and mud pies. I asked for memories of childhood, and every memory was something outside, even one member of staff who hated getting her coat on and going out. After that she was much more engaged.’
Teachers should get involved in outdoor activity to convey its value
Apart from a brief phonics and a maths session every day, children in nursery and Reception at St Catherine’s have constant access to the outdoors, where they can play with ladders, planks, tyres and logs, as well as loose parts.
‘Children are encouraged to transport things to wherever they want them,’ says Ms Sefton. ‘We have lots of real things that have real weight, rather than plastic replicas.’
A well-resourced outdoor area does not have to cost a fortune. ‘Parents donate cases, old bedding, nuts and bolts and pipes and Hoovers,’ says Ms Sefton. ‘Staff are great at jumping in random skips.’
The school encourages children to get active by following their interests. ‘Last year, we had a boy in nursery who could not get up from the floor by himself, so we did lots of things like crawling, going in all sorts of tunnels, jumping from increasing heights,’ says Ms Sefton.
‘He was interested in cars and vehicles so we put cars through different-sized tubes and encouraged him to crawl through to go and get the cars.’
Children are asked to bring in wellies and waterproofs and have to wear them outside – as do the adults. ‘We have got some very funky trousers,’ laughs Ms Sefton.
Physical activity is massively important for the children’s development, says Ms Sefton. ‘Schools want children to read, write and sit still, but before that they have got to be able to balance, develop their shoulder muscles and their core strength,’ she says. ‘Children are not going to be able to write if they have not been able to move around.’
All photos taken at St Catherine's Academy, Sheffield, by Guzelian
Brunel Field Primary School, Bristol
Children at Brunel Field Primary School are rolling around what was once a car park in a giant wheel. Three children can fit in at once, so they have to work together. ‘It’s the best wheeled toy we ever had,’ says Reception teacher Louise Brewer. ‘I watched three boys spend 40 minutes completely engrossed in a narrative game, negotiating obstacles. The children can attach ropes to them, attach them to the co-operative bikes – we had two on a bike and three in the wheel, moving around.’
Reception children have an hour in the morning and an hour and a quarter in the afternoon of free-flow activities, when they can choose to be indoors or outside at any given time. They also access the outside space for an hour at lunchtime.
The school has put a lot of effort into developing the outdoor area, with a mud kitchen, and shrubs and herbs in tyre planters.
A Montessori ‘balance line’ placed just inside the classroom door slows children down as they come indoors and also helps develop their co-ordination. Rope swings in the garden help children feel the weight of their own body and develop their upper body strength. ‘Spinning around is massively important, getting dizzy and tracking movement with your eyes,’ says Ms Brewer.
Around half the children also attend Forest School once a week, off the school grounds. ‘We are able to take around 30 children for a traditional Forest school session, and we focus on those who would most benefit in terms of physical development, personal, social and emotional development and language,’ says Ms Brewer.
Physical activity is part of all areas of learning. ‘Maths is very physical, and so is literacy,’ says Ms Brewer. ‘Children always have access to large mark-making equipment, and can make marks on the Tarmac. There is a blackboard in the mud kitchen so they can write up recipes.’
Case study: Lum Head Primary School, Stockport
For Reception children at Lum Head Primary School, exercise is part of the school day from registration to home time. Every morning the interactive whiteboard displays a set of exercises and the children copy them as soon as they come into the classroom.
‘Traditionally, when the children came in, they would sit on the carpet with a book while I did registration and waited for the stragglers,’ explains early years lead Debbie Robinson. ‘Now the whiteboard has simple actions like jump, skip and hop, and the children do the actions while they are waiting instead of sitting on the carpet.’
Jazzing up the morning routine is just one of the changes Ms Robinson made after attending Physical Development Champions training a few years ago. ‘A lot of those attending were from PVIs where they have more flexibility,’ she says. ‘My big thing was how can I incorporate this into what I was already doing. I don’t have time for extra PE sessions so I was looking at short little things throughout the day.’
Children might take part in Dough Disco to develop their fine motor skills, making sausages, balls and pizza shapes. The chairs have been removed from the playdough table so children stand up to make their creations, developing their core strength. After lunch every day is Beanbag Boogie and outdoor sessions start with ‘Wake Up and Shake Up’, dancing to music. The school day ends with five or ten minutes of yoga or similar.
Ms Robinson says the need to encourage physical activity was clear. ‘There were lots of children in the class just sitting on the carpet when they could be doing something else,’ she says. ‘I noticed when we did anything physical they were reluctant, out of breath or were not very flexible for four-year-olds.’
MORE INFORMATION
- www.activeschoolplanner.org
- Public Health England (2019) What works in schools and colleges to increase physical activity?
- Physical activity guidelines: UK Chief Medical Officers' report
- Lala Manners (2019) The Early Years Movement Handbook: A Principles-Based Approach to Supporting Young Children’s Physical Development, Health and Wellbeing. Jessica Kingsley
- Jan White (2015) Every Child a Mover: A practical guide to providing young children with the physical opportunities they need by Jan White. Early Education
- Sally Goddard Blythe (2005) The Well Balanced Child: Movement and early learning. Hawthorn Press
- Anne O’Connor and Anna Daly (2016) Understanding Physical Development in the Early Years – Linking Bodies and Minds. Routledge
