New resources aim to cut obesity in primary school

The Our Healthy Year initiative from Public Health England is targeted at the school years that children are weighed and measured in as part of the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP), involving around one million four-and five- year-olds and ten- and 11-year-olds in Year 6.

The latest summaries from the NCMP show that around one third of children in year six and over a fifth of reception-age children are either overweight or obese.

The initiative follows the recent report by the Department of Health on childhood obesity, A plan for action. The report recommends that primary schools should deliver 30 minutes of vigorous exercise each day, through play, physical education, extra curricular clubs and active lessons.

More than 16,000 primary schools across England will receive toolkits comprising of a classroom poster, stickers, downloadable resources and a variety of ideas for curriculum-linked activities.

All activities for four- and five-year-olds are aligned with the EYFS and the Early Learning Goals (ELGs).

Eustace De Sousa, national lead for children, young people and families at Public Health England, said, ‘The resources can be easily integrated into the curriculum to help children get into healthy habits to set them up for life.’

While promoting a healthy and active lifestyle, the activities also aid in the teaching of communication and language, literacy and mathematics, as well as facilitating physical, social and emotional development.

There are a range of flexible activities in the toolkit to choose from These include:

• ‘Active Alphabet – print out different phonics sounds and put them up around the playground. Tell children that you are going to shout out different sounds and they need to walk, run hop, skip or jump to the relevant section. Ask them to say the sound when they get there.’
• For putting numerical skills to the test, try ‘playing shops – weigh and measure using scales and bags of vegetables’.
• In P.E, ‘encourage the children to design and build their own obstacle course – make it as challenging as possible.’ ‘The course could also be used at a sports day –perhaps parents could try it.’
• Teach pupils about growing and eating by ‘exploring the cycle of beans and vegetables – grow cress eggheads, carrot tops in the dark and nasturtiums (you can eat the flowers).’ ‘Use writing frames or a storyboard to illustrate and accompany the growing cycle.’

The packs also contain advice on engaging and involving parents, as well as ideas for whole-school activities.

The early years specialists who helped develop Our Healthy Year have emphasised the importance of focusing on the youngest children in the school.

Christine Dukes author, early years consultant and area SENCO, said, ‘The early years setting is an ideal time to encourage children to build healthy habits as they are settling into school and forming new habits. The Our Healthy Year resources will help teachers to deliver both the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum and run a whole year of fun, healthy curriculum-linked activity.’

Maggie Smith author, early years consultant and area SENCO, added, ‘Reception is also a key time when parents are engaged and involved with school life. The Our Healthy Year take-home activities provide a great way to involve parents and sustain pupils’ learning of healthy lifestyles outside school.’

• For more information and to get your own Change4Life toolkit, visit https://campaignresources.phe.gov.uk/schools/topics/our-healthy-year/overview