How can we put the bounce back into school fitness? The concept of ‘unhealthy’ children consumes a lot of media column inches today, but can anything more be done on a school level to help improve childrens’ fitness and wellbeing? Education Magazine’s new columnist - children’s fitness consultant and owner of fitness company onesixeight: fitness, Becky White, takes a look at how she thinks schools can make PE lessons more interesting to those taking part. I have built a successful business from beginner’s fitness, helping adults and children to improve their fitness levels and general wellbeing. Part of the reason for the success of my business is that the adults that I train and the parents and teachers of the children I train, appreciate the health benefits of the sessions I facilitate. Aside of the health benefits, my business is successful, as I have managed to make health and fitness fun – or at least more fun than my clients will have experienced previously in the sports hall or gym. Why then, is what I do more fun for children? It’s not all about me, I am just one of thousands of fitness instructors and personal trainers trying to make fitness and wellbeing more interesting, rewarding and fun for their clients and pupils. I believe it’s about the activity – which in my case, is about achieving fitness through bouncing on mini trampolines.
It works for my business and I think that more children would develop a healthy appetite for fitness if it was made more fun in the early years. In my opinion, too much of what we are taught in school PE lessons revolves around team sport, where there are winners and losers and sometimes not much room for the people that don’t enjoy the specific sport or aren’t very good at it. I’m not against competition at all, but I think that by also adding some fun fitness activities into the mix, we would get more buy in from children and subsequently get even more young people sold on fitness for life. Imagine what PE would be like if activities like Zumba, yoga, pilates or even martial arts were on the curriculum? Imagine if instead of playing in sports teams, kids had the chance to be a cheerleader for those teams? And I’m not just talking about things that can happen in school – archery, mountain biking and even the occasional snowboarding lesson could be considered! Whilst many of these activities would not be feasible financially, they could be introduced for a limited period in each term or half term, even using external organisations to help implement them. Activities such as aerobics or line dancing could be undertaken in the sports hall, much in the same way that maypole and country dancing used to feature heavily. Compared to many more traditional sports there is a lot less organisation required for the likes of Zumba and mini trampoline sessions and there would be a lot more physically activity achieved in the hour allotted and not so much time spent waiting around, as can happen with some team sports. Less traditional sport orientated PE sessions would allow students to choose between mixed gender or same gender groups, which would be useful as I have found that some girls like exercising with boys because they consider them more competitive than their peers. Some girls however will feel more comfortable in a female environment. Either way, more choice and flexibility would mean more willing participation and by proxy a greater level of fitness achieved. It’s important to remember that it’s not just the activity that determines the level of interest and enthusiasm for children, but also how comfortable they feel taking part. Clothing (for adults as well as children) can play a huge role in this. Adults and children that I work with have a universal liking for wearing their own clothes – suitable for exercise but in most cases (perhaps controversially) not a uniform! Whilst there are many valid reasons for wearing a school uniform PE kit (school branding and the sense of belonging, less 28
Becky White leads a bounce session for children.
avenues for bullying and simplicity for parents to name but a few), I would argue that willing participation in the activity should be the paramount concern. To this end, I would suggest a choice of kit (in line with the school’s uniform) of either: shorts, ¾ lengths or tracksuit bottoms; vests, t-shirts, long sleeve tops or jumpers and finally sensible footwear appropriate for the playing surface. Clothing can be like our armour and I find that if people are in control of what they wear, they are more comfortable undertaking (and hopefully enjoying) physical activity. On the subject of control, it can be fun to allow the children themselves to have some role in running the sessions. After all, this type of student-led activity can help students to develop leadership and organisational skills. Totally throwing convention on its head, would fitness be more fun and accessible for kids if they undertook a daily few minute’s exercise with an activity that didn’t require changing into kit? I think that 15-20 minutes of this exercise in the morning or the afternoon would be a good idea, given that not all children run around, or even move during break times. In general, PE lessons need to have some element that isn’t purely focused on competitive activity (for students who don’t enjoy competitive sport) and more focus on enjoyment and having fun. I do not doubt that PE teachers are currently doing a good job of teaching traditional sports and games, however, changes to the curriculum to increase participation will require innovation and it may be more appropriate for schools to source external organisations to provide activities in their specific areas of expertise. Education Magazine