The formation of ukactive Kids – and its recent Generation Inactive report into childhood inactivity – is hopefully a large step forward in an important journey. The benefits of a more active life reach far beyond reducing obesity in our children, with a positive impact on mental health and wellbeing, academic performance, social skills and physical health into adulthood.
Many schools are already informally monitoring activity levels, but the time has come for more widespread, formal, standardised measurement of physical literacy and motor skills – something only 1 per cent of schools currently do – to build our knowledge base and more effectively target our efforts.
One important fact raised by the report is that even within PE lessons, fewer than half the schools surveyed tracked actual time spent being active. We really don’t know how much our children are benefiting from the current levels of physical education they receive.
We also need a more holistic approach to physical activity in schools: the ‘whole day’ approach advocated by the report, as well as the broadening of attitudes so physical activity means more than just PE lessons or structured sports classes. We need every child to be engaged in fun activity, even if they shy away from team sports or more traditional forms of exercise.
To achieve this, teachers must receive the right training and support, and parents must receive the right advice. This will help ensure we get everybody behind the incredible new initiative that ukactive Kids represents, and make physical illiteracy and damaging levels of inactivity a thing of the past.