Originally published June 25, 2018 in schoolsweekUK.
By Alix Robertson
Schools’ efforts to engage their least active pupils in physical activities will be reviewed by the government as it embarks on the second phase of its childhood wellness plan.
The second, published today, reveals that the government is to work across departments “to review how the least active children are being engaged in physical activity in and around the school day”, and will “consider how the primary PE and sport premium is being used.”
UK officials are reviewing the way students receive physical activity as they strive to improve the overall health in the nation’s schools.
Ministers have also pledged to “invest over £1.6 million during 2018-19 to support cycling and walking to school”. This money will be divided between the ‘Walk to School’ project, a programme delivered by the charity Living Streets and Bikeability, a national cycling training programme for schoolchildren, to support secondary school children to cycle safely and confidently on local roads.
The government’s overall ‘Cycling and walking investment strategy’ aims to increase the percentage of children aged five to 10 who usually walk to school to 55 percent in 2025.
There will also be a national ambition for every primary school to adopt an “active mile initiative,” such as ‘the daily mile’, a scheme that encourages primary or nursery schools to set up a free social activity to help pupils get exercise every day. But, crucially, schools won’t be forced to take part.
“Schools will have the flexibility to do so in a way that best suits their facilities and students and we will review how the primary PE and sport premium can be used to support it,” the plan said.
The DfE has also announced that Ofsted’s new inspection framework, which comes into force next September, will take into account the ways that schools “support pupils’ personal development more broadly, including in relation to healthy behaviours.”
Ofsted will carry out research into what a curriculum that supports good physical development looks like in early-years education.
Seeking IHT Spirit System information?
