Encouraging Physical Health

The Education Hub

A new post, “How we are ensuring boys and girls have the same opportunities for school sport” has just been published on the The Education Hub blog.

Being active can have a hugely positive impact on children’s physical and mental health. That’s why we’re setting out how important it is for all pupils to have access to at least two hours of PE and school sport per week.  Announced on International Women’s Day, our plans also make it clear that girls and boys should be able access the same sports.

Read the new post: https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2023/03/09/how-ensuring-boys-girls-have-same-opportunities-school-sport/

Exercise

Research has found that for mild depression exercise can be as good as antidepressants or psychological treatments like cognitive behavioural therapy.  It can relieve stress, help people to sleep better, and feel more relaxed and positive about themselves and their lives. Not only does it release powerful chemicals in the brain, exercise can also give people a distraction from their worries which help to break negative patterns of thought. Exercise can help people to cope in a healthy way with challenges that come along instead of resorting to drugs, alcohol or other risk taking behaviour.

Find out more from the young minds website

Active Gloucestershire

Active Gloucestershire provides training and courses as well as information on national and local networks and events. They support schools to help get projects off the ground or move onto the next level as part of the movement to make a more active Gloucestershire.

The Daily Mile

More and more primary schools are joining the mile a day. The aim of the Daily Mile is to improve the physical, emotional and social health and wellbeing of all of our children.

Read about the Daily Mile on Active Gloucestershire

This Girl Can

Sport England’s research reveals a huge difference in the number of men and women playing sport. And it's not because females don't want to get active. Millions of women and girls are afraid to exercise because of fear of judgement. This Girl Can is their nationwide campaign to get women and girls moving, regardless of shape, size and ability, find out more on their website 

Local Best Practice Examples

Harewood Primary School – Encouraging healthy eating

Milestone School – Increasing physical activity

Tewkesbury School – Healthy eating and increasing exercise

Hatherley Infants School – Healthy drinks

Let's Move Campaign

To help children reach the NHS-recommended amount of daily physical activity, the government’s Let's Move! Campaign is inviting families to take part in the New Moves Club and discover the fun of trying something new together. Because getting active isn't about being the best, it's about having a go.

Schools are one of the strongest ways to reach families, so we've created a Teacher Toolkit packed with ready-to-use assets for your school's:
● Newsletter content
● Social media posts
● WhatsApp messages

Simply download the Teacher Toolkit, encourage your staff to share and help families discover that getting active can be fun – especially when they're trying something new together.

We've also created four fun, curriculum-linked activities that your staff can use to build excitement their classrooms, and are perfect for pupils to continue the fun at home with their loved ones:
     🤝  The swap move
     🔎  The movement memory game
     🎵  Soundtrack statues
     📚  Story movers

Once pupils have had a go in class, teachers can send them home with our printable take-home activity sheet – a fun, badge-based sheet with six activities families can work through together, and pupils earn and colour in badges for every activity they try!