RB GYM AND SPORT

In the first episode of our new podcast series, The Primary PE Huddle, hosts Dan Hayes and Andrew Stanton are joined by Dr Andy Daly-Smith, Children’s Physical Activity Researcher. Who is Dr Andy Daly-Smith? Dr Daly-Smith’s passion is supporting schools, teachers and children to embrace physical activity. His practice driven research focuses on the impact and implementation of physically active learning. Key themes within his work include physical activity across the segmented school-day, whole-school approaches to physical activity and the efficacy, effectiveness and implementation of physically active learning. As Senior Lecturer in Physical Activity and Behavioural Science at Carnegie School of Sport, Leeds Beckett University, Dr Daly-Smith oversaw the physically active learning research project which featured the Aspire, Maths on the Move programme and evidenced the programme’s success in driving activity and improving maths attainment. Dr Daly-Smith is currently a r...

Indoor break is no fun for teachers. This is partly because it’s harder to set up the classroom for the next lesson or get some marking done, but mainly because teachers instinctively understand that children need the time to move around and prepare their brains for learning. A growing body of research by cognitive neurologists backs this up, showing that there is increased brain activity and improved on-task behaviours when tackling cognitive tasks following a period of being physically active. Even with these known benefits, it can be difficult to provide children with regular opportunities to be physically active within the school day, and even harder to ensure they achieve the recommended 30 minutes of in-school moderate-to-vigorous activity every day. One solution is physically active learning (PAL) – an innovative teaching and learning approach which integrates movement into the learning experience. Maths on the Move (MOTM) and English on the Move (EOTM) is an example of PA...

It sounds good, but does physically active learning actually work? Learning maths whilst being physically active. It definitely sounds like fun, but does it really work ? The short answer is yes, it does. A six-week study conducted by academics at Leeds Beckett University has concluded that the Maths on the Move (MOTM) programme both improves maths attainment and increases physical activity levels.   The study, conducted prior to lockdown at the end of 2019, compared outcomes for children taking part in a MOTM programme against control groups who continued with traditional classroom-style maths lessons. All MOTM sessions were delivered by experienced Aspire-trained educators. Children wore accelerometers during the school day to measure their physical activity. This enabled researchers to find out how MOTM affected children’s chances of meeting the in-school activity target of 30 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per day. Compared to the control group: 28...