RB GYM AND SPORT

1 in 5 children are overweight or obese when they begin school. 1 in 3 children are overweight or obese by the time they leave primary school. Surprised? What about when we tell you that: The number of children walking to school is decreasing. On average, 70% of children’s classroom time is spent sitting. Children spend up to half of their after-school period sedentary . Children become less physically active in primary school. Still surprised? 190 days a year of a child’s life is spent at school, that’s the majority of their time. So, what does this mean? It means schools, your school, has a unique chance to have a significant impact, to change the statistics. Because they’re not just statistics; it’s the lives of children, it’s their present and future well-being and it’s part of our responsibility. How do you seize this opportunity to support children’s health and well-being? Increase physical activity by making the most of the school day. And in doing so, we’re not...

Giving children an education is more than just mastering English and Maths, it’s also about the activities that encompass children’s learning through new involvements and opportunities. So how do enrichments days benefit primary school pupils? Let’s take a trip down memory lane… what do you remember most from your primary school days? Is it the day you mastered Bodmas? Or… the day you learnt the terms ‘root words, prefixes and suffixes’? My guess is that you remember school trips? Activity days? A themed day in school where you were off the curriculum? Days like this are called Enrichment Days. They play an essential role in children's learning, important for providing children with new experiences, extending their learning, and making the school day more fun! Although there’s no statutory requirement for schools to provide enrichment opportunities, it’s encouraged by the Department for Education (DfE) and Ofsted. Ofsted’s inspection framework emphasises the importanc...

For children, schools provide the most accessible, and sometimes only opportunity for regular, structured play, physical education, physical activity, and sports.  And with so many children still learning from home, dropping in and out of self isolation, the opportunity for physical activity can become even more diminished.  During the first lockdown, only 19% of children met the recommended 1 hour of physical activity per day.   20% of inactive children stated that not going to school has reduced opportunities to be active. Therefore the importance of providing opportunities and keeping pupils activity level s  up within school should fall high on schools agendas.   To help schools effective spend there sport premium, Association for Physical Education (afPE) have recently released ' Covid-19 and school funding: 7 top tips for spending the Primary PE and Sport Premium' Below, we have outlined the Tips that we can directly help you to action:  TIP: Sus...

One of the aims of the Sport Premium Funding is to increase Confidence, Knowledge and Skills of all staff in teaching P.E and Sport. The Funding encourages you to do this by: Providing staff with professional development, mentoring, training and resources to help them teach PE and sport more effectively and embed physical activity across your school. Hiring qualified sports coaches to work with teachers to enhance or extend current opportunities.   To ensure you are getting High Quality CPD, below are some Key indicators that you should consider when choosing your provider of CPD and areas you should be questioning.   Can the impact of the CPD be measured? Do you receive impact reports at the end of the academic year/term to outline how teachers have developed their knowledge, confidence and skills after undergoing CPD? Recorded Evidence: Effective CPD should re...

You’ve probably heard about it by now, the idea of physically active learning. Gone are the days when pupils would spend an entire hour sat behind their desks.    Okay, we may be being bit optimistic suggesting this no longer happens, but we can dream, can’t we?   And why do we dream this to be a thing of the past? You only have to look at the facts…     Enhanced academic achievement   Did you know that after 2 years of physically active learning , a child could be 4 months ahead in maths and spelling in comparison to seated learning?   There’s no shortage of research that supports the use of long-term physically active learning. A study looking into the effects of physical activity on academic achievement found the impact to be strongest in maths, yet all academic subjects were proven to benefit.   Improved attention   Physical activity has a significant impact on the focus of an individual. You may be thinking, surely getti...

You know the saying ‘It does what it says on the tin’? Well, that’s Maths on the Move. It’s doing maths whilst on the move.   Of course there’s a whole lot more to say about this innovative programme designed by teachers for teachers; but the concept is that simple.   First, some hard hitting facts   ·         33% of 4 to 11 year olds in the UK are overweight or obese   ·         Children aged 5 - 16 spend on average 6hrs per day in front of screens   ·         On average, 70% of children’s classroom time is spent sitting.     Think of a classroom. What do you picture? Teacher standing at the front and pupils sat behind desks? Yes, because so often that is the picture, shown by the 70% statistic.    But why is it? Perhaps more importantly, why does it have to be? Turns out it doesn’t.   We know because we’ve seen ...

Why Gymnastics is Important for Children! Parents often enrol their children in gymnastics hoping they will be the next Olympic gymnastics star...and may  be they will! But more likely than not, their time in the sport won’t be on such a worldwide stage. However, that doesn’t mean that if your child never wins a gold medal there is nothing to be gained from participating in the sport.  From the very first day they step foot on the floor, children gain so much from the sport of gymnastics. Even if a child never makes it past the first level, they will learn lifelong lessons.  Here are just a few.  1. Commitment Even if their class is just once a week, they learn the meaning of commitment. Gymnastics class is somewhere children go regularly, and they get used to going there at the same day and time every week. When they sign up, they are committing to going to every class, or at least most of them. From the first class to the last there are many weeks in between, and t...