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...

How much energy do you use trying to get pupils to be quiet, to be focused, to just sit still? How much time is spent by you getting pupils to conform to classroom convention and how much by them trying to resist their natural disposition to move? It’s exhausting for both you as a teacher with a pressure to keep the classroom calm and pupils as children with bounds of energy. The first ten years of a child’s life shapes their preferences and motivations, it’s a critical window for creating a lifelong commitment to physical activity. If we’re continuously telling children to sit still, what impression are we giving of movement, what long term impact are we having? So, rather than waste all this time and energy trying to conform to classroom convention why not just change it ? Really, where does having to sit to learn even come from? Well, apparently the first school desk was made in 1881. 1881! A lot has changed since 1881, apparently not, however, a classroom environmen...

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...