Early Years Activity Problem- Tackle it Head on with Outdoor PE Facilities

Over recent years we have seen some shocking statistics regarding the number of younger early years pupils getting that all important exercise. Just this year it has come out that “Only 10% of children aged 2-5years old get 180 minutes of physical activity everyday”- BHFNC. This very important stage of a child’s life can often be neglected but there are so many different (and easy!) ways to tackle this problem head on and to start children off on the right path to leading healthy and active lives.

A whole school approach to being active is the key to success!

How Much Exercise Should Children be Getting?

Although the guidelines state children should be getting at least 60 minutes a day, many articles point it to a much larger number than this and to see that only 10% receive 180 minutes or over is rather unnerving. At Synthetic Turf Management, we believe this should be much larger due to several different factors that effect a child’s activity. The most important one being the school. During the school day, this may very well be the only time that children do exercise, many will go home to play on computer devices and this could be repeated during the weekend too leading to increased levels of inactivity which is why we think schools should do all they can to encourage as much exercise as possible.

Outdoor PE facilities are proven to be a key factor in tackling inactivity among early years children.

What Can Schools do to Tackle Pupil Inactivity?

There are many different things schools should do to help increase physical activity amongst early years pupils:

• Communicate- speak to staff, parents, children and all other different stakeholders. Say what you want to do and work on a whole school approach.
• Plan- integrate physical activity into many different lessons/activities, there’s a whole bank of information online to help.
• Examine your facilities- one of the best ways to encourage activity, is to make the outdoor PE facilities look attractive enough that children don’t want to go inside. We find that early years children enjoy colourful playground surfaces (particularly nursery students) with characters, insects and educative markings.

Start right, speak to your artificial turf installers today on how your school/nursery/community play area can work together as a nation to tackle the growing problem of activity in early years pupils.

01642 713 555

info@stmworld.co.uk