How To Keep Children Active In Schools

As a physical education teacher with a background in athletics. I found teaching started with the basic fundamentals of athletics and the building blocks of running and jumping. Formal athletics is a great starting place and a forerunner to other team sports.

However, I found that many teachers had a misconception about teaching basic movement skills and that unless the 8 lane athletic track was on the school field, lessons would naturally refer back to football and netball. Athletics is always limited to summer.

The other challenge is the majority of Primary school playgrounds today are marked out with full size netball, basketball and tennis markings which ultimately limits all of Key Stage 1 and most of Key Stage 2 in terms of understanding and using the markings for individual and team games. It also limits the success rate of children which reflects how they feel about sports in general.

Over the past 15 years having the opportunity to work with schools, Synthetic Turf Management have focused on delivering surfaces that are designed around physical education by introducing tracks, grid systems and basic themes that incorporate warm ups, running, sprinting, hurdling, jumping and throwing. Even our EYFS markings encourages children under 5 to develop basic movement skills.

Our “Educational Play in Colour” (EPIC) playgrounds transforms your dull yard into a colourful, safe, fully inclusive, year-round space that does not limit children to just competitive team games.

The combination of tracks into MUGA’s invites everyday playtime activities as well as including markings such at Netball. Using our (EPIC) sand dressed 18mm generic hockey surface with a pad system allows for Athletics, Tennis, Netball, Football and general multi-sport. The benefit is the soft but durable surface with non-directional pile ensuring minimal ball deviation.

If you would like further information contact 01642 713555 or info@stmworld.co.uk.