Hearts, bodies and minds
Healthy body, healthy mind
David King describes a successful whole school initiative
Appleford School celebrate their ISA award for their sporting provision
For a number of years it has been accepted that children have become less active, and the impact on their health and prospects has become ever more obvious. Recent NHS data (May 2018) supports this view with over 1/3 of Y6 pupils being overweight and 1/5 classified as obese. As a boarding school with 70% of our pupils spending as much time under our roof as at home, Appleford School decided to tackle this issue head on and make fundamental changes to our curriculum, daily organisation, timetable and extra-curricular programme. After all, if we didn’t do something, who would? It was our aim not only to increase measurable levels of fitness and well-being in all pupils, but to also develop an enhanced range of sporting activities leading to increased participation and involvement in competitive sport. It was therefore decided to restructure the entire school day around access to PE, providing all the necessary resources. The school day was extended to 5pm to provide additional timetabled
lessons in PE for all pupils. This resulted in every child engaging in daily 40 minute planned personal fitness programmes. These programmes were carefully planned and monitored by an increased PE staff body under the oversight of a new Head of PE. This element of change was not focussed primarily on participation in sport, but rather to bring our pupils to a level of fitness whereby participation would become a genuine option. Fitness levels were developed through a circuit training methodology combined with the monitoring of performance of all pupils using a range of performance assessment tools. Twice yearly reports were provided as part of the usual reporting procedures to evidence progress and to make sure parents were fully involved. With a body of healthier, fitter children, a programme of enhanced participation sports was introduced. Rather than optional afterschool clubs, Wednesday afternoons were designated as co-curricular activity lessons, providing 3 hours
Spring 2019
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