Written evidence submitted by Fitmedia

Background

Fitmedia is a specialist fitness company which provides health and fitness assessment systems for children, designed specifically for use by schools, local authorities and sporting organisations.  

We assess children of all ages and abilities, from 6 to 18 years, to provide a complete overview of a child’s physical movement skills, their levels of fitness and their own individual physical aptitudes. Our testing can also help identify and highlight potential causes for concern, such as low levels of fitness or specific injuries or areas of weakness.

We also carry out assessments in general wellbeing, including mental health, emotional stability and social isolation.

Through our work, we have extensive experience in how children engage in physical activity in schools and outside the curriculum.

How can schools better enable children to develop positive and life-long relationships with sport and physical education?

1. In our experience, the single most important thing is to undertake physical literacy assessments at primary school level.

2. This is for two reasons: firstly, to ensure that children have the skills they need to be physically active; and secondly, to enable them to find an activity enjoyable and appropriate for them.

Physical literacy Skills Attainment

3. Physical literacy is just as important as the ability to read and write.  The skills inherent in physical literacy (such as running, jumping, throwing) significantly contribute to children’s physical, cognitive and social development.  Without these, children’s interest and ability to participate in physical activity is vastly reduced, whilst the failure to develop movement skills limits their essential mobility as they move into adulthood. Physical literacy also helps contribute significantly to sporting prowess – cross-sectional evidence shows that proficiency in fundamental motor skills provides the foundation for the development of sport specific skills.

4. Finally, and perhaps most significantly, physical literacy can play an important role in long term health, with studies showing low level of motor proficiency in childhood is related to childhood obesity. 

5. Despite, this, nearly half of primary school pupils are now leaving school without basic movement skills. [1]  

6. This is partly because there are no minimum standards for physical literacy. [2]  This is contrast to the rest of the core academic curriculum subjects, which are assessed in primary schools in Year 2 and Year 6 by means of the SATs.

7. The result of is that an increasing number of children are leaving school without understanding, or being able to achieve, basic movement skills.  This means:

• they are ill-prepared for the PE lessons they will get in secondary school, and cannot take advantage of the greater range of PE on offer
• they are less active, and therefore less fit
• they are more likely to cease being physically active.

8. Regular physical literacy assessments would:

• Ensure that all children leave primary school with the basic skills required to be activity as they grow
• Provide children with confidence in their physical abilities [3]
• Help engage children at an early age with physical movement and aptitudes
• Enable those who are struggling to be identified, so that specific programmes or interventions can be set up to aid them. 

Finding Their Activity

9. Childhood experiences in Physical Education (PE) and school sports can be a key determining feature in how people view sport and physical activity over their entire life. It can define how people active people are, not just in school but throughout their life. [4] Good PE provision is therefore vital, both to encourage physical activity in children and as a means to ensure lifelong physical activity habits as adults. [5]

10. In short, active children become active adults.

11. Good experience in PE and providing something they enjoy is therefore essential in ensuring children start and sustain active habits.  This is supported by the recognised maxim “The best exercise is the one you will do again”. Enjoyment is both a predictor and outcome of physical activity participation: [6] essentially, if you enjoy the activity, you will do it again.

12. At the same time, people generally enjoy what they’re good at.  Doing something well provides confidence, self-efficacy and the desire to repeat it. 

13. But children are different.  In any classroom there will be a wide range of abilities, interests, and natural skills. [7] And children’s physical size and abilities will have a large influence on what they excel at, and therefore enjoy.  For example, some children are natural runners, and will be happiest on sprints or cross country.  Some have no innate hand to eye coordination, so ball games such as netball or football are difficult and hard to enjoy. Some children are strong, but not fast; some are agile but lack endurance.

14. At the same time, recent research into youth personalities suggested that only 10% of any class will be sports enthusiasts, with a genuine passion for sport.  Others will be intellectuals, who care more about music or gaming than physical activity; introverts, who will take part because they have to’; or everyday youths, who take part to spend time with their friends. [8]

15. The key to providing a positive PE experience is therefore to find and provide appropriate and enjoyable activities for each child.  And that begins with understanding their natural skills and aptitudes.

16. This can be done simply and easily through provision of skills assessments.  Simple tests looking at aspects such as agility, hand to eye coordination, muscular strength or endurance can provide an instant and detailed overview of a child’s natural abilities.  These can then be used to guide the teacher and the child towards activities they would excel in and enjoy.

17. For example, those who lack agility but have good upper body strength can be led towards sports such as judo or wrestling; those who are well coordinated but lack endurance can excel at sprints or jumping; those with no object control but high levels of endurance can enjoy sports such as rowing, canoeing or sailing.

18. Finding an activity they enjoy can then transform a child’s attitude to physical activity for the rest of their life.  In our work assessing skills and development in children, we have seen firsthand the benefits of this approach.

19. In a school in north London, we assessed a class of 30 children, who had a wide range of different abilities. One boy in particular was somewhat heavier than the rest, and was not confident or enthusiastic about PE. He was highly self-conscious and did not want to take part in the session.  However, we persuaded him to try the Handgrip which measures upper body strength (heavier children tend to do much better in this test than their lighter peers).

20. The results showed that he was the strongest child in his class (by some margin). The transformation in him was instant.  A huge smile, a leap of joy, and amazement and then admiration from his classmates, who instantly wanted to ask how he had done it.

21. We returned a few months later for another assessment and the change in the boy was huge. He was the first to greet us on arrival and instantly started talking.  He had apparently told his parents of his strength results, and his father, really proud of him, suggested they try some activities together. Since then, he and his father had been practicing press ups and gym activities every day. He had been getting steadily fitter and was now desperate to show us how he had improved. 

22. His view of himself had changed dramatically – from someone who wasn’t as good at PE as his classmates, to someone who was stronger than them, and now wanted to take part. In addition, his classmates now saw him differently too, with a new level of respect and curiosity, and he was subsequently included and involved in many more activities. In addition, all the children had since started trying to improve their strength in anticipation or our return!

23. This is one example of how finding a child’s natural ability can change not only their view of physical activity, but their life.  It can lead to increased confidence, improved self-efficacy, and the opportunity to find their niche and their sport. 

24. This is not a novel approach and simply reflects educational practice elsewhere.  For example, children are encouraged from the age of 15 to find subjects that appeal to them and specialise in them: this approach is at the core of our approach to all qualifications from GCSEs and A levels all the way up to undergraduate and post graduate study.  Meanwhile in many schools, children are assessed in core academic subjects and then grouped in accordance with their results, to make sure they are taught in a way that will be most effective for them.

25. There is no reason this should not be applied in the field of sport and physical activity.  In fact, given the importance of PE and physical activity in development, it is essential. 

What can be done to engage groups with lower participation rates - such as girls, those with disabilities or from lower socio-economic backgrounds?

26. We have worked in a wide range of schools, from large fee-paying schools to small state funded primary schools in inner London boroughs.

27. A common theme in the public narrative about children’s fitness and skill levels is that these broadly correlate to their social and demographic background: that the more affluent their background, the fitter and more active they will be.

28. However, in our work we have never seen this direct correlation.  We have seen higher levels of physical fitness and stronger skill sets and in state schools than in many private schools. We have also seen children from deprived and lower socioeconomic backgrounds more engaged in physical activity than those from wealthier backgrounds.

29. The single most powerful factor we have found in this area is the level of PE teaching. An experienced and enthusiastic PE teacher is the most potent indicator that the children will be engaged and interested in physical activity.  We have found this applies irrespective of location, age, level of deprivation or socioeconomic background of the children.

30. We have also seen this for children with disabilities.  We have seen teachers encourage children in wheelchairs to undertake running tests, and to help children with cerebral palsy or autism to try a strength test.  Without exception, the children have enjoyed it, have felt included and have wanted to repeat the exercise. 

31. One of the occasions in which we were nearly moved to tears was watching an eight year old boy in a wheelchair race against one of his classmates in a 5m agility run.  All his classmates cheered on passionately, and he loved the challenge of trying to wheel faster than his classmate could run.  The joy on his face, and the excitement of his classmates watching him, were unforgettable.

32. It taught us that the most important thing you can do for children who are differently abled is to include them and involve them in whatever physical activity the rest of their classmates are doing.  The confidence and the enjoyment they gain from doing this gives them the self-efficacy to keep trying new physical activities and to keep active - despite their disabilities.

33. However, this requires experienced and engaged PE teachers, who not only know their students well, but also have sufficient knowledge of their discipline to know which activities would be safe and appropriate.

34. However, this is rarely the case. A study from 2016 showed delivery of PE curriculum as follows:

35. This is problematic, as generalist primary school teachers are not provided with sufficient PE and physical activity training as part of their teacher training.  Primary PE literature suggests that primary PEITT in the UK can amount to the following:

• nine hours of taught contact time (within a one year Post Graduate Certificate of Education course)
• five hours for those involved with School Centred Initial Teacher Training (SCITT) at some training institutions [9]

36. At the same time, outsourcing PE and school sports to external coaching companies is increasing: it is estimated that over 80% of primary schools spent some of the PE & Sport Premium on external sports coaches.

37. However, such external companies do not have the insight or knowledge of individual children, and are often profit making organisations, meaning that they will not prioritise specialist or tailored provision for individual children or schools.

38. It is therefore our recommendation that the most effective tool for engagement is provision of a specialist, qualified PE teacher, to lead PE and physical activity provision for every primary school.  This is view supported by a number of experts in school sport, including the Association for Physical Education and the Sport and Recreation. [10]

39. In addition, PE and school sport training programme should be included in initial teacher training and extends to all class teachers, including primary school teachers. This would cover sport in the same way as core academic subjects are covered in existing teacher training. This would ensure that all the teachers in any school have a basic understanding of what is required for effective PE and how it can be impactful for all their students.

For more information please contact:

Alex Scott-Bayfield, Director of Strategy and Operations