Widespread inactivity amongst children has prompted calls for the prioritisation of extracurricular sport guidelines during the lockdown.
Two organisations at the forefront of advocating for increased physical activity, Youth Sport Trust and UKactive, have stressed that it is and should be at the core of learning.
For both, an incremental guide to getting children physically active, before schools open is key to reducing the impact of inactivity for the current cohort of school children.
Poor weather, winter holidays, successive lockdowns and confusion over extracurricular sports restrictions have reduced many children’s access to activity.
For some, this means that more than 3 months have passed with only term-time P.E. in whatever capacity was possible within restrictions.
Chair of UKactive, Baroness Tanni Gray-Thompson has put forward three main ways to support children into activity:
- To support children during lockdowns and closures with virtual education, food provisions and educational resources for parents
- To work with national and community partners to get children active, and to extend access to school facilities during the holidays.
- To ensure happy, mentally stable children in the UK, who are on track to become the most active in the world by 2031.
To find out more from UKactive see here
