According to ukactive report, Generation Inactive, only “half of seven year olds are meeting the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) physical activity guidelines of 60 minutes per day.” And with the World Health Organization (WHO) considering “childhood obesity one of the most serious global public health challenges”, it is an issue that needs to be tackled head on.
Cue Fitness4life, an exercise programme designed specifically for school children, which has now been launched in Bristol by two UWE students, Marcus Carter and Jack Halls.
Originally developed by Chris Sharman and Matt Roberts, Fitness4life “provides a comprehensive working system that will engage, push and reward children whilst improving their health and fitness within their school environment.”
The programme involves training teachers at local schools across Bristol to deliver the Fitness4life programme to children. Looking not only at improving physical activity and fitness levels, school children can also benefit from increased self-esteem, improved behaviour and academic performance.
Held recently at UWE’s Centre for Sport, Marcus and Jack ran a training session for one local school which involved a presentation by the Fitness4life team, using the Fitness4life online programme and taking part in some of the exercise challenges. Once the initial training is complete, follow up information for teachers is provided so that they can implement the programme into everyday school life and ongoing support and training is offered.
For schools, the Fitness4life programme is designed to fit easily into the existing schedule and for the children it introduces regular, everyday fitness activity in a fun and simple way.
Marcus Carter of Fitness4life Bristol adds, “Chris Sharman and Matt Roberts have developed a programme which could be hugely beneficial to the community and something which could really be successful on a national level. The Fitness4life Programme simply makes it easy for teachers to be able to get children active, with lesson plans and video tutorials. The whole system is easy to use and very user friendly. The programme can be tailored to each individual school depending on how they want to use the programme. We are hosting our next preview training day for schools and teachers in January, we welcome any school in Bristol who wants to attend.”
Marcus is also part of the fantastic sports volunteering programme we have here at UWE, known as EDGE. EDGE enables students and staff to receive funding for a range of coaching and officiating courses and offers a host of sports related volunteering opportunities.
For more information contact Marcus directly at marcuscarter@fitness4life.training or find out more on their Facebook page.