This week, schools across Warrington are taking part in National School Sports Week with the aim of encouraging more children to be active for at least 60 minutes a day. National School Sports Week is a UK-wide annual campaign to champion the role of PE, physical activity and school sport in allowing all pupils to reach their full potential.
The campaign sees activities taking place in schools, organisations and homes across the country from 19-25 June and has been supported by a number of athletes, celebrities and political figures. Led by charity the Youth Sport Trust, National School Sports Week was launched in 2008 and last year saw 1,359 schools register to take part.
On Monday, staff and pupils at St Vincent’s Catholic Primary School in Penketh were joined by Warrington South’s Member of Parliament, Andy Carter, to mark the start of National School Sports Week. The visit provided the MP with an opportunity to hear pupils talk about the benefits that they get from being physically active and what they find fun.
This year, the campaign is raising awareness of the Chief Medical Officers’ recommendation that children should be highly active with an elevated heart rate for a minimum of 60 minutes each day. It comes at a time when almost three quarters of parents (72%) are concerned that young people today are not getting enough physical activity, with 77% concerned young people spend too much time sitting and not being active.
Speaking after his visit, Andy Carter MP said: “Physical activity and team sports are a great way to help children live happier and healthy lives, so I really enjoyed the opportunity to pay a visit to St Vincent’s Primary School for the start of this year’s National School Sports Week. It was fantastic hearing from the children all about their favourite ways to keep fit and, importantly, have fun while doing so. We have some future Olympians in Warrington and I hope we can encourage their participation at an early age.
“Sadly, too many young people today face challenges to their physical and mental health, especially in the aftermath of the pandemic, so providing them with opportunities to be more active is a great way to help remedy this – be that the egg and spoon race, high jump or relay races. This year’s theme for National School Sports Week is to raise awareness of the recommendation that children should be active for at least 60 minutes each day, and I’m proud to take the pledge to encourage more young people to make physically activity a key part of daily life.”
Alison Oliver MBE, Chief Executive of the Youth Sport Trust, said: “The Chief Medical Officers’ guidelines tell us children need to be active for 60 minutes every day. Yet our research shows us that public awareness of this target is low, even though is it key to children’s health and happiness. Whilst 86% of parents believe that sport and play are important parts of every young person’s education and development, only 42% are aware that children should be active for 60 minutes a day on average over the course of a week.
“We are really grateful to Andy Carter MP for supporting National School Sports Week and encouraging busy schools and families to find fun ways to be active together. This is a key part of the urgent action we need to support more young people, schools and families to play for fun, and play for 60.”
The theme of the campaign this year is ‘Play for fun, play for 60’. The Pledge to Play supports the recommendation that children are active within school for 30 minutes a day, and then outside of school for at least another 30 minutes, supporting every child to reach the minimum amount of 60 active minutes.
