In recent years, the need to improve children’s physical activity levels has become a concerning issue. According to studies, globally, 50% of children do not meet the internationally recognised target of 60 mins of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per day. These figures make the promotion of health-enhancing physical activity in all settings and at all levels a priority. One of the most promising solutions to address the problem is the whole-school approach, where primary and secondary schools adopt programmes to not only keep students active throughout the school day, but most importantly to promote healthy habits and lifestyles.
A recent study conducted in the UK and published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity supports the above claims and shows that in order to create effective interventions, it is necessary to have input from various stakeholders (researchers, public health specialists, teachers, national organisations, etc.). In fact, the research presents the results of the Creating Active Schools Framework, a potential paradigm and method to guide future co-production by multiple experts of Physical Activity initiatives ‘with’ schools.
EuropeActive works towards these goals and is a partner of the HEPA project, a 2-year Erasmus+ project that aims to address the need to cultivate healthy habits from the early years by focusing on the effect of school and school physical education.
Specifically, the project’s objectives are to adopt a school-based holistic approach to promote leisure time physical activity by including a wide and diverse group of teachers and relevant stakeholders (i.e., physical education teachers, head teachers, school psychologists, school sociologists, other school support staff as well as educational authorities) to develop an educational resource to be used by teachers, academics and educational authorities. In this way, evidence and practical examples will be provided to teachers and relevant stakeholders to incorporate courses on health-enhancing physical activity in their educational curricula.
For more information about the Active Schools Framework follow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JLbjqJArYU
For more information about the HEPA project follow: https://sites.google.com/view/hepaproject2020/home?authuser=0%C2%A0