Extra PE lessons plan to boost kids’ fitness
Additional activities introduced after pupils ‘in a much different shape’ following lockdowns
SCHOOLCHILDREN are facing an increase in the amount of PE lessons they receive each week amid ongoing health concerns.
Some schools in Hampshire have put additional PE activity into their weekly timetables, with fears that the Covid-19 lockdowns have left children 'in a much different shape'.
At a Hampshire County Council select committee meeting last week, Cllr Lesley Meenaghan, Conservative representative for Leesland and Town, said schools need to push this as a priority. She said: ‘Schoolchildren have spent the best part of two years sat staring at a computer screen all day.
‘I really do hope schools are putting things in place to help these young people improve their physical health.
‘Physical health goes hand-in-hand with mental health, so this is a really important issue to tackle.’ A health and wellbeing report published last year found that a third of Year 6 children and a quarter of Year R pupils are considered either overweight or obese.
Some 32 per cent of children were considered ‘physically inactive’ with the report also noting that the Covid-19 pandemic will have played a significant part in this.
Gosport, Havant and Rushmoor (Aldershot and Farnborough) were considered to be the fattest boroughs in Hampshire.
Natalie Smith, the county council's secondary and post-16 education manager, said: 'There are a number of schools across Hampshire that have increased their physical activity with additional exercise through things like yoga or doing the daily mile.
'Children have come back to school in a much different shape to what they were a few years ago.
‘That's something that is very much at the forefront of headteachers' minds at the moment.'