OBESITY ty conundrum


translates into genuine behaviour and attitude change outside of school. It is unrealistic to expect schools to bring about


long-lasting changes in children’s behaviours without support from families. Very few schemes so far have included the involvement of wider communities, so it is still unclear whether this would make a difference to effectiveness. But with limited time and resources, it would make sense for future projects to involve more community links to encourage increased physical activity and improved dietary habits out of school. There have been a great range of schemes adopted by


schools so far, with a real variety in terms of actual impact – but an obvious feature of them has been that none has yet found an effective means of engaging with families. Schools will never be able to solve the problem of


obesity on their own, and any kinds of schemes within the education sector have to be just one part of larger government action in fundamental areas which are known to help, such as promotion of breast-feeding, reform of welfare schemes to encourage access to better diets among poorer families, regulation of the food and drinks industries and the advertising associated with them, as well as encouragement of active lifestyles. Schemes need to be targeted. Specific ideas and


approaches are needed for those young people who are already overweight and obese which support and help rather than stigmatise these groups. Whole-population approaches might not always be suitable – particularly where there are children who are generally underweight, not at risk of becoming overweight, or where there are risks of making food a problem.


SecEd


• Dr Geraldine Hutchinson is assistant director of the UK Services Group at CfBT Education Trust.


Further information


The full report, Tackling Childhood Obesity Within Schools: A Review of Interventions, produced by Janet Wordley and Professor Rachael Dixey of Leeds Metropolitan University on behalf of CfBT Education Trust, is available from www.cfbt.com


Independent thinking Believing in our children


INSPITE of politicians’ mantras, such as “education, education, education”, vast numbers of British people do not seem to value education very highly at all. They may say that they recognise the importance


in order to influence positively the wider environment in terms of physical activity opportunities for young people more generally. Play-based methods have also been shown to be


a useful vehicle for nutrition education as opposed to just warnings or advice about what students should not eat. They appear to increase knowledge, but it is less clear whether they are effective at actually promoting behaviour change. Games incorporating behaviour change techniques


have shown that dietary behaviour changes can occur while eating at school, but there is no sense of whether they have impact on habits at home. For instance, a board game has been used in schools


in Naples, Italy. Players had to match differences between total energy intake (with nutrition cards) and total energy output (with activity cards). At the end of their 24-week study they reported that the young people involved showed a significant increase in their nutritional knowledge compared to others. No significant differences were seen in BMI in either the control or intervention groups and no difference was reported between the groups. Other projects have included the reduction of


carbonated drink consumption. One-hour education sessions each term encouraged young people not to drink carbonated drinks and to switch to water and diluted fruit juice. They reported that 12 months after the intervention


had finished, the percentage of overweight and obese children in the control group had increased by 7.5 per cent compared to intervention children where a decrease of 0.2 per cent was reported. However, this difference did not remain after an


additional two years follow-up, indicating that the intervention had no longer-term effects and suggesting that such schemes need to be maintained for long periods. Evidence from a study investigating the relationship


between school lunches and vending machine options and adolescents’ dietary intakes has shown that when students are provided with a greater availability of higher fat foods, their intakes of more healthy foods


SecEd • September 30 2010


was lower. So food choices within schools can have significant effects on students’ diet. One innovative approach has been the development


of an interactive multimedia CD-Rom, designed to promote nutrition education in 12-year-old secondary school children in the UK. Dish it Up! aimed to promote independent decision-making and self-esteem around healthy eating. The programme guided pupils through a virtual school day and rehearsed the choices that are made about diet. As a result, the young people involved were found to significantly increase the frequency of their consumption of fruit, pasta, yogurt, breakfast cereals and reduced their frequency of eating sweets. Before leaping into a particular programme, schools


need to be aware of the kinds of barriers and challenges to implementing something sustainable. At a time of tight budgets, there are going to be limitations on anything which is not considered a core role, and that means additional facilities and extra-curricular activities. Studies have also shown that children can be


prevented from taking part in physical activity by any costs involved, distance and availability for structured activities – as well as intimidation from older children and a perceived lack of safety of the play areas available. There can be a considerable burden to school


administrators in terms of planning and budgeting, as well as to teachers in terms of training to deliver the programme and then in implementing the programme. Any kind of awareness-raising and highlighting


of obesity can have detrimental effects for some children, with the potential for programmes to end up stigmatising overweight children, encouraging fear of food and negative body image. Evidence suggests that prejudiced viewpoints about obese children do exist among teachers – to what extent is unknown – but teachers’ attitudes towards obesity will be transferred to the children they teach. School-based programmes have clearly been


successful in improving children’s dietary and physical activity behaviours while they are in the controlled environment of a school. The issue is whether this


of education, but they do not translate this into practice, for example, by supporting their own children’s schooling or by increasing their own skills and making the most of opportunities for their own further learning. Yet study after study have shown that parental involvement and support really do make a difference and improve children’s chances of succeeding. I was recently at an event where


an eminent professor of medicine was the guest speaker. He astonished his audience, many of whom were headteachers, teachers and governors, by stating that he believed education was far more important than medicine and had a greater chance of making a real difference to people’s lives. He argued his case powerfully,


identifying the major threat to modern developed societies, such as the USA, as obesity, which then may well lead to diabetes and present huge health problems. Proper education about diet and exercise should reduce obesity and lead to longer healthier lives. Smoking was identified as another major contributor to premature death and again had been shown to be more prevalent among the poor and the less well educated. If we turn our gaze to the less well


developed areas of the world, we see that there, too, education is the key to raising living standards and improving health. Education is certainly more highly valued


in many developing countries than in the UK – as is shown by the fact that many people on very low incomes will endeavour to find the money to pay for their children’s schooling, since good quality free education is often not available. It has also long been acknowledged that it is


educating the women, and in particular mothers, in the developing world which makes the greatest difference to children’s lives.


Newly published academic research has shown


that in Britain, too, mothers are now the strongest influence on their children’s educational achievement and the key to social mobility. The evidence shows that for every additional year a woman stays in full- time education, the chance of her daughters staying in education increased by 20 per cent (10 per cent for her sons). However, apparently, the educational level or wealth of the father has no significant effect. This is an interesting study, but it seems to fly in the face of much that has been taken for granted. For example, John Humphrys


has just made a powerful television programme about how unjust it is that “rich thick kids” regularly outperform bright poor ones. Is it parental wealth and privilege which affects one’s life chances or is it that a well educated


mother is more likely not to end up on the breadline? Certainly, my personal experience


over many years of teaching in all sorts of schools, on university courses and indeed in prisons, indicates that where a family values education, their offspring are more likely to be


successful. Only 30 years ago very few women went to university and many left school early with few, if any, qualifications. Yet some of these without qualifications became


powerful mothers who made sure that their children gained as much as they could from


their education. Perhaps it is women who are the major


influence, perhaps it is the wider family (or even teachers?) – but the key seems also to be high expectations, which is not news to teachers. If we really believe in our young people and what they can achieve then our future should be safe in their hands.


• Marion Gibbs is headmistress of the independent James Allen’s Girls’ School in London.


Assembly corner


“It is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin, barefoot irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known, but


to question it.” Jacob Bronowski, 1908-1974, British polymath who wrote and presented The Ascent of Man


“Who dares to teach must


never cease to learn.” John Cotton Dana, 1856-1929, American librarian and museum director


“Education makes people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to govern, but


impossible to enslave.” Henry Peter Broughan, 1778-1868, Scottish inventor, lawyer and politician


“Education would be so much more effective if its purpose were to ensure that by the time they leave school every boy and girl should know how much they don’t know, and be imbued with a


lifelong desire to know it.” Sir William Haley, 1901-1987, British, former director general of the BBC, editor of The Times, and editor-in- chief of the Encyclopaedia Britannica


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