A Beaconhurst sports initiative which teaches movement skills to children as young as three has been given the seal of approval by Stirling University academics.
Beaconhurst sports project gets top marks in academic study... would be quite so marked.”
Researchers launched a study into the pilot project which sees the school’s nursery pupils learning basic skills such as running, jumping and throwing during daily PE sessions. The aim is to encourage youngsters to take up sport from an early age and plans are now underway to roll the ground-breaking project out to other nurseries.
The research, led by Stirling student Ross McKechnie, evaluated the project’s eff ectiveness by comparing the Beaconhurst youngsters with a control group of pre-school children from another nursery. He analysed how well each group performed tasks like hopping, jumping and catching a ball and found the Beaconhurst children “signifi cantly outperformed” their peers in these basic movement skills.
Mr McKechnie, a Sports Studies graduate, says: “I was surprised by how much of a diff erence there was between the two sets of children in skills like hopping, jumping, throwing and bouncing a ball. “I expected some diff erence because of the programme running at Beaconhurst but didn’t think it
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The Beaconhurst project is delivered by nursery staff at the independent Bridge of Allan school who have all completed a ten- week Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS) course. The course - ratifi ed by the Scottish Qualifi cations Authority - was developed by Stirling University’s School of Sport following studies which show early childhood is a critical period to develop such skills. Research indicates children who do not master them early are less likely to participate in sport as they get older.
After analysing the eff ects of the programme, Mr McKechnie wants to see more pre-school children benefi tting from the scheme. And university staff are now looking into extending the programme.
Nicola Duff y, Sports Participation Offi cer at Stirling University, says: “Work is now being undertaken to roll the programme out to other local authorities and to establish further research and analysis.”
Beaconhurst School’s Director of Sport Judith Ramsay is delighted with the endorsement the programme has received.
“We are
delighted with the results and will continue to monitor the pupils involved to assess longer term eff ects.”
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