CHILDHOOD OBESITY
Feature focus: Tackling childhood obesity E
very year, Public Health England, the body responsible for protecting and
improving the nation’s health and wellbeing, measures the height and weight of around one million school children in England as part of its National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP). This provides a detailed picture of the prevalence of child obesity. The latest figures, for 2015/16, show that 19.8% of children in Year 6 (aged 10-11) were obese and a further 14.3% were overweight. Of children in Reception (aged 4-5), 9.3% were obese and another 12.8% were overweight. This means a third of 10- 11 year olds and over a fifth of 4-5 year olds were overweight or obese.
In light of these sobering figures, our second
piece on childhood obesity this month features three companies involved in the provision of physical education products and services to the nation’s schools, and asks what can be done to encourage children to become more active, and to get into the routine of exercising regularly from a young age, in the hope that it remains a part of their lives well into the future. For Maria Yates, Director at Balanceability, the
UK's first accredited 'learn to cycle' programme for children aged 2½ to 6 years old, it was a trip to Germany that sparked an idea that has now grown into a nationwide programme. “When we were visiting my mother-in-law in
Germany, my husband and I saw for ourselves how widely balance bikes are used there, as well as in many other European countries. Paediatricians in Germany even use balance bike as a way of assessing children’s physical development. We bought a balance bike for our son, who was then just 2½, and we were astonished at how quickly he got the hang of it. “Back home, I began to look at what was
happening here. I was horrified to discover that 42 per cent of six-year-olds in the UK could not ride a pedal bike. “I realised that we were missing a trick. So
much of the concern about obesity tries to tackle existing problems and to undo bad habits. But with balance bikes, very young children have the opportunity to adopt healthy, active habits as a routine part of daily life. They side-step obesity before it even becomes an issue.
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www.education-today.co.uk April 2017
“Balanceability launched in 2008. We train
people to deliver Balanceability in their own schools and communities. In early 2015, we were thrilled when East Sussex County Council decided to incorporate Balanceability into an initiative to improve physical activity; some 210 practitioners attended Balanceability training. Children from 130 early years’ settings around East Sussex now have access to balance bikes, which is hugely rewarding for us.” For Maria, the ultimate goal is one in which
everyone participates in, and enjoys the health benefits of, cycling. “Our dream is to see more children on bikes, more families cycling for fun, leisure and travel as a matter of routine. If children can cycle, they have the chance to stay fit
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