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Children’s fitness just as important as maths and English, report states

1st September 2015 Print
Children

Knowing your multiplication tables and how to properly word a letter are one thing, but too few schools in Britain are actively testing fitness levels in children, as discussed in a statement released by non-profit health body ukactive. The report, titled 'Generation Inactive', believed that only half of the seven-year-olds surveyed in the UK met the requirement of an hour’s worth of activity each day.

As first reported by ITV.com, Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, former British Paralympian champion and current chair of ukactive, said that schools’ PE programs in general simply aren’t sufficient for today’s children. "The current national ambition focused solely around PE lessons is simply not bold enough," she said. "We should aim higher and demand more." Grey-Thompson further added: "Schools which have adopted such an approach have had outstanding success in enhancing the health and wellbeing of their students as well as their educational attainment."

ukactive found that 43 per cent of schools surveyed actually tracked the amount of time that children were being active, and that a child that isn’t necessarily overweight can still be unhealthy. An answer to this dilemma was ensuring that schools make activity and movement a bigger focus on the entire day, rather than the allotted two hours minimum a week. It’s also hoped that parents and children would learn early on about eating healthy, and the health risks associated with bad nutrition and limited exercise.

Professor Russell Viner of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, spoke of the importance that a good knowledge of a healthy routine could reap huge benefits in the future. "We already know that a healthy child is much more likely to go on to be a healthy adult, so it is important that we set children on the right trajectory from an early age and continue to encourage healthy lifestyles as they move through life," he said.

Market Potential

With concerns over health and fitness regarding young people seemingly on everyone’s mind, many companies are putting such matters to the forefront of their business. ergobag for one, are focusing their attention to providing school bags with strong ergonomic principles. Meaning that each backpack is designed to take the strain off children’s back and distribute the weight equally across the body. The bags are also height-adjustable, to cope with the rapid growth spurts of children at a primary and early secondary school age.

Additionally, Sony has recently introduced the SmartBand 2, a wristband that can provide detailed insights into heart and overall health levels. It does this by tracking walking, running and even your sleep patterns. The band’s sensors work to detect heart rate variability, which measures general fitness, excitement and stress levels over the course of the day.

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Children