Physical activity

Office for Health Improvement and Disparities’s “What works in schools and colleges to increase physical activity?”

A resource for head teachers, college principals, staff working in education settings, school nurses, practitioners, Active Partnerships and wider partners. Promoting the health and wellbeing of pupils and students within schools has the potential to improve both educational and health and wellbeing outcomes.

Download the guidance to increase physical activity among children and young people in schools and colleges (PDF, 1.87MB) from the GOV.UK website.

The NHS Better Health, previously known as Change4life resources have a large variety of physical activities, from their 10 minute “Shake Up” games designed to get children moving with their A to Z list of sports and activities.

The Better Health School Zone is where you as a teacher can create an account which will allow you to download Better Health campaign materials to promote healthy eating, physical activity and dental care.

Office for Health Improvement and Disparities also have resources that support schools to encourage children to change habits and make healthier choices through their 'Our Healthy Year'.

Funetics has a number of programmes supporting schools to raise children’s activity levels, enhancing PE offers, and supporting school outcomes in line with the national PE curriculum.

A multi-award winning resource that provides schools and teachers with lesson plans and resources designed to deliver the Maths and English curriculum through physically active learning. Sign up to their seven day free trial where you can access over 40 lesson plans and resources designed to deliver the Maths and English curriculum through physically active learning.

A digital platform to help Primary Schools teachers get their children more active with thousands of fun, engaging and educational active blasts - providing perfect brain breaks every day!

A complete PE programme so you can deliver lessons with absolute confidence - from dance to gymnastics and games to OAA!

Support mental wellbeing with the structured programme of activities covering social, emotional and physical wellbeing resources.

The BBC movement to support children’s health and wellbeing with a number projects for your school to get involved with and empower your children with their Super Movers Champions, Active Me and Active Friends programmes.

The Daily Mile is a 15 minute run or jog done at a child’s own pace during the school day as part of lesson time, so that children still have a full break and lunchtime. The Daily Mile is not designed as a sport or PE activity, but rather as a health and wellbeing initiative supporting children to reach their 60 minutes of physical activity. Currently in Telford and Wrekin 48 schools and early years settings are already signed up as Daily Mile settings. Here are some case studies of local schools taking part:

• How running can improve health and wellbeing in schools
• How the Daily Mile is making schools better.

The YST are a charity organisation whose aim is to support children to be their best through sport. With 25 years experience of work with physical education, they bring together communities of educators and equip them with the training, practical tools and resources to achieve more for every child.

The YST have a mixture of free and paid for resources, from their Active 30:30 programme designed to reduce sedentary behaviour within schools, to a Governor Trustee Toolkit to support strategic leadership of governing boards. All identifying how high-quality PE, school sport and physical activity can promote and improve the health, wellbeing and wider educational outcomes of pupils in schools. Have a look at the YST website for more information about how they can support your school.

Or why not download their free 60 second physical activity challenge which can be done as a group or as a family in school or at home.

Joe Wicks created the '5 Minutes Move' to support children to still be active while at home, but these are also great to use in classroom when children have been sitting for a long period or have lost focus. Getting them up and moving helps move the blood around the body, as well as increasing oxygen to the brain, which not only supports health but also their learning and retention of information and it can also improve behaviour.

Energize Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin are a charity and the local active partnership who work with local schools and communities to enhance physical activity provision to children and young people alongside reducing sedentary behaviour and providing support and training.

Energize Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin have developed specialist online materials aimed at supporting schools:

• primary webinars
• development of active break times
• primary wellbeing
• active learning
• active families challenge.

The School Games is an opportunity to motivate and support young children across Telford to engage and take part in competitive sport. Our local School Games coordinators are Frankie Williams and Sally Harris, who co-ordinate, organise and run the inter-school competitions which includes, cross country, cricket, netball, dodgeball. If you would like to get in touch regarding the Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin School Games county events, please get in touch by emailing schoolgames@energizestw.org.uk.

An Active Travel programme in a school is a fantastic way to support children to achieve a proportion of their 60 minutes a day of activity which they might not get out of school hours. Active Travel also supports children’s readiness for the school day, as research has shown that children taking part in active travel to school, arrive calmer and more energised for the school day.

If your school would like to discuss implementing an Active Travel programme, such as 'Walking Buses' contact us at roadsafety@telford.gov.uk.

Travel Telford currently offer Bikeability levels one and two to every primary school within the borough with the training aimed at year six pupils. It also offers secondary school pupils the opportunity to undertake Bikeability to a level determined by the pupil. To find out more information on cost and bookings contact us at roadsafety@telford.gov.uk or by calling 01952 384000.

Is your school looking to develop a cycling offer to the children or looking to enhance your cycle to school programme? British Cycling have a number of courses aimed at school cycling provision from training teachers and volunteers to developing your own Ready, Set, Ride programme.

Path to Paris is Team GB and Paralympics GB's free programme. Teachers create a team for their class or school, then their pupils get active and log their activity online to power their team around the world to reach Paris in time for the Games.

As you virtually travel the distance around the world learning more about the Olympic and Paralympic Games, sports and athletes, you'll be in with a chance to win loads of amazing prizes along the way.

The full programme launches in September 2023, but there's lots of ways you can start your training today.

The Creating Active Schools (CAS) Framework has been developed by researchers and practitioners to sustainably embed physical activity throughout the school so that everyone understands its benefits and can easily implement it in their practice.

Energize (the local active partnership) has been part of the national CAS pilot and has created a series of videos to highlight how local schools have successfully increased the physical activity levels of their pupils.

NumberFit was created by a group of socially-minded mathematicians, educators, designers, researchers and pop culture enthusiasts, passionate about sharing their knowledge and creating a fun environment for children to learn in.

Their mission is 'a world full of healthy children loving learning' and they have created active learning resources to support children to develop their maths skills in a fun and active way.

There are a few FREE lesson plans for you to take advantage of that cover Early Years to 14 years.