Start early, benefit for life
It's frightening but research by the Department of Health showed that 41% of children who are overweight at pre-school age become obese adults. We can all help do something about that scary statistic – us, parents, nurseries and other early years educators.
The Early Years Foundation Stage is critical
It's important to ensure young children are given the best start and ongoing opportunity to be active for life. So, for example, are the children in your care fulfilling 120 minutes of physical activity a week? Are those activities structured or simply play? Do those activities encompass gross motor skill development and loco-motor activities that children find fun and can achieve successfully? Do they have access to play spaces, use of equipment and outdoor learning?
How we can help
You can see that this issue can be more complex than you'd think and involve considerable expense in terms of staff time, expertise and other resources.
Don't worry, we can help. The Planet Education team partners a range of private and public sector nursery schools to deliver a selection of programmes to help defeat the inactivity trends.
Big wins from our Little Champs programme
Our innovative Little Champs programme is a selection of fun-packed, multi-skill activities specifically for nursery age children. It has been created with the five early learning goals designed and built in.
Little Champs helps children to:
- move with confidence, imagination and safety, with control and coordination
- show awareness of space, of themselves and others
- recognise the importance of keeping healthy and what contributes to this, including recognising the changes that take place in their bodies when they're active
- use a range of small and large equipment
- travel around, under, over and through balancing and climbing equipment.
Little Champs covers all the essentials – using imagination, creativity and fun to develop skills while also developing the key ABC of Agility, Balance and Co-ordination.
Dance and gymnastics
Nursery age boys and girls love dancing and gymnastics. Both bring them considerable benefits in terms of their health, fitness levels, coordination, self-esteem and learning key skills.
Our early years gymnastics and DynamiX dance classes are not only fun and highly enjoyable but they help develop basic fundamentals such as agility, balance and coordination which will enhance the children's future participation in PE and sport.
Like every service we provide, our support and programmes for nurseries and early years providers are all Ofsted registered, designed to meet National Curriculum standards and delivered by our fully trained, qualified and quality-assured coaches.