Biggest study of its kind followed 17,000 pupils wearing activity trackers and found only 30% of pupils get enough physical activity during school hours
Less than a third of kids are getting enough activity and exercise during the school day, research shows.
The largest ever study of its kind followed 17,000 pupils wearing activity trackers and revealed only 30% of pupils meet the recommended 30 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) per day during school hours. The research by Bath University looked at 165 primary schools in England and showed that playground size had no bearing on activity levels – challenging the assumption that more space equals more exercise.
It also put trackers on 2,300 teachers and those who were more active tended to teach more active pupils, suggesting these teachers were encouraging or enabling more activity.
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Tim Hollingsworth, professor of sport at the university and former chief executive of Sport England, said: “The findings of this study provide further evidence that we are failing our children and young people when it comes to prioritising health and activity.
“The lesson we should take from this is that it is about more than formal sport provision. It is about enabling teachers to give greater focus to activity across all of the school day.”
In some schools, pupils averaged just eight minutes of MVPA while in others they exceeded 40 minutes, over five times more. Daily step counts ranged from 1,800 to over 10,000 steps per pupil.
Boys were generally more active but at 5% of schools girls outperformed boys and several others showed minimal differences.
Lead author Georgina Wort said: “It is really important to consider the health and wellbeing impacts of these findings. Many children are not getting enough opportunity to engage in meaningful movement within a school day.
“It’s also noteworthy that, despite the same policy conditions, some schools had pupils achieving double or triple the levels of physical activity compared to other schools.
“These findings highlight health inequalities in physical activity during the school day. And this is unlikely to be fixed by playground space alone.
“The variability in the gender gap also challenges long-held assumptions. We often hear that boys are just more active. But our data shows this is not inevitable, and some schools are already achieving equity.”
Children at schools in poorer areas did 25 minutes less MVPA each week. Researchers suspect the influence of staff leadership and school culture was influencing how active pupils were.
Co-author Professor Dylan Thompson said: “This study highlights how we need to do more to help many schools increase physical activity during the school day. Wearable technology could be used to help teachers identify pupils who need more support, or perhaps to identify times of the school week that are particularly sedentary.
“Schools could also share knowledge and learning, for example, schools with data showing lower levels of physical activity could learn from schools with higher levels of physical activity to understand what they could do differently.”