“(The SHEU survey) was very, very useful. It gave us reassurance we weren’t missing a trick. For example not many pupils in the sample year groups were taking illegal drugs, which re-enforced our opinions. But the survey also raised issues and flagged some things up. We discovered that some of our girls weren’t eating enough – the percentage of girls in our school not eating lunch the day before the survey was higher than the county average. There were other concerns too, specifically around cigarettes, alcohol and attendance.
The school used this data and took a number of actions to address it. More female peer mentors were put in place and the school asked NEXUS (the Extended Schools service) for help, so they developed a programme for girls which addressed their eating patterns, healthy eating, sex education and self-esteem issues.
We ran an anti-bullying group for Year 9 as a preventative measure, based upon data provided by our current Year 10 students.
The travel data revealed that a high number of pupils took the car to school so we involved the BIKE-IT scheme who ran assemblies, brought in their bikes (including one with a pedal-powered smoothie maker!), and raised awareness of health and green issues.
The information about how happy the students were with their lives raised some concerns as far fewer girls were as happy as the boys, so work was done around developing aspirations, role-models and self-esteem."
20 years of #children and young people's fitness. #healthed #physed
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SHEU : nationally-recognised, since 1977, as the specialist provider of reliable local survey data for schools and colleges |
Young people’s assessment of their fitness
Since 1991, the Schools Health Education Unit have asked over 477,000 young people about their fitness. The question appears in the Health Related Behaviour Questonnaire (HRBQ) among other questions relating to exercise and sport. The results, from over 100 questions in the HRBQ, are used by health and education authorities to inform their planning.
The young people are asked to rate their level of fitness on a scale: Very fit, Fit, Moderately fit, Unfit, Very unfit. The chart below show data compiled from 477,549 10-15 year olds.
10-15 yr. olds who report being fit or very fit, 1991-2011
There is an overall decline in those reporting being fit or very fit. As they get older, the females report feeling they have lower fitness levels. 14-15 year old females have consistently reported the lowest levels of fitness. The higher self-assessment of the males is consistent with their higher participation in sporting activities. Do the females see themselves as less fit than the males because they participate in less physical activity or indeed are they less fit than the males?
For details about the SHEU HRBQ please visit this link
For the young people's page visit this link
See also -
There are many research studies into young people and fitness including:
Young people are fit and active - fact or fiction? " ... young people’s habitual physical activity and aerobic fitness ... reference to previous generations."
Children are still fit, but not active! "... young people's fitness and physical activity are not deteriorating over time."
Childhood aerobic fitness predicts cognitive performance one year later "... children classified as aerobically fit still outperform their lower-fit peers on the cognitive challenge approximately one year later."