The fact that today's technology has led to our children becoming more sedentary does not mean our children are happy to be inactive. Children want to be active and, with the right environment, their activity levels will naturally rise. Well designed school grounds inspire children to play actively for the recommended 60 minutes a day. Easy-to-install features that promote activity will encourage our children to become much fitter without even realising it. Who finds bleak tarmac spaces and exposed flat fields inviting?
- Catherine Andrews, chief executive, Learning through Landscapes
Parenting lessons are needed
Teaching young people about parenting isn't "too much, too soon" in my opinion, nor is it anything new. Parenting and child development was part of the curriculum when I first started teaching 28 years ago, and is as valuable and relevant to young people now as it was then.
The new personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education programme, which we have been piloting since 2008, introduces students to the stages in a child's development and the challenges of parenthood. Rather than encouraging them to go and get pregnant, as some have suggested, this will help make them aware of the scale of a parent's responsibility in the hope that they will think twice before jumping in too soon.
- Maggie Walker, deputy CEO and director of curriculum, Asdan
Act early to prevent obesity
More than 300 of the 1,500 babies born this New Year's Day could be overweight or obese by the time they start school unless action is taken.
This grim prediction really hits home how vital it is for the government to commit investment and resources to encouraging healthy eating habits in our very youngest children. Early childhood is the point when children are first developing attitudes to food that directly affect their health, fitness and life chances in the future.
- Neil Leitch, director of Feeding Young Imaginations campaign, Pre-school Learning Alliance
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