They develop their social skills and find a place to belong in the world. The context of sport can offer both freedom and responsibility through a less structured, safer and informal space where they can learn life lessons. Being physically active directly impacts on mood, concentration and helps with learning. All this transfers into the classroom and beyond, into adulthood. Our charity knows the power of play and sport to change lives, but still many people aren’t aware of these positive benefits.
Here we provide a roundup on the latest research. We cannot create change alone; we need as many people as possible to become changemakers to help us reclaim play and sport in children’s lives.
The benefits of participation in play and sport
Young people are not taking part in enough physical activity and alongside this, schools in England have seen significant cuts to the amount of PE on the school timetable. In addition, inequalities have led to an attainment gap, and the current slow progress in narrowing the gap means it will persist for decades.
We know that physical activity contributes to physical health, mental and social wellbeing, and life-skill development but it has wider benefits. Our evidence and research across the sector demonstrate the positive association we see between physical activity, learning and attainment in children and young people, highlighting the importance of maintaining focus and investment in this area. Schools have a unique role to play in influencing children’s motivation to take part in and providing opportunities for activity. Evidence shows physical activity can enhance cognition, emotional regulation, help children to concentrate and is associated with higher levels of academic achievement (see graphics).
When pupils at Holy Family Catholic School in Birmingham returned to school on 8 March 2021, following a year of intermittent lockdowns, NQT, year 3 class teacher and newly appointed PE co-ordinator Drew Hill, reported pupils were “disengaged and preoccupied”. Elements of their learning, including handwriting and concentration had suffered. In the first four weeks back at school, much of the usual curriculum was put on hold in favour of a simplified approach which included English, Maths, RE and PE. Pupils reported feeling “nervous” and “shy” when they first returned, as well as excited to see and spend time with their friends. Physical activity levels during lockdown were low among pupils, with many reporting having done no physical activity while at home. Teachers also noted that pupils appeared unfit and easily tired while engaging in activities.
To address this, Holy Family ripped up the timetable and prioritised sporting events and opportunities to engage in outdoor teaching and learning. Playground activity was encouraged, PE was incorporated into every school day to ensure pupils were as active as possible and Key Stage 1 pupils used active videos each morning.
Key stage 2 pupils had 15-minute “after-break” activity sessions every day when they would play fast-paced team games to get their heart rates up. A timetable was also organised to allow one class at a time to go onto the playground and run a mile throughout the day.
As a result, pupils increased in confidence. They rebuilt friendships and were “excited” to be outside and playing with friends. Fitness levels and stamina improved as well as concentration and readiness to learn.
Inequality and accessing after-school sport
Children from disadvantaged backgrounds are less likely to access and understand the benefits of sport and play, research by Sport England shows. Young people from lower socioeconomic groups in the UK are also the least confident in taking part in physical activity.
In 2020, Mike Diaper, then executive director children and young people at Sport England, was reported as saying: “It is clear now that affluence is the biggest factor in driving issues with mental or physical wellbeing and activity levels. The more affluent you are, the more choice you have, for example access to clubs. The more affluent also have access to private spaces for exercise, like gardens. The less affluent are more reliant on schools and public places.”
With the risk of increased levels of inequality in the UK in the post-pandemic era, it is vital that the current gap in engagement with sport is closed in the short-term (see graphics). Sporting participation has the potential to be a driver of social mobility and increased levels of opportunity across all social groups. However, for this potential to be unlocked, the extent to which income levels shape engagement with sport will need to be addressed.
Research from our Healthy Lifestyle Champion programme funded by Sport England has shown that some young people don’t do any activity as their parents aren’t “sporty”. Healthy Lifestyle Champions aims to increase the activity engagement of young people in low socioeconomic groups by ensuring the right activity offer is available in schools.
Increased peer leadership, volunteering and advocacy are key outputs of the programme and central to accessing and engaging young people in low socioeconomic groups. Development of leadership skills and attributes are supported through training for young people, along with follow-up activities, including consultation with peers, planning and delivering a festival, and leading or helping activities. Through this approach, volunteering hours accrued by young people on the programme almost doubled from 1,171 to 1,905 hours. Almost two thirds of young people in low socioeconomic groups now say they have a voice in their school sport provision (increase from less than a fifth pre intervention), and almost three quarters say they lead or help with activities “a lot” now.
The programme is seen to have given young people “something to focus on in difficult times” (teacher interview), with gains noted in their confidence, empathy, motivation, work ethic, time management and engagement in wider school life. The young people are seen to have a new appreciation of the value of activity opportunities since the pandemic, proactively developing and delivering new after school clubs and using their voice more frequently and confidently to engage less active peers.
Key to the success of supporting more young people to access school sport is that activities are informed, driven and delivered by young people, for young people.
Making sport fun drives engagement
More than six in 10 young people in the UK state that having fun is an important aspect of their lives. Ensuring that fun and play remain at the heart of young people’s engagement with sport will be vital to build a genuine and emotional connection with such activities. Such levels of engagement will help ensure that sport and physical activity becomes an organic part of young people’s daily routine, increasing the likelihood that they remain engaged and active throughout their later life. In addition, the promotion of active school systems will also help foster more natural levels of physical activity. For example, new school formats that encourage greater movement throughout the day and options for outdoor teaching.
Having fun in sport has been rated highly consistently by young people over the last decade but this appetite for fun has increased from 59 per cent of young people rating it as important in 2014 to 61 per cent of young people in 2020.
To decrease the risk of young people being put off by specific sporting experiences and creating a knock-on effect that discourages wider engagement with sport, greater focus should be given to increasing the provision of multi-sport opportunities across school and community environments. Undertaking the same sport for a prolonged period can be discouraging for young people who do not have a natural sense of enjoyment with the activity in question. Too narrow an experience of sport reduces the likelihood of children finding what’s right for them. By creating school and community environments that can provide opportunities for young people to engage in a variety of activities over the same period, there is an increased likelihood of developing a genuine engagement with sport across a wider proportion of the young people taking part.
Allowing young people to co-create and design such multi-sport programmes will also build positively engaging experiences. Understanding the specific needs of the community and young people within the local area will be vital to designing tailored multi-sport programmes that can best serve the needs of particular areas, whether that be through PE or a multi-sports club outside of the school environment.
National School Sport Week
The UK is facing a “new pandemic” of loneliness, rising mental health needs and childhood inactivity. To get more children to have fun playing sport this summer, the Youth Sport Trust’s annual National School Sport Week campaign is back between 20 and 26 June.
The theme is “Belonging – a place in sport for every child”. Teachers, parents, and organisations across the UK are asked to help every child to find a place to belong and sign up to the campaign www.youthsporttrust.org/national-school-sport-week.
Everyone who registers will receive free resources, including ideas on how to raise awareness of the benefits of school sport, and access a fun “one a day” physical activity challenge across the week.
