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Healthy Activity Sessions
What is a Healthy Activity Session?
The sessions start with a healthy eating talk by the Health Development Officer, (HDO) followed by a 45 minute activity session which includes warm up/ warm down and 10 circuit based training activities.
Why were they set up?
Building on the success of the National Healthy Schools accredited scheme, the HDO decided to introduce Healthy Activity sessions to schools in North Hertfordshire. Like children all over the country, local youngsters are in danger of making unhealthy choices about food and exercise. It was realised that local children stood to benefit from practical sessions, which would teach them how to learn about living a healthy lifestyle, both in eating a balanced diet and keeping active.
How were they set up?
The HDO worked in partnership with a personal fitness trainer.
Approaches to 50 local primary schools yielded an astonishing 30 expressions of interest. It was clear that interest was high and initially 10 schools hosted sessions during the summer term of 2003.
What do children think of Healthy Activity Sessions?
They love them!
Feedback from the children who attended Healthy Activity Sessions:
- "The activities were really enjoyable but it was really tiring!" - Tim aged 9
- "This morning my body was very sore and when I got up I could hardly move. It took me ten minutes to get dressed, it normally takes five minutes" - Jenny aged 11
- "I learnt a lot about the food groups. I already know some food groups, but I didn't know about the portions" - Jonathan aged 8
- "I have learned a lot of new stretches and enjoyed stretching and exercising my whole body" - Rebecca aged 10
The Teachers Activity Pack
Each participating school is given a Teachers Activity Pack so that lessons learnt at the Healthy Activity Sessions can be reinforced. The pack includes worksheets, healthy recipes and examples of the activities.
Each child from the class was given a colourful 5-a-day fruit portions leaflet to help them identify and eat the right types of fruits and vegetables.
For examples of the types of activities run for children by their personal trainer please click on the link for the two Activity Sessions below.
The Questionnaire
The children were all asked to complete a very simple questionnaire. Below are the questions that were asked:
1. Did you learn anything new from the Healthy Eating talk?
2. What was your favourite healthy activity in the school hall?
3. How often do you spend time playing sports or games?
a) everyday
b) 2 or 3 times a week
c) once a week
4. What other fun games would you like to do?
The link below will take you to results taken from completed questionnaires. 3. All the children that took part answered the questionnaires and these are the results taken from the 12 schools that took part.
A Healthy activity session in action!