Improving physical activity and movement skill competency in Gloucestershire’s key stage two children

Cline, Alice

Abstract

Sport England’s ‘Active Lives, Children and Young People’ survey for the academic year 2019 to 2020 identified that 66% of children in England aged between 5 and 18 were not meeting the recommended amount of physical activity. In addition to low levels of physical activity, research suggests that children are not developing effective foundational movement skills which can decrease their likelihood of engaging in physical activity. The first aim of this project was to explore possible associations between physical activity (PA) levels, movement skill competency (MSC), PA enjoyment, self-perception, and strength. Before using teaching practitioner’s knowledge and experience to help design, implement and evaluate a pilot movement-based intervention. Pupils (n=700) from 11 primary schools in Gloucestershire were tested over a 12-week period. Five-hundred and fifty-eight students scored between 16-26 out of 48 with 142 students scoring 27 or above. In relation to potential maximum score, children’s movement skill competency is low. The findings of the study identified positive associations between MSC and strength (0.263, p=< .001), PA (0.180, p=< .001), PA enjoyment (0.172, p=< .001), self-perceived ability (0.473, p=< .001), and total amount of sports played (0.215, p=< .001),). The analysis of quartile data was able to highlight that as movement scores increase, as do PA engagement, enjoyment, self-perception scores as well as total amount of sports played. The findings of the cross-sectional study should encourage future researchers to take a holistic approach when designing interventions, considering not only physical outcomes such as PA and MSC but also psychological outcomes such as enjoyment and self-perceived ability.

Semi-structured focus groups were conducted with 24 teaching staff from six schools across Gloucestershire. The analysis indicated that the participants perceived time, workload, children’s behaviour, and lack of classroom space as barriers to implementing a movement-based intervention within the classroom. Having an awareness of the benefits of PA, good quality resources and having an intervention that was flexible and easy to implement were all viewed as potential facilitators. The results of the study helped to inform ‘Busy Brain Breaks’, an intervention designed to improve MSC whilst increasing PA within the classroom. The intervention was implemented within 28 classrooms across three schools in Gloucestershire for 10-weeks, with all 28 classrooms engaging with intervention to some extent, before the Covid-19 pandemic closed schools. The findings of this project suggest that using teaching practitioner’s knowledge and experience to help design school-based movement interventions is likely to increase feasibility, adoption, and implementation.

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Oct 29, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 24, 2022
• Keywords: Childhood physical activity, movement skill competency, behaviour change, school-based physical activity, intervention evaluation
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/8040207
• Award Date: Mar 24, 2022