Birmingham Teachers Unite to Make Schools More Active

Teachers from across Birmingham came together at a special event last week to help the region’s primary schools be more active.


Hosted by Nike, The Youth Sport Trust and Discovery Education, “The Power of an Active School” saw 22 teachers from around the city gather at Greet Primary School in Sparkhill on Thursday 20th June, where they shared ideas and heard from experts about building an active culture in Birmingham’s primary schools. 
The event was part of Active Kids Do Better, a nationwide programme to increase children’s movement and play. Today in the UK, only one in five kids gets the recommended daily 30 minutes of physical activity throughout the school day. Active Kids Do Better gives teachers and parents simple tools, ideas and activities to make this goal achievable, such as short-burst classroom activities and games to motivate and energise children.  
Teachers attending Thursday’s event heard about the benefits of creating an active culture and shared ideas for reducing the time children spend sitting during lessons. Led by children’s charity The Youth Sport Trust, the group also learned how to meet the Government’s new Childhood Obesity Plan. 
Keitesha Chambers, a Year 4 Teacher at Benson Community School said:
“The event was very informative. It was good to talk to other professionals and see what they do in their school. I’ll be taking the activities back to our school to use in the classroom.”
Matt Haydon, ICT Co-ordinator at Greet Primary School said:
“I enjoyed talking to other teachers and sharing ideas for increasing activity throughout the day. There was a lot of discussion about what it means to be active. The most important thing for me is how we encourage every child to take part.”
Christine Major, Director of Educational Partnerships at Discovery Education said: 
“Every child should enjoy the life-changing benefits that come from play and sport, and from simply being more active. It was great to meet so many teachers who are committed to building an active culture in their primary schools. I’m sure that pupils across Birmingham will soon benefit from being more active not just in the playground, but throughout the day.”
Launched in February 2018 by Nike and Discovery Education, Active Kids Do Better now reaches thousands of teachers in hundreds of primary schools across the UK. Some of the schools taking part have received special visits from Nike Olympic athletes, and in July 2018 over 3,000 parents, teachers and children were invited to attend the Muller Anniversary Games as part of the initiative. 
The Power of an Active School Birmingham was the second in a series of nine professional development events taking place across the UK this year. Details and booking here: https://www.activekidsdobetter.co.uk/events
Find out more about Nike and Discovery Education’s Active Kids Do Better programme. Visit the new website and register your school here: www.activekidsdobetter.co.uk 

The author

Damien Challenger

Damien is the co-founder of Nexus Education - a collaboration of over 11,000 schools, 500 solution providers and other key figures across the education sector. Nexus encourages, and aids, group collaboration across a number of areas including procurement and training to ensure the best possible outcomes for children in schools all over the UK. Nexus has invested over £100,000 directly into UK schools via #NeXworking.

https://www.nexus-education.com/