September 23, 2017
Below are outlined some of the initiatives and activities that are underway to support the aim of getting young people to be more active.
There will be a presentation on the important issue of gender inequality in physical activity
Getting girls active: Reducing gender inequality in physical activity: A presentation by Dr Simon Sebire, 3.45pm at the Old Board Room. Princess Elizabeth Hospital on Monday 16th October 2017
Dr Simon Sebire is Senior Lecturer in Physical Activity & Public Health at the University of Bristol and was born and raised in Guernsey. Simon’s research has examined the physical activity of children and young people including the development and evaluation of a number of school-based interventions. Simon’s most recent project is a peer-led physical activity intervention for adolescent girls (PLAN-A) and he will talk about the development of the intervention and its recent results.
All Be Active Forum members are welcome. Please contact Alun Williams at alun.williams@gov.gg if you wish to attend
Other news:
Priorities for The Children and Young People’s Plan
Guernsey’s Children and Young People’s plan was reviewed over the summer. One of the key priorities remains helping young people to be healthy and active:
‘We want children and young people to have the highest possible standards of physical and emotional health and to lead active lives that promote their long-term health.’
The key actions on being active have been identified for 2017-18:
- Increase activity and reduce obesity through promoting activity of all types and at all levels (activity is much more than sport) including active travel – extended to include sleep hygiene
- Develop robust measurements for establishing physical literacy levels including the establishment of a healthy report card in association with the International Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance
- Focus on supporting children and young people who are inactive/ less active to be more active
- Support early years provision so that settings can effectively ensure that children are active for three hours per day and work with early years on food provision
We will update everyone on actions over the next few months but here are a few responses to the revised priorities so far:
Extend to include Sleep hygiene
We are fortunate to have a local medical practitioner, Dr Piers Mitchell, who is very interested in all aspects of sleep especially its importance for young people. Piers has kindly made presentations to support agencies on the whole area of sleep and in a few weeks we will be sharing a vide that we have produced where Dr Mitchell explains about some of the key issues – Production date should be Early October
Develop robust measurements for establishing physical literacy levels
Following the support at the Be Active Training Day in July we are now all signed up as part of the global Matrix on physical activity for children and youth – a global movement that monitors trends in the levels of physical activity for young people globally – see activehealthykids.org/
One development will be that we will be looking at how we measure physical literacy for our young people. We are fortunate to have a Sports Science undergraduate, Tom Guille, with us for the next few months and Tom’s brief will include looking at developing a toolkit for measuring physical literacy.
Supporting children and young people who are inactive/ less active to be more active
Over the summer a team from the Sports Commission Youth Commission, Health Promotion unit and Education Services put together a bid to go through a joint-island programme, supported by the Design Council, where we would focus on the topic: ‘Getting inactive young people to become more active’. We were successful in our bid and this week we completed the initial stage of investigation – a two day course with colleagues from both islands exploring the topic. The project finishes in mid-November when we will present findings and recommendations to senior politicians from both islands. We will keep you posted on our deliberations and developments.
Support early years provision
The early years physical activity group meet next week and plan to sign off a programme of training for early years personnel
And lastly;
Activity and Fuel
The most effective approach to helping young people to be more active is to support them with all aspects of their health. Key to that is ensuring that they eat healthily and getting the right fuel for their growing bodies.
This term we have introduced some changes to our catering arrangements at our secondary schools and the College of FE with new arrangements with our catering providers. All the providers are required to adhere to the Guernsey Food Standards and so they are working very hard to ensure the food they provide is healthy and nutritious but still appetising and attractive to young people! We would therefore like to ask for your help to try to encourage students to make those healthy choices and to support the changes being made by the caterers. If you are in our schools please go and sample the new, healthier foods and discuss the benefits of healthy eating with our students
Thrive2020 – From Surviving to Thriving
Many of you will have attended the Thrive events. The 2020 event will be held on Friday 13th October 9.00am – 5.00pm at Les Cotils and there will be some excellent presenters talking about health and activity.
Wendy Suzuki www.wendysuzuki.com will be speaking about activity improving brain performance and academic outcomes.
It is also very exciting that Elaine Wylie from the Daily mile will be attending: thedailymile.co.uk The Daily mile has been one of the most exciting developments in engaging primary school pupils with activity and it will be a great opportunity to discuss how this might be applied in Guernsey.
Details of the whole event are enclosed: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/thrive2020-from-surviving-to-thriving-tickets-36907224502?aff=ehomecard
Queen’s Commonwealth Baton Relay visit to the Bailiwick
Lastly if you need a bit of a lift and reassurance how sport and activity can inspire young people have a look at the Sports Commission video of the visit of the Commonwealth Baton last week: here. All primary schools were visited and well done to the sports commission for organising such a fun, uplifting event