Schools across Kirklees are working together to explore how physical activity can become a normal and enjoyable part of the school day – not just something that happens in PE lessons.
Through the Creating Active Schools (CAS) pilot, supported by Move More Kirklees, five schools are exploring how a whole-school approach to physical activity can help children and young people move more, learn and thrive.
The pilot forms part of the wider Move More Kirklees ambition to create the conditions for people across the borough to be more active and to reduce inequalities in physical activity.
Creating active schools, not just active PE lessons
Schools are being supported to consider how movement can be built into everyday school life – including lessons, break and lunchtimes, the school environment, travel to school, staff wellbeing and the wider school community.
The approach encourages schools to look at what they are already doing well, understand where there are opportunities to improve and identify changes that work for their own pupils, staff and school context.
This is important because every school is different. Rather than introducing a one-size-fits-all programme, the pilot is helping schools develop their own approach to creating a more active school culture.
Moving and learning together
At the centre of the project has been the Move and Learn approach, championed locally by Birkby Infant School and Yorkshire Sport Foundation.
Birkby Infant School is a pioneering school that has been embedding movement into classroom learning, not only to increase pupil physical activity levels but also to influence wider educational outcomes.
The approach demonstrates what is possible when physical activity is treated as an integral part of teaching and learning, rather than an ‘add-on’.
Through the CAS pilot, schools have been exploring how the principles of Move and Learn can be applied within their own settings and how movement can become a natural part of the way children learn throughout the school day.
Learning together across Kirklees
The five participating schools have been working through the CAS approach and sharing their experiences, ideas and learning with one another.
Before the summer break, staff from the schools came together to celebrate their progress and reflect on what they have learned since enrolling on the project in January.
The event provided an opportunity to recognise the work taking place within each school, share practical examples and consider how the learning can be built on as the pilot continues.
Bringing schools together is an important part of the approach. By creating opportunities for staff to learn from each other, schools can share what works, understand the challenges others are experiencing and develop new ideas that can be adapted to their own settings.
Putting movement at the heart of school life
Early experiences from the pilot are showing how a whole-school approach can influence much more than physical activity levels.
Schools are exploring how movement can support children’s concentration and engagement, contribute to positive behaviour and wellbeing, and create different ways for children to participate and learn.
It is also encouraging staff to think differently about how movement can be incorporated into everyday teaching – making lessons more active without taking away from learning.
This reflects the wider ambition of Move More Kirklees: to move away from thinking about physical activity as something that sits separately from everyday life and instead consider how movement can be built into the places and systems where people live, learn and work.
Reflecting on the progress made so far, Alex Ogden, Education Development Manager at Yorkshire Sport Foundation, said:
“It’s been remarkable to see the impact this pilot has had in just a few months and during a really challenging time in education, as budgets continue to be squeezed and complex pressures increase. A huge amount of credit must go to the schools for their level of commitment to the work and engagement in the process so far.”
Building learning for the future
The Kirklees CAS pilot is an opportunity to test, learn and understand what helps schools create lasting change.
The learning from the pilot will contribute to the wider Move More Kirklees programme and help inform how we can work with more schools and partners across the borough in the future.
What’s next for Creating Active Schools in Kirklees?
Following the positive progress and learning from the first phase of the pilot, Move More Kirklees will be recruiting new schools to join Creating Active Schools from September, at the start of the new academic year.
The next phase will take a targeted approach, with a focus on schools that are connected to our priority communities and areas where there is greater need.
This is an important part of the Move More Kirklees approach. We want to ensure that opportunities to benefit from the programme reach schools and communities where they can make the greatest contribution to reducing inequalities and creating better opportunities for children and young people to be active.
The next group of schools will build on the learning from the first five schools, creating further opportunities to test different approaches, share learning and understand what works in different school settings.
Over time, this will help us build a stronger evidence base for whole-school physical activity and develop a model that can support wider change across Kirklees.
Working together to create more active schools
By working together, we can help create school environments where movement is not an extra, but a natural part of everyday life.
Our ambition is simple: to help more children and young people across Kirklees have positive experiences of movement and grow up in environments that make being active easier.