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This page contains details of useful resources to help promote physical activity to young people. It will be updated regularly as new resources become available.
Active School Resource packs, British Heart Foundation
 The BHF Active School Packs for Primary and Secondary Schools have proven to be a great success with an increasing number of schools using them to achieve Activemark (Primary) and Sportsmark (Secondary) accreditation. Both Packs are also proving to be a popular choice for schools who are aiming to achieve the physical activity strand of a Healthy School Scheme.
The BHF Active School Packs are comprehensive and include guidance on effective PE and physical activity policies and development plans. The packs give a wide range of practical ideas to promote physical activity, both within lessons and through out of school hours provision and provide an A-Z of existing resources, initiatives and sources of help.
To order the Active School Resource Pack for Primary Schools, visit
The BHF website
Sections of the pack can also be downloaded here:
Useful information for primary schools
To order the Active School Resource Pack for Secondary Schools, visit
www.bhf.org.uk/publications/description.asp?secondlevel=417&artID=1009
Active Club Resource pack, British Heart Foundation
The BHFNC have worked in partnership with 4Children (formerly Kids' Clubs Network) and the British Heart Foundation to produce the Active Club Resource Pack. This valuable resource was designed for use in out of school settings to provide simple, straightforward advice and practical ideas to help practitioners increase physical activity within their club. The Active Club Pack consists of:
- A booklet containing valuable tips and ideas for introducing physical activity into clubs
- A 'Useful Information' booklet which summarises key resources, training opportunities, websites and contact details
- 65 A4 illustrated activity cards providing 120 practical activity ideas
- Photocopiable templates and worksheets including certificates, crosswords, wordsearches etc.
The Active Club Resource Pack is disseminated through a 'cascade model' of training. Previous participants included training and development officers from local authority Early Years Development and Childcare Partnerships (EYDCPs), network co-ordinators, sports development officers and others from nominated local agencies. Following the training, these 'tutors' organised and delivered locally-run Active Club Workshops for playworkers. Each playworker attending a workshop receives a free copy of the Active Club Resource Pack for their club.
Evaluation data from the previous 2 phases of Active Club tutor training is available, please click here (link to the evaluation page of YP section)
If you are interested in becoming an Active Club Tutor, please contact the Young People Project Officer for more information. Alternatively if you would like to find out where the nearest local Active Club workshop is to you, please contact Michael Bayliss, Active Club Project Administrator at 4Children on 02075226958 or michael.bayliss@4Children.org.uk
Let's Get Physical - Pocket play pack, British Heart Foundation
 The BHFNC has worked with the BHF to produce a Pocket Play Pack for children aged 7-11 years. This colourful and attractive booklet unfolds in a series of zigzag pages providing children with ideas for activities they can do inside or outside, with friends or alone. Included in the Pocket Play Pack is an activity record on which children can keep track of all the activity they do over a six week period. Children who increase their levels of activity over six weeks are invited to write in for a certificate of achievement and congratulations from BHF.
To order the Pocket play pack, visit
www.bhf.org.uk/publications/description.asp?secondlevel=417&artID=2930
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Play And Health Fact Sheet
A new Children’s Play Information Service (CPIS) fact sheet, Play and Health, has been produced by the Children’s Play Information Service, part of the National Children’s Bureau. The fact sheet provides evidence to help make the case for play and reflects the extent of the government’s acknowledgement of the value of play in children’s health. It includes details of recommendations from the Government and charities and research about play and health, including mental health.
The new fact sheet, which forms part of a series, can be accessed at
www.ncb.org.uk/Page.asp?originx6051sw_80528368537615y43c3011485129
Special Schools and School Travel Plans, Sustrans
The Safer Routes to School team at Sustrans have written guidance on how Special Educational Needs (SEN) schools can benefit from the implementation of a School Travel Plan (STP). This paper draws on the input from various bodies and individuals working with special schools in the UK. It addresses the particular concerns regarding mobility that SEN schools may have, provides practical advice on what can be included and offers actual examples of the aims and objectives of SEN schools who have undertaken STPs.
To access the guidance, visit www.saferoutestoschools.org.uk/?dl=http%3A%2F%2F
School-club links guide, Department for Education and Skills
The Club Links programme is a fundamental part of the Government’s National School Sport Strategy. Its purpose is to strengthen the links between schools and local sports clubs, increase the number of children and young people who become members of accredited sports clubs and help to create a culture of participation from a young age. This guide, produced by the Department of Education and Skills (DfES) has been produced to help schools, clubs, national governing bodies and county sports partnerships work together to provide effective school-club links. It provides schools and clubs with further ideas about what might be achieved and supports them in evaluating and developing their existing links and focuses on how to:
- lay the foundations for achieving effective school-club links;
- recognise the effectiveness of a link by looking at its impact on young people.
To access the document, visit www.teachernet.gov.uk/_doc/9740/schoolclublinks[1].pdf
The national top up swimming scheme toolkit, Amateur Swimming Association & Department for Education and Skills
Top Up Swimming is an intervention designed to enable every child to achieve the Key Stage 2 (KS2) standard in swimming at primary school. Pupils will also be expected to develop the other range of skills related to the KS2 requirements, which are about general water confidence and water safety. The extra lessons that top up swimming involves are designed to build on the existing swimming arrangements that a school should be running. The national Top Up Swimming Scheme toolkit guide, produced by the Amateur Swimming Association (ASA) and the Department of Education and Skills (DfES), aims to support local organisers of Top Up Swimming to deliver effective programmes. It has been designed to be used within School Sport Partnerships and local authorities involved with the scheme. It should also be of value to individual primary schools and teachers involved in, or planning, top up swimming. The toolkit contains information on delivering the 5 key stages of the scheme within School Sport Partnerships:
- determining who will deliver Top Up Swimming;
- determining which pupils from across primary schools in the partnership are to be entered for Top Up Swimming;
- organising the scheme;
- delivering lessons;
- measuring achievement.
To access the toolkit, visit www.teachernet.gov.uk/_doc/9627/Top%20up%20toolkit.pdf
All the information in the toolkit can also be found at www.nc.uk.net/safeswimming
A guide to self-evaluating and improving the quality of PE and school sport, DfES
The Department for Education and Skills (DfES) has produced a new guide to self-evaluating and improving the quality of PE and school sport (PESS), Do you have high quality PE and sport in your school? It is the third booklet in a series designed to help reach the joint DfES and Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Public Service Agreement (PSA) target to enhance the take up of sporting opportunities by 5-16 year olds through increasing the percentage of school children in England who spend a minimum of two hours each week on high quality PE and school sport within and beyond the curriculum to 75% by 2006, and to 85% by 2008. This new booklet focuses on PESS,and follows on from two previous publications, Learning through PE and sport and High quality PE and sport for young people. Club links and competitive sport will be addressed in the next guide in the series.
The guide aims to help teachers and other professionals working in PE and/or school sport to:
- use the pupils’ learning outcomes to carry out self-evaluation of the
quality of school PESS;
- use the findings of evaluations to improve the quality of PESS.
To access the guide, click on
www.teachernet.gov.uk/_doc/8126/Self%20Evaluation%20Guide%20Jan2005.pdf
Measuring Childhood Obesity: Guidance for primary care trusts
The Department of Health (DoH) has produced this guidance for primary care trusts (PCTs) on how to measure the height and weight of children aged between 4 and 11 years, as part of the Government’s public service agreement (PSA) target to 'halt the year on year rise in obesity among children aged under 11 by 2010'. The measures outlined in this guidance are for the purpose of population monitoring. Local data on childhood obesity are needed in order to inform local planning, targeting of local resources and interventions, and to enable tracking of local progress against the PSA target on obesity, and local performance management. Schools will inform parents that the PCT will be measuring their child’s height and weight in school. The parents should be informed that they are entitled to opt their child out of the measuring process. The guidance has been informed by research into children’s attitudes to being weighed and measured, which was undertaken on behalf of the Children’s Commissioner.
To access the guidance, click on www.dh.gov.uk/assetRoot/04/12/64/06/04126406.pdf
Top 10 ways to increase participation in PE and school sport, QCA
The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) has produced two packs of ideas for improving Physical Education lessons. There is one pack for Key Stages 1 & 2, and another for Key Stages 3 & 4. Each pack contains 10 cards, each of which suggests one simple thing that teachers can do to increase pupils' levels of participation in PE and school sport. On the back of each card case study examples are provided, highlighting the experiences of schools that have already put the suggestions into practice.
The packs can be downloaded at www.qca.org.uk/pess/1151.htm
MyPyramid for children, US Department of Agriculture
MyPyramid for Kids provides age-appropriate information about the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the MyPyramid Food Guidance System, released earlier in the year. MyPyramid Tracker is an online dietary and physical activity assessment tool that provides information on diet quality, physical activity status, related nutrition messages, and links to nutrient and physical activity information. The Food Calories/Energy Balance feature automatically calculates energy balance by subtracting the energy expenditure from physical activity from food calories/energy intake. The US Department of Agriculture has now produced MyPyramid for Kids, which encourages children, teachers, and parents to work together to make healthier food choices and be active every day through an interactive game, lesson plans, colourful posters and flyers, worksheets, and valuable tips for families.
For more information and to download resources, visit www.mypyramid.gov/kids/index.html
Primary Playground Development guide, DfES
The Department for Education and Skills (DfES) has published a new guide on Primary Playground Development including advice and practical tips schools can use to improve their playgrounds based on the Zoneparc concept. Zoneparc was developed by DfES in partnership with Nike and the Youth Sport Trust (YST) and first introduced as a pilot in 13 schools to increase physical activity levels and improve behaviour among primary school children. It is based on 4 key principles:
- Zoning the playground into three coloured activity areas
- Red zone, containing traditional active sports e.g. football and netball
- Blue zone, containing a multi-activity area where young people can play with equipment on their own, in a group or with teams e.g. skipping and parachute games
- Yellow, zone containing a quiet play area e.g. board games
- Introducing and managing innovative play equipment
- Training pupils and lunchtime supervisors to guide activities
- Providing activity resources
Independent research has shown that by making better use of time available throughout the day for free play, young people can increase their activity levels which consequently has been shown to impact upon school life, namely boredom and poor behaviour which can disrupt lessons.
For more information or to download the guide, visit
www.teachernet.gov.uk/teachingandlearning/subjects/pe/nationalstrategy/Sporting_Playgrounds/
The health benefits of walking and cycling to school Information sheet, Sustrans
Sustrans have produced an information sheet on the health benefits for children of walking and cycling to school. It examines the many health benefits of walking and cycling to school including the physical activity itself, the reductions in pollution and congestion, the creation of safer streets and more productive schools and workplaces.
The information sheet (FS15) can be downloaded at www.saferoutestoschool.org.uk
Walking Bus guide
A mum in the Midlands has published a guide on how to set up a walking bus initiative. The Walking Bus Guide is full of advice, practical tips and real life case studies to help you to set up and run your own walking bus. With advice for all ages the Walking Bus Guide can be an invaluable source of information for both parents and professionals.
For further details visit www.thewalkingbus.co.uk
How good is our network? Health Promoting Schools
Health Promoting Schools have produced a new resource, How good is our network? Its purpose is to support self-evaluation of the effectiveness of local networks. As local networks develop their work, or as councils and NHS boards establish new networks, it is hoped that the paper will provide a focus for discussion of key features that will provide a basis for improving the effectiveness of their joint working.
For further information please visit www.healthpromotingschools.co.uk/aboutus/consultations.asp
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