Health and Well-Being - Obesity and Yoga


Health and Well-Being - Obesity and Yoga

Health and Well-being in the primary school setting is so important. The topic being taught in school's will be such a good influence on the young children, to start them looking after themselves properly from a young age. Within the Welsh Educational system, one of the new proposed ideas of Donaldson (2015) was to increase healthy, self-assured pupils to help them fell better in themselves which will boost the way that they learn.  When children feel better within themselves, it means they feel better when working as they have more energy and life to them. This means that they won't always be tired from working so don't usually want to make any effort, instead will get more involved in there work. By the children getting more involved with subjects that help boost there well-being such as physical education and healthy eating, they will have the a bigger ability to live independently, healthily and responsibly (DfE, 2013)

Nowadays many more children are being classed overweight or obese. The Wales Online (2018) found that 12.4% of four to five year old children in Wales, were classed obese in 2016-2017. These statistics have grown significantly higher from 2015-2016 which was 11.7%, then 2014-2015 was 11.6%.

 Children at reception age classed as obese (2016-17)
02468101214161820%JS chart by amCharts
13.5
Vale of Glamorgan: 7.8Monmouthshire: 8Cardiff: 10.7Newport: 10.8Flintshire: 10.9Neath Port Talbot: 11.8Wrexham: 12.8Pembrokeshire: 13.4Swansea: 13.5Bridgend: 13.5RCT: 13.6Carmarthenshire: 14Blaenau Gwent: 15.1Merthyr Tydfil: 17.5
Child Measurement Programme
This graph from Wales Online (2018) explores into different regions of Wales. From the graph it is seen that Merthyr Tydfil reached an astonishing 17.5% of obesity, deeming them the most obese region in Wales. Very close to the top was also Blaenau Gwent at 15.1% and Conwy at 14.4%. The lowest regions of obesity in Wales were Cardiff at 10.7%, Monmouthshire at 8% and the Vale of Glamorgan at the lowest of 7.8%. All regions in Wales were still not great when it comes to the obesity levels, not even one place had a score lower than 7.5%. Schools are attempting to lower the levels of obesity in schools, with the school dinners in school. The Nutritional Standards for School Lunches regulation act (2011) states that nutritional, healthy school meals are to be provided to school students. However , it is all not to be put in the hands of the schools to give children all of the nutrition, the process has to continue through to the home setting as well. If the child does not also eat well at home then the impact on there health and well-being, will not be so beneficial to the child. Gov.uk (2018) stated that schools are making the school hours, healthier for children. So there are 24 hours in a day, six is spent in schools. So if they can make even a slight bit of difference in those few hours, they can carry it on throughout the rest of the day into the home environment. If children do have bad diets that means that it can lead to worse health problems later in life. Cale, L and Harris, J (2018) stated that obese children have an increased risk of cardiovascular risk factors, respiratory comorbidities and developing type two diabetes. Additionally, other than school meals, schools also implement physical education into the children's lifestyle at school, trying to keep them as active as the possibly can. Three main ways this is practised is:


  • Thematic teaching or cross-curricular - where content is organised by topic rather then by the subject
  • Linking across themes , where subjects may be distinct but associations are made between learning in different subjects
  • 'Discrete' subject teaching. This could be where healthy eating might be delivered through seperate lessons in personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE), design technology (DT) and science. 
(Ofstead, 2013, Pg. 12)


Quick et al (2010) found that within the school years of 1-13, 55% of pupils took part in at least three hours physical education (PE), and also did an out of hours sport.

One way that some schools are beginning to introduce physical education is in the form of health and well-being in the classroom, is through the use of sessions such as yoga. Yoga is a way for children to enhance there creativity, and to introduce light activity to begin to improve there lifestyle with the aim to them healthier. Yoga is a calming sport so keeps the children active, but not with big activities. Yoga offers children new experiences to discover relaxation and enables them to discover new ways to wind down. From personal experience when ending the yoga session, children felt more relaxed and calm. During the session that I helped deliver to children from a primary school, they found so much enjoyment in the tasks and learning new moves. They became very confident in the moves that they were taught, and when they would use them in an activity they would be fearless when doing so. Also as yoga is a new activity that is being introduced to the children, there concentration levels were much higher than they usually would be.

In conclusion, I think that health and well-being should be well more implemented into the school environment. Healthy eating and physical exercise is a good way to start children off, to carry it on into later life in order to better themselves. Yoga sessions are a good way to get basic exercise into there lives, and keep them calm with the activities. Yoga is just the start of an introduction of new types of activities coming into schools,  so many more new ideas that promote the health and well-being inicative will help the children learn to love new ideas and enjoy the sports.


References 

 Cale, L and Harris, J (2018) 'Every child (of every size) matters' in physical education's role in childhood obesity', in 'Sport, Education and Society', 18(4), 2013; pp. 433-452.

Dfe (2013) Department of Education (DfE), 2013 Statutory guidance: National Curriculum in England: PE

Donaldson (2015) Successful Futures: Independent review of curriculum and assessment
arrangements in Wales. http://gov.wales/docs/dcells/publications/150225-successful-futures-en.pdf (Accessed: 03/12/2018)

Gov.uk (2018) Childhood obesity: a plan for action, chapter 2', Department of Health and Social Care, June 2018; www.gov.uk?government/publications/childhood-obesity-a-plan-for-action-chapter-2. (Accessed: 04/12/2018)

Ofstead (2013) Beyond 2012: Outstanding physical education for all. www.beyond-2012-outstanding-physical-education-for-all.pdf (Accessed: 04/12/2018)

Quick, S., Simon, A., and Thorntom, A  (TNS-BMRB) 2010. PE and sport survey 2009/10DFE RR032

The Nurtitional Standards for School Lunches (2011) Nutritional Sandards for School Lunches: A guide for implementation. http://www.publichealth.hscni.net/sites/default/files/Nutritional%20standards%20for%20school%20lunches%20-%20a%20guide%20for%20implementation%2009_10.pdf (Accessed: 04/12/2018)

Wales Online (2018) More Children are obese in Wales than ever before - and here are the worst regions. https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/health/rates-childhood-obesity-higher-ever-14549511 (Accessed: 04/12/2018)

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