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February 2, 2022

Black children missing out most on physical activity in England, survey finds | Children

Black kids are the minimum probable to be bodily lively, according to Activity England, which found that the pandemic proceeds to have a adverse impact on children’s engagement with activity and physical activity.

In its latest survey of exercise amounts between youngsters and youthful folks, 36{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} of black boys fulfilled healthier guidelines for actual physical exercise, as opposed with 45{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} of all boys. This was predominantly mainly because they are two times as probable to come from considerably less affluent family members living in deprived locations with considerably less entry to outdoor room, the report states.

For the first time, boys’ action degrees over-all dropped to the position in which they ended up in line with girls’, mostly as a consequence of limitations on organised activity owing to Covid. There ended up, even so, faint indicators of enhanced participation among the women, who might have most well-liked heading for a lockdown wander fairly than collaborating in organised faculty activity.

Over-all there was no change to action ranges compared with final year’s facts, which currently mirrored the harmful effect of Covid, but inequalities in participation have widened and there had been 94,000 less energetic young children and younger people today in England in 2020-21 compared with ahead of the pandemic.

“Across the yr as a whole, exercise ranges have fallen in contrast to pre-pandemic (2018-19) for children and youthful people today from the least affluent people (down 3.4{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf}), when remaining unchanged for all those from the most affluent people – widening the hole involving the two,” the report states.

The Lively Lives Little ones and Young Men and women Study discovered that 44.6{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} of five- to 16-year-olds (3.2 million) achieved the chief healthcare officer’s encouraged rules of having portion in activity and bodily action for an typical of 60 minutes or additional every single day, but 32.4{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} (2.3 million) did less than 30 minutes.

Distinct age teams have fared differently. Activity stages between five- to 7-year-olds have recovered to concentrations viewed two many years ago, and stay down among 7- to 11-calendar year-olds just after a decline at the start of the pandemic, but have fallen additional among the secondary-age youngsters in contrast with 12 months ago.

Responding to the findings, Youth Activity Trust’s main government, Ali Oliver, explained: “It is very unhappy that tens of millions of younger individuals in England are lacking out on the basic job that physical activity need to engage in in their training and advancement.

“In the experience of a world actual physical and psychological health crisis, we are concerned that this is even now not staying dealt with as a core precedence of our nationwide recovery. From family members and universities by means of to athletics organisations and federal government, a concerted nationwide energy is now needed to get younger people lively.”

November 30, 2021

Teen who endured tragedy finds success through online education

Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes

One of the great lessons from the pandemic is that education must include flexibility. While some students struggled during a year of mostly crisis virtual instruction, most flourished with intentional online learning. Utah Online School is leading the way in online education and has been for years.

With more than 15 years of experience in a flexible learning environment and serving more than 10,000 students each year, UOS has time-tested methods for accommodating the needs of students.

UOS emphasizes student success by tailoring learning to student needs with the support of certified teachers, adult mentors, and counselors. Best of all, UOS is an accredited public school, free to Utah students.

How UOS helped one student

At 15, Kelly has experienced a lifetime’s worth of trauma, including multiple moves, her parent’s divorce and eventually the tragic death of her father days before the start of her freshman year in a new school.

A few months later, COVID hit and effectively ended her schooling for many months.

Kelly moved to Utah to live with her grandparents. She was short on some credits needed, so during the summer, she enrolled in and completed two classes through UOS. Best of all, they were courses she couldn’t take at her boundary school because demand exceeded capacity.

“The Utah Online School experience was great,” said her grandfather. “The courses were thorough and the process was smooth. There was no pressure, so Kelly was able to work at her own pace. Anytime there was a question or concern, the teachers and staff at UOS responded the same day.”

Now a junior, Kelly is able to make up some of her missing credits at her boundary school, and she also plans to take additional summer courses at UOS.

Focused on needs and flexibility for students and families

Even with the current school year underway, students have options of taking courses from UOS while still attending their local school. No matter the situation, UOS can support the needs of students through their expansive course offerings and supportive learning environment.

Early high school credit available for 6-8th grade students

Many students are eager and able to get a head start on their high school credits. This allows flexibility in their future high school schedule or early graduation for students interested in this option.

Grade replacement

Utah Online provides students the opportunity to retake a course to replace a grade on their transcript.

Credit recovery

Utah Online helps students recover failed credit needed for graduation. Students may sign up for credit recovery during the school year or summer.

Expansive course offerings

At many schools, popular elective courses are often restricted to seniors or are filled by random selection because demand far exceeds available slots. That’s not a problem at UOS. In fact, UOS offers far more courses than many boundary schools.

In addition to traditional subjects like reading, art, history and math, UOS has courses like computer science, programming, coding, world languages (20-plus), music (guitar, ukulele, music theory and more), wildlife and marine biology, honors courses and ACT prep.

Do you have a student who will be old enough to drive? UOS offers drivers education that includes the curriculum and simulator requirements. Students can also earn physical education credit for participating in any physical activity they are involved in, privately or through club sports. Students receiving private music instruction can earn high school credit through the Independent Studio Study course, which can be taken repeatedly as long as they are in music or voice lessons with an instructor.

You can see the vast list of course offerings at the UOS website and the list of available subjects is constantly growing.

A record of success

Utah Online School serves more than 10,000 students each year with more than 150 teachers, counselors and staff. In 15-plus years, the cumulative total of students served has exceeded 110,000. Those numbers continue to rise as parents seek ways to provide their children with the best available education.

Over that time UOS has achieved a course completion rate exceeding 90{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} and a graduation rate of 99{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf}.

Teachers and staff at Utah Online School are highly qualified, licensed and certified. They are also passionate about helping students. “I am able to customize and individualize content for students’ specific needs in a way that was not possible previously. And as someone who went into education because I truly love teaching high school kids and love this age group in general, this has been a dream job!” says teacher Kellie Richins.

Madison Belnap, another teacher at Utah Online School says, “Teaching for Utah Online High School is a privilege. I love the opportunity to teach students from all over the state, with diverse backgrounds and varying circumstances. Connecting with these different students is so expanding for me as their lives add a level of abundance to my experience as an educator.”

Whether your student is seeking part-time, full-time or concurrent enrollment, Utah Online School has the experience and expertise to help them find educational success.

State laws can bolster physical education among children, study finds – The Source

The presence and strength of state physical education (P.E.) laws positively affected P.E. attendance and the frequency and duration of physical activity throughout the day, suggests a new analysis from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.

“We found that compared to those residing in states with weak or no P.E. laws, students in states with strong P.E. laws had an additional 0.2 days of P.E. attendance per week and spent an additional 33.9 minutes participating in P.E. classes per week,” said Ruopeng An, associate professor and first author of the paper “State Laws Governing School Physical Education in Relation to Attendance and Physical Activity among Students in the US: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis,” published in the March print issue of the Journal of Sport and Health Science.

An also wrote an editorial on policy and physical activity published in the issue.

Physical activity among children and adolescents has been an indispensable way to prevent childhood obesity and mental illnesses, An said. Currently, over three-quarters of children and adolescents in the U.S. don’t meet the guidelines-recommended daily physical activity level — at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day of the week, he said.

“In the meantime, nearly half of children and adolescents exceed two hours per day of sedentary behavior,” An said. “The gender disparity is also prominent — 28{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} of boys meet the guidelines-recommended level of physical activity, whereas only 20{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} of girls do.”

Despite the promising policy effect, state laws mandating P.E. participation have seen a sharp decline by school grade level — only 15{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf}, 9{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} and 6{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} of students in elementary, middle and high schools in the U.S., respectively, are required to take P.E. classes on three or more days a week during the entire academic year, An said.

“Our analysis shows that state P.E. laws affected girls’ physical activity more than boys’,” he said, “It is possible that girls are less likely to take P.E. as an elective course so that mandating P.E. increases girls’ P.E. time more substantially than boys.”

“Not all laws are born equal,” An said. “Different aspects of state P.E. laws tended to affect students’ P.E. attendance differently. Certain parts of the laws could be counterproductive — reducing rather than increasing students’ P.E. attendance.”

Based on An’s earlier work published in the American Journal of Health Promotion, state laws governing P.E. class time, staffing for P.E., joint use agreement for physical activity, assessment of health-related fitness and P.E. curriculum all were associated with increased weekly P.E. attendance.

In contrast, state laws governing physical activity time in P.E., P.E. proficiency and recess time were associated with reduced P.E. attendance. “For example, mandating fitness tests could raise concerns and anxiety and reinforce peer pressure and a competitive atmosphere among students. Consequently, some students may choose to skip P.E. to avoid performance assessment,” An explained.

An conducts research to assess environmental influences and population-level interventions on weight-related behaviors and outcomes throughout the life course. He is an expert on physical activity and the sedentary lifestyle.

A total of 17 studies were included in the review, and five contributed to the meta-analyses. Eight used nationally representative school- or student-level data; three focused on multiple states; and the remaining six examined the P.E. laws of a single state.

An and his co-authors, Jianxiu Liu and Ruidong Liu of Tsinghua University in China, found that some states have policy waivers that may exempt children from P.E. attendance in school.

“Some of those policy waivers could compromise students’ participation in P.E. and their physical activity levels at school,” An said. “Based on the available evidence, states should implement strong evidence-based P.E. laws to increase P.E. attendance and promote physical activity engagement among school students.”

November 21, 2021

Physical education classes can help schoolkids in other areas, analysis finds

Physical education classes may boost intellectual and academic performance in schoolchildren, a new study has found. Photo by Michael Schwarzenberger/Pixabay

June 29 (UPI) — Enhanced physical education classes in school boost children’s brainpower and academic performance, particularly in math, according to an analysis published Tuesday by the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

Students at schools in which physical education classes were taught by dedicated teachers and included intellectually challenging activities had evidence of improved cognitive and academic performance based on standardized test scores and grades, among other measures, the data showed.

However, the analysis also revealed that students ages 5 to 18 gained little benefit from more frequent or longer-duration physical education classes, the researchers said.

“Physical education seems to promote improvements in several future health-related outcomes,” study co-author Dr. Antonio García-Hermoso told UPI in an email.

“Although physical education alone may not provide young people with all the exercise they need to fight childhood obesity, [it can] provide young people with tools to lead a healthy and physically active lifestyle,” said García-Hermoso, an investigator at the Public University of Navarra in Spain.

The findings are based on analysis of data from 19 studies that collectively enrolled nearly 8,700 children and teens in 11 countries, including the United States, the researchers said.

The included studies evaluated the effects of physical education on intellectual and academic performance using standardized test scores and students’ grades.

Amid increasingly limited budgets, many schools worldwide, and nationally, have made cuts to physical education programs — a trend that prompted García-Hermoso and his colleagues to conduct their analysis.

This is despite several studies that have linked physical activity with improved learning and academic performance, the researchers said.

The new analysis of the study data revealed that interventions focused on boosting the quality of physical education programs boosted students’ brainpower, particularly at the primary school level.

Adding “cognitively challenging” activities such as dance or martial arts, having lessons led by a physical education specialist and including high-intensity fitness activities, sports and team games had the most impact, the data showed.

But boosting the number or length of physical education classes had a “marginal and insignificant” effect on academic performance.

Still, increasing the length of physical education class time does not negatively affect academic performance, the researchers said.

“The beneficial effects of regular physical activity on young people’s cognition are more than well known,” García-Hermoso said.

“Overall, physical activity may enhance cognition by modifying white matter integrity and activating key regions of the brain responsible for cognitive processes,” he said.

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