As we all know, it is important to encourage children to participate in regular physical activity to promote good physical and mental wellbeing. The benefits of exercise can also be seen in the classroom with improved concentration and memory function. However, we have heard from many of our schools that children’s weight and physical fitness have been impacted by lockdown.
This is why we are launching The Spring Stride! The Spring Stride is a brand-new physical activity competition between primary schools in Haringey. It will take place from Tuesday 4 to Friday 28 May and all primary schools have had the opportunity to sign up. Participating primary schools are competing to do 25 days of physical activity. Daily physical activity could be The Daily Mile, sports, games, or classroom-based exercise.
During the competition, schools can get additional support from local partners. This includes:
- Half-day sports session for pupils – The Tottenham Hotspur Foundation, Primary Stars team are offering free half-day sessions of football-based fun during the competition period. Please be aware that sessions were offered on a first-come-first-served basis and have now all been allocated.
- Workshops for parents – One You Haringey are providing virtual workshops for all parents of children participating in The Spring Stride. Three 1 hour-long workshops will take place over the competition period. The sessions will cover cardiovascular activity, resistance activity and behaviour change.
- Fitt-in access – Fitt-in are offering all participating schools a free trial of the Fitt-in platform for the competition period. Fitt-in offers online exercise videos for classroom-based physical activity. An annual subscription for a school usually costs £500. In addition, Fitt-in will send a couple of their instructors, whom you see on the videos, to the most active Fitt-in Haringey primary school to provide a live Fitt-in class.
Prizes are:
- 1st place – £500 Amazon voucher and a Tottenham Takeover Day including special Spurs guests (provided by the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation)
- 2nd place – £250 Amazon voucher and support from the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation at your school sports day
- 3rd place – £250 Amazon voucher
The formal deadline to sign up for the competition was Thursday 29 April, but if you are keen to sign up then please get in touch with healthy.schools@haringey.gov.uk as soon as possible.