Portsmouth schools support pupils to engage in physical activity

Over the past three years, nine schools in Portsmouth have helped pupils and their families overcome barriers to move more. Schools received funding, training and built new relationships as part of the Opening Schools Facilities (OSF) programme.

Background

The OSF programme helped staff to receive training in a range of areas including rugby, swimming, first aid, and creative engagement techniques. As a result, pupils were able to participate in a variety of activities, from Bollywood-style dance and spin classes to tailored multi-sports sessions. OSF also supported schools in opening their doors to the wider community, giving families the chance to try football, bootcamp workouts, and indoor games. 

In its third and final year, the OSF programme benefited 913 pupils and 263 community members across Portsmouth to access 770 physical activity sessions. 

We knew that a lot of children in Portsmouth were having a tougher time getting active. More than half of them (53.6%) weren’t reaching the Chief Medical Officer’s recommended 60 minutes of daily physical activity. When we looked at the bigger picture, we could start to understand why this could have been. 

Around 36% of children are growing up in relative poverty*. This can mean fewer opportunities to join clubs or travel to activities. On top of that, 34.3% of school-aged children are eligible for Free School Meals which is much higher than the national average (24.6%). Families facing financial hardship often have to prioritise essentials which could make things like sport kit or activity fees fall down the list.  

So, it became clear that children in Portsmouth were dealing with challenges that made regular movement harder. These are what the Opening Schools Facilities programme aimed to face. 

*households receive 50% less than average household incomes. 

When we asked Portsmouth schools to tell us what was stopping their pupils from moving more and what communities needed to be more active, they identified that: 

• Many pupils weren’t able to swim 25m unaided, and there was a fear that the nearby coast posed a real risk, especially in the south of the city. 
• Children and families had limited access to outdoor spaces, both at school and at home. 
• Children had limited opportunities to be physically active beyond school, mainly due to cost and transport. 
• There was a lack of after-school club options, often combined with long-standing real or perceived difficulty in engaging pupils and families in activity opportunities. 

Our nine schools in Portsmouth tackled these challenges in different ways. We’ll soon be sharing stories about how schools in North Portsmouth and South Portsmouth worked to increase physical activity opportunities for their pupils and local communities. So keep an eye on our News & Stories page to see when those are live!

So, what can you do to better engage children and families in your after-school offer? Throughout the OSF programme, we learnt:  

• Talk to pupils and community members and listen to what they say they want. Then do it! This demonstrates that your school values the views of others. 
• Make activities free or affordable. 
• If you have outdoor space, this can be a real hook. It’s somewhere that lots of families feel safe. 
• Coordinate your schedule with other local schools or community activities.  
• Don’t be afraid to experiment or adjust the offer, like grouping participants in different ways or starting at a different time. But do follow through on what you’ve said you’ll do. If you cancel or move sessions at the last minute, or for low numbers, people may start to not trust you. 
•  It takes time to build relationships. Persevere. 
• “Word of mouth and plenty of patience!” 

So, what can you do to help schools deliver additional physical activities? Throughout the OSF programme, we learnt: 

• Where funding can cover the administration of set up, monitoring, and reporting, this results in better relationships with the school, and better-quality data and insight. 
• Where schools already have a dedicated community lead, it’s easier and quicker for them to build relationships beyond the school gate. 
• It’s important to have a simple process to apply, claim funding, and report, because school capacity is stretched to the limit. 
• Schools value having a personal contact with the funder, someone they can call with questions or for support. 
• Being able to incentivise staff to lead after-school clubs through pay, professional development or additional time off is helpful.  
• When schools can prioritise staff development early in the process, they feel better equipped to keep activity going once funding has finished. 
• It takes a team of people – when schools have the finance and admin team on board early, as well as those delivering the sessions, it benefits the school and the funder. 

If you’re interested in learning more about how OSF helped pupils to move more, we visited 3 projects to find out exactly what this programme supported schools to do. Check out the stories for: Portsdown Primary School, Baycroft School and Portchester Community School.

If you do anything differently as a result of this learning, let us know by submitting a We Can Be Active Win so we can all learn and celebrate each other!