Drive to keep kids active during the summer

Nike and Discovery Education have launched the ‘Active Kids Do Better’ initiative to help families keep moving in the school holidays

Families across the UK are being encouraged to keep kids moving during the school holidays, by using a popular website that gives tips and ideas for active summer fun. 

Created by Nike and Discovery Education, ‘Active Kids Do Better’ offers lots of activities to keep kids busy and moving throughout the day. Helping families to enjoy being active together, it includes mini-workouts, fun games and exercises, all freely available at www.activekidsdobetter.co.uk. 

‘Active Kids Do Better’ was launched by Olympic sprinter Daryll Neita in 2018, and the programme has already helped thousands of UK primary school children to stay active both in the classroom and at home. As the school summer holidays approach it’s hoped that the website will be used by parents as an easy way to inject fun movement into every day. 

Today in the UK, less than a quarter of children get the physical exercise they need – and the pandemic has had a huge impact on kids’ activity levels. Sport England’s Active Lives – Children and Young People survey, published in December, showed that kids’ activity levels continue to be negatively impacted by the pandemic at a time when getting active is more important than ever for their physical and mental wellbeing. 

Over 30% of young people do less than 30 minutes of exercise each day and during the academic year 2020-21, there were 94,000 fewer active children and young people compared to the previous year. ‘Active Kids Do Better’ offers plenty of ideas to help families address this, by keeping them moving together and boosting their physical and mental wellbeing. 

MD UK and International at Discovery Education, Howard Lewis, said:

“Discovery Education is delighted to be working with Nike to make our ‘Active Kids Do Better’ resources available to parents across the UK again this summer at no cost. The website is easy to use and contains lots of fun ideas and activities to help parents introduce movement and play into every day.

“Active kids are healthier, happier and show stronger academic performance. ‘Active Kids Do Better’ makes it easier than ever for families to stay active whether at home or away.” 

The activities and resources are linked to the National Curriculum, meaning that parents can also combine movement with learning during the summer holidays. 

Some of the activities include:

·      Spell check – a hopscotch-style outdoor game which teaches spelling

·      Clock lunges – an indoor activity to help kids learn to tell the time

·      Compass jumps – a fun indoor movement that helps kids understand direction