Get active! Staff at Oriel Academy encourage students to keep moving and stay healthy during lockdown with daily dose of exercise

Every morning, Early Years students at Oriel Academy have up to half-an-hour timetabled into their online learning to kickstart their day with some physical activity.

Whether it be PE with Joe Wicks, going for a walk or dancing around the living room, Nursery and Reception students are encouraged to let loose and get active whilst at home.

Staff have recorded personalised video messages of themselves being active in hopes that children will be motivated to do the same, and children have also been encouraged to think about healthy eating too.

In line with government guidance, learning has moved online for most students during the latest lockdown. Concerns have been raised in the media of how young people’s activity level will be impacted while not at school due to missing out on PE and playtime.

Staff at Oriel were keen to not let this be a challenge that their students faced so implemented a solution to ensure that children are still exposed to daily exercise. 

In Early Years, students are provided with daily video links to either PE with Joe Wicks or the 5-a-day Fitness classes on YouTube.

Kristina Bikauskaite, Early Years Lead at Oriel Academy, explained: “Guidelines recommend that children between 5 – 18 years old should be physically active for at least 60 minutes every day.

“We all know that physical activities and outdoors have enormous health benefits for children.

“It does improve our children’s health, strength and fitness, and it can also help to improve their mental health and cognitive development!”

In light of this, the Early Years team don’t just stop with the morning fitness videos to keep children active – they encourage further physical activity outdoors too!

Staff have made videos of themselves out walking to encourage students to also explore outside and get some fresh air during their school day, whether it be through walking, riding a bike or even building a snowman! 

For extra fun, students are asked to find materials such as leaves and stones whilst exploring outdoors and make a collage with the items they find.

Staying active is key to staying healthy, but it doesn’t stop there.

In Early Years, their topic this term is Space, and students have been getting creative!

Using whatever fruit they had at home, students were asked to build their own rockets.

They were encouraged to think about the different fruits they were using, and even try some that they may not have eaten before in an attempt to promote healthy eating.

Kristina said: “We wanted the children to be creative and have fun with what they were doing.

“Using fruit to build rockets was a good idea because not only is it it something that most people have at home so was easily accessible, but it also encouraged the children to think more about fruit and hopefully eat more of it too by seeing the fun side of it.”

With the recent announcement that schools will be closed for longer than initially expected, Oriel will continue motivating students across all year groups to stay active and healthy whilst at home.