Health and wellbeing underpins our whole education system and Sheffield Hallam University can play a major part in ensuring every child in the city gets a good, physical start in life.
That is the message from the chair of the Youth Sport Trust, Baroness Sue Campbell CBE as she addressed teaching professionals at the University’s Primary and Early Years Education Conference.
“If a child is not physically and emotionally well, they are not going to learn,” said Baroness Campbell, who is the former Chair of UK Sport.
“The Olympic legacy inspired a generation but what we need to do more of now is translate that inspiration to participation. You only have to look at the health figures and obesity figures to see that we have a challenge.
“To tackle this we really have to start in school by building physical activity into daily lifestyle. If it’s not in there by the time the youngster is 10 or 11 you’re always battling to get it in there later in life.
“We need to concentrate on raising expectations and aspirations so that every child in Sheffield gets a good physical literacy start in life. The University’s Institute of Education can help support that and Sheffield Hallam has certainly got the people here to achieve it.”
The conference, sponsored by Randstad Education brought primary and early years teachers and researchers together to look at how the profession can tackle the challenges in the education system at a time of great reform.
A series of workshops also explored behaviour management, bringing literacy to life, developing the study of foreign languages and supporting vulnerable children.
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