Welcome to the April edition of the UKPE newsletter!
Dance is a great way to keep fit and healthy. As dance is so much fun to participate in, it often feels that you are not exercising at all. The likes of Strictly Come Dancing have seen the UK embrace a new passion for dance and the government seem to have recognised this as they are investing £5.5m in dance for school-age children over the next three years.
This month also sees the celebration of International Dance Day. To commemorate this occasion, which is celebrated on April 29th, we are offering all of our subscribers 10% off our dance books and DVDs. Read on for more information.
| International Dance Day discount! |
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| International Dance Day, UNESCO, is celebrated on April 29th every year. First celebrated in 1982 when it was established by the International Dance Committee of the UNESCO International Theatre Institute, the date commemorates the birthday of Jean- Georges Noverre, the creator of modern ballet. The intention of International Dance Day is to bring all dance together, to celebrate the art form, to cross all political, cultural and ethnic barriers and bring people together in peace with a common language – DANCE. As well as this, International Dance Day aims to increase the awareness of the importance of dance among the general public, as well as persuade governments all over the world to provide a proper place for dance in all systems of education, from primary to higher.In celebration of this year’s International Dance Day, Human Kinetics is offering all readers a 10% discount off all dance books and DVDs. To claim your discount, simply quote Mail Code R607. When ordering online (http://ukpe.hum an kinetics.com/), you’ll be prompted for the Mail Code at the top of the shopping cart page. Alternatively, call Human Kinetics order hotline on 0113 255 5665 (or +44 (0)113 255 5665 if outside the UK).Browse dance resources
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| Help your pupils learn essential social skills through character-building activities |
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 Neither motor nor social skills are instinctual, both have to be learned. Knowing the proper ways to interact with others also has to be learned and it is not always a skill that is taught at home. Character-Building Activities: Teaching Responsibility, Interaction, and Group Dynamics, a book that is primarily aimed at, but not exclusively for teachers, parents and coaches presents activities that provide social-skill development and character-building activities.The book provides nearly 100 activities that will help children and young adults:
Perfect for citizenship lessons, Character-Building Activities applies directly to pre-teens and teenagers, but it is easily adapted to younger children. This resource can be used in a variety of settings both in and out of school. The activities are short, clearly described, easy to set up and ready to use. Teachers can incorporate the activities into an existing lesson plan, or use a few in creating a new lesson plan. Regardless of age and setting, pupils taking part in the activities in this book will learn to deal with a variety of issues, including self-esteem, peer pressure, bullying, anger and stress. The self-responsibility, social interaction and group dynamics taught through the activities in this book will help children to learn essential social skills, enabling them to grow and mature into well-balanced adults. PRICE: £11.00 (16.50 Euros)
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| Achieve maximum fun and fitness in PE lessons with new physical education resource |
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 Maximum Middle School Physical Education is designed for immediate practical use by physical education teachers. The lessons and activities provided in this comprehensive book and CD-ROM package will keep pupils interested and help you meet your daily challenges as a physical education teacher.Maximum Middle School Physical Education offers a mix of student-centred activities and lesson plans that foster effective growth, physical skills and knowledge development. The activities in this book encompass fitness exercises, social skills and physical skill development. The accompanying CD-ROM contains handouts, task cards, posters and station instructions. The book includes thumbnails of the CD-ROM items so that you know when to include them in your teaching.
Maximum Middle School Physical Education will help you empower students to take responsibility for their own activity and fitness. This book is more than lesson plans, assessment sheets and fitness development – it’s about developing health and wellness through joyful movement. The book is designed to help you create an environment where students are active and excited and enjoy physical education. PRICE: £19.50 (29.25 Euros)
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| Parents ‘too scared to let children play outside’ |
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 One child in four aged between eight and 10 has never played outside unsupervised, the Government has admitted as it pledges to spend millions of pounds on new playgrounds and adventure areas.Ministers will also say that a third of all parents do not even allow their older children to play outside alone because they are frightened they could be exposed to harm.
A national consultation on how to reverse the decline in children’s play has been launched as part of a Government drive to build more play areas for young people. The move comes amid fears that children’s health and long-term development is being undermined because they are being deprived of the chance to play outside unsupervised. The Government has been accused of making the problem worse by selling off school fields despite a pledge in 1997 that it would protect areas where children could play. Since 1998 the Government has backed at least 187 plans to dispose of playing fields – categorised as land that can be used for grass sport pitches. The Telegraph, 31st March 2008
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| £5.5m plan to inspire new generation of Billy Elliots in schools |
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 From Billy Elliot to Ballet Hoo! the power of dance to inspire young people in Britain has never been clearer: Stephen Daldry’s 2002 film, now a hit musical, told the story of a miner’s son torn between his macho working-class background and his love of ballet, while Channel 4’s documentary Ballet Hoo! offered 200 disadvantaged youngsters from the West Midlands the chance to train with professionals.Now the Government is to capitalise on the national passion revealed by the hit BBC1 show Strictly Come Dancing by investing £5.5m in dance for school-age children over the next three years.
The initiative, funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Department for Children, Schools and Families and Arts Council England, follows a review of youth dance by the Royal Opera House chief executive, Tony Hall, who oversees the Royal Ballet. The money is a fraction of the amount spent on music in schools, but for the first time, the Government plans a national youth dance strategy under the auspices of an organisation called Youth Dance England. The funding will double the amount that the body receives each year. At present, dance in schools is mostly restricted to performing arts academies such as the Brit School in Croydon, but under a pilot scheme, specialised ” co-ordinators” will work with the Youth Sport Trust to get more children strutting their stuff. Six new Centres of Advanced Training for dance will also be set up by 2011, with the aim of taking about 1,500 young people to “the next level”. The Independent, 18th March 2008
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| Obese children to die younger than parents |
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 Today’s children could live shorter lives than their parents due to the obesity epidemic, it has been warned. If trends continue as expected, average life expectancy could fall for the first time in hundreds of years, said health specialists.A quarter of five-year-olds and more than a third of 10- year-olds are overweight or obese and numbers are predicted to rise steeply over the next few decades.
By 2050 it is estimated that half of the British population will be clinically obese. The resultant surge in health problems, including diabetes, heart disease and some cancers, will affect life expectancy. Dr Peter Bradley, the director of public health in Suffolk, said: “If you become obese when you are young then your life expectancy will be considerably less. This hasn’t happened in hundreds of years. Even during the Second World War life expectancy continued to go up.” Dr Colin Ware, the chairman of the National Obesity Forum, said: “We could be looking at a generation with shorter life expectancies than their parents, which is an alarming prospect. The biggest threat is Type 2 diabetes, which we are starting to see in large numbers in adolescents. We could also see levels of heart disease, which have been falling for 30 years, begin to rise. If developed as an adolescent Type 2 diabetes can take decades, not just years, off life expectancy.” The Telegraph, 6th April 2008
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| Labour’s 187 broken promises on playing field sales |
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 Ministers have approved the sell-off of at least 187 school and local playing fields since Labour came to power.Schools Secretary Ed Balls and his predecessor Alan Johnson personally agreed to 19 of the sales last year. This is in spite of repeated Government promises that playing fields would be carefully protected.
Labour promised in its 1997 manifesto to bring the “policy of forcing schools to sell off playing fields to an end”. Four years ago the Government said any future sales would have to be signed off by the Secretary of State, with the profits re-invested in educational facilities. However, since 1998 the Government has approved of at least 187 plans to dispose of playing fields. Since 2001 some 1,331 pieces of community and school land smaller than an acre have been sold. Because of their size, these did not require ministerial approval. The figures threaten to overshadow the Government’s announcement of its intention to spend £225 million over the next three years on 3,500 new playgrounds and 30 adventure play areas with trained supervisors. The Daily Mail, 30th March 2008
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| Heart disease risk ‘increases for children who are inactive’ |
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 Unfit, lazy children are six times more likely to develop early signs of heart disease than those who are active and take exercise, scientists have warned.For the first time, experts have established that activity levels in children as young as seven can have a serious effect on their future health.
The study showed that by 14, children who did little exercise from an early age showed a series of symptoms such as raised blood pressure and cholesterol levels, which put them at risk of going on to develop heart disease. The research, carried out at the University of North Carolina, is the first to discover how important physical activity – and not just weight – is in early childhood in relation to health throughout life. In the UK, a quarter of all children could be obese by 2050. Among adults, just 10 per cent of men and 15 per cent of women will be a healthy weight by then unless drastic action is taken. The findings of the study will fuel fears that the country is breeding a generation of inactive children who spend more time playing on computers or watching television than doing exercise, despite millions being spent on Government plans to combat the obesity problem. The Telegraph, 4th April 2008
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| School-gate fast food ban urged |
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 Schools and councils are being urged to make it harder for children to swap their school meal for a takeaway.Rising levels of obesity are being fuelled by the ready availability of fast food, said the School Food Trust. It wants schools to close their gates at lunchtime and councils to stop new fast food outlets opening nearby. But the Local Government Association said it could not force schools to shut their gates and that food retailers could challenge licence refusals.
The trust has issued a “league table” of the local education authority areas with the most takeaway and sweet shops per secondary school. Seaside towns – with dozens of outlets aimed at tourists – and inner city areas, fare the worst. Topping the list is Brighton and Hove, with 46 per school, closely followed by Blackpool and Hull. School Food Trust chief executive Judy Hargadon said: “At the moment school canteens have to compete with a myriad of take-aways, chippies and sweet shops for pupils’ dinner money. We all know that some children will go for chips five times a week if they are allowed to. The problem is that this is damaging their long-term health, and is also threatening the viability of school lunch services.” BBC News, 28th March 2008
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| More children are watching junk-food adverts despite ban |
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 Government attempts to fight childhood obesity by banning adverts for junk food is being hampered by such programmes as The X Factor and Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, the Prime Minister’s adviser on obesity has admitted.A ban was introduced in January on adverts for foods high in salt, sugar or fat during programmes whose viewers were mainly under the age of 16. It did not, however, affect the programmes with an audience mainly made up of adults, even though many more children watch them.
Among the programmes affected was the children’s cartoon SpongeBob Squarepants, which attracts about 170,000 child viewers. But Saturday Night Takeaway, a family show watched by more than a million children, was not. New research has concluded the number of times children watch junk-food adverts during these family programmes has risen in the past two years by 26 per cent. The figures come from Dr Will Cavendish, director of health and wellbeing at the Department of Health, who described the trend as “worrying” at a time when almost a third of 11-year-olds are classified as overweight or obese. The Independent, 7th April 2008
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| EIPET Project |
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 The EIPET project is a two year project, beginning 1st November 2007, supported by the Leonardo da Vinci fund through Léargas, the National Agency for Ireland. The project aims to tackle difficulties that arise and are associated with the inclusion of people with disabilities into mainstream education; and associated current deficiencies in initial and continued physical education teacher training to deal with same.
A functional map of the physical education teacher’s role will be developed through the project and the knowledge, competence and skill requirements of PE teachers, given the rapidly changing work environments resulting from the aforementioned changes, will be detailed. An International Conference in Tralee in 2009 will launch the project results and a resource pack. Other EIPET project aims include:
The EIPET project is asking UKPE subscribers to let them know your thoughts or dissemination activities in relation to the project in order to engage you in the project consultation process. For more information, please contact Matt Fisher mfisher@sportscoachuk.org
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25/05/08 at 8:26 AM |
[...] by drilly on May 25, 2008 Human Kinetics UKPE April Newsletter contains some interesting articles and references to resources summary [...]
25/05/08 at 8:30 AM |
[...] Kinetics UKPE April Newsletter contains some interesting articles and references to resources summary [...]