Drive to get kids moving this summer

3 Aug 2021 12:21 PM

We've produced a new video and selection of resources, as well as investing in projects, to support children getting active this summer.

Have fun and move more is the message from our new video aimed at encouraging children and young people to get active this summer.

We know the pandemic has disrupted the ways in which children and young people normally get active, so we want to encourage them back to activity and help those who are inactive try something new.

The video, which we're encouraging everyone to share on social media, has been put together with the help of our partners at Forestry England, National Trust, Beat the Streets, Playing Out and both Public Health England and Disney.

It’s encouraging children and young people to make the most of the school holidays and to experience the health and social benefits associated with living active lives.

Video description

Schools are one of the main environments where children and young people can get active, so during the holidays we're making a renewed effort to encourage parents and carers to take up opportunities for them to move more.

It’s not just about being active for activity’s sake, though, as we know that creating positive experiences for children and young people at an early stage makes them much more likely to continue being active into adulthood – it’s so important that we’ve made it one of the five big issues in our Uniting the Movement strategy.

And over the summer holidays sport and physical activity providers can play a vital role in welcoming children and young people, via their parents and carers, to take part.

To help them do this we’ve produced a set of hints and tips about how to get children and young people active. They are:

Find out more about these tips, why they’re important and how you can help at the link below.

Advice on our open funding streams, details of our bank of free images to help promote activities and example social media posts to encourage parents and carers to get active with their children can also be found here.

Children and young people

In addition to this, as part of our Join the Movement campaign, we’ve collated a list of free activities for parents and carers to try with their children this summer – some of which we’ve funded ourselves.

If you’re full of Olympic spirit already then you can help spread that enthusiasm with the Travel to Tokyo programme developed by Team GB and ParalympicsGB. It uses the inspiration of the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games to encourage children aged 5-11 to have fun and get active with their families and has just had some new activities added to mark the beginning of the Games.

Alternatively, you could make the most of what the National Trust have to offer, see if there's a Beat the Street interactive exploration game near you, get the family moving at home with a 10-minute Disney Shake-up, go in search of the Gruffalo with a Forestry England Gruffalo trail or turn your street into a playground with Playing Out.

For these and many more activities, click the link below.

Join the Movement – get active with the kids

Our work to help children and young people get active also stretches to Active Partnerships, whom we’re working with to promote summer activities for children and young people to parents and carers in neighbourhoods with high levels of deprivation.

This will largely focus on the government’s holiday activity and food programme that provides free summer camps for children and young people accessing free school meals.

Our other investments include the Active Recovery Hub, which showcases 470 practical resources for schools and parents, and the charity StreetGames, which harnesses the power of sport to create positive change in the lives of disadvantaged young people.

We’re also investing £10 million of government funding to help schools keep sports facilities open, both during term-time and during the holidays, and have funded projects benefitting children and young people through the £20m Tackling Inequalities Fund.