AUSTRALIA (CU)_ When it comes to fitness, Australian kids have a ranking that is far from impressive which is ironic taking into account the nations sporting history and achievements with 5 wins in the one-day international cricket World Cup, 2 wins in the rugby world cup, and more recently in this year’s Commonwealth Games held in Birmingham. Australia topped the list with an impressive 67 gold medals, 57 silver medals and 54 bronze medals. They also have impressive track records in both the summer and winter Olympics. In spite all these impressive achievements in sport Australian kids scored a D minus for physical activity in a report by Active Healthy Kids Australia, a global organization dedicated to fostering physical activity in kids.
Researchers, at the University of Newcastle while acknowledging the school’s importance, believe, more can be done by schools, to achieve their full potential. Professor David Lubans and his team at University of Newcastle’s Priority Research Centre for Physical Activity and Nutrition have been working with many schools throughout the last 15 years to advance the physical activity of kids and designed programs to assist kids further their confidence, competence, motivation and knowledge to be physically fit not just as kids but throughout their adult life as well.
After receiving funding, the team designed the SCORES program (Supporting Children’s Outcomes using Rewards, Exercise and Skills) which demonstrated positive results advancing physical activity in primary school children and improved their fundamental movement skills and cardiorespiratory fitness.
With the impressive achievements of SCORES they received further funding which then lead to the development of an adapted program referred to as iPLAY, implemented in 160 primary schools across New South Wales and was received by over 2,500 teachers making it a huge success. The positive results demonstrated from these programs and the active funding indicate the vote of confidence many organizations are demonstrating on how significant these programs are an the need to take physical activity seriously starting from a young age.
