Kids really need gym, especially now
The corona crisis has also not done the motor skills of students any good. “You don't want children to fall behind any more than you do with language or math.” Do students not sit still too much?
Image: Rob Niemantsverdriet
A fitness test is held at the Prinsenhof primary school in Noordwijkerhout twice a year. The shuttle runs test. Within a beep everyone rushes to the other side of the gymnasium, if you are late twice, you lose weight. The beep gets faster each time. For the first time, Micha Luttik - gym teacher, motor remedial teacher and physical education coordinator - sees that groups 7 and 8 have come to a standstill.
“This is the group of children who no longer run and climb outside on their own, but rather hang out and chat.” According to him, these groups desperately need gym and sports club to maintain their condition. Also in group 6 he sees the progress in fitness level off. He does not know whether the trend is national, but he hears the signal more often among his colleagues.
“It's starting to rub off,” says Oscar Scipio, gym teacher at a primary school in Almere, exercise coordinator and educational advisor. “We record the progress of the children in a pupil monitoring system and we now see that children are stagnating. They are still making progress, but less than before.”
We now see that children are stagnant. They are still improving, but less than before
There have been concerns about children's motor skills for some time now. During the lockdowns, the motor skills of preschoolers in groups 1 and 2 deteriorated, the Mulier Institute, a research bureau specializing in movement, has established. A large group of preschoolers scored worse especially on the balancing part. The lockdowns were detrimental to all students who already had difficulty moving, they needed the gym classes at school the most. The consequences are still noticeable today, as they have observed at the Prinsenhof and in Almere.
Micha Luttik during gym class at group 4 of primary school de Prinsenhof in Noordwijkerhout: "At my school I see that children have exercised less versatilely." Image: Rob Niemantsverdriet
Skating coach Jac Orie sounded the alarm last summer about the physical development of the new generation of athletes. Young people between the ages of twelve and twenty spend more than 10 hours a day sitting, he says concerned in an interview with The Telegraph. And last month, State Secretary Paul Blokhuis of Sport came up with answers to parliamentary questions from the SP about the worrying physical development of children. It states that from 2023 onwards, schools will be obliged to offer at least 2 teaching hours of physical education per week in primary education as well.
Lol
Our children sit most quietly at school of the children in our neighboring countries, namely 7,5 hours a day. According to Cees Klaassen, director of the Royal Association for Physical Education (KVLO), it is high time to move towards a dynamic school week. He sums up: 2 hours of compulsory gym per week, 1 hour of exercise at school and 2 hours of sports in after-school care. 5 hours together. Ambitious?
“Everyone is starting to realize how important exercise is. For all sorts of reasons. To build up resistance and be fit, but also because of the socializing effect. You gain social skills when you play together and learn how to deal with the opponent.” Gym is also one of the few classes that you do as a group. “With the whole class together, students think that's important too. The fun you have together.”
It is the craftsmanship of a PE teacher to make children move safely and challenging
There is hope. The most recent measurement by the Mulier Institute shows that an improvement in physical education in primary schools has been initiated. The number of specialist teachers in particular has increased sharply, probably partly due to the use of the work pressure agreement funds. The Mulier report states: 'In the 2020-2021 school year, 44 percent of primary schools deployed a subject teacher or a combination of subject and group teachers for physical education in group 1/2. In group 3/8 it was 77 percent.' That is both significantly more than in 2016-2017, an increase of 23 and 59 percent. Two out of five schools also offer extra support to children with motor disabilities. More than doubling compared to 2016-2017.
Klaassen of the KVLO: “Primary schools have been given money to reduce the workload, and PE teachers have been recruited for this, among other things. We are now seeing the results of this. It is the skill of a PE teacher to make children move safely and challenging. It relieves the group teacher. We also saw that not all schools used to have two compulsory PE lessons per week, but that is now improved by appointing PE teachers. We are working hard to achieve at least those 2 mandatory hours everywhere, we are encouraging schools that already do 2 hours to set a third exercise hour.”
Inadequate
To find out how the children are doing and whether schools are making progress, many primary schools use the MQ scan, a test for motor skills. The initiator is former judoka Ziggy Tabacznik. The test was developed together with the Hague University of Applied Sciences and the VU Amsterdam. Just as you test children on competences for math and language, you should also do the same for motor skills, is the idea behind it.
More than a thousand primary schools now use the test. The simple scan can be taken in one PE lesson by the subject teacher. There are three different variants, for the substructure, the middle and the superstructure. All you need are sofas, a closet and a mat. In the lower school children walk across the sofa, in the middle school over the narrow bottom of it. Everything is on time. The gym teacher enters the scores and immediately has an overview of how students and the class are doing.
“The next day, the teacher already knows what to pay extra attention to in gym class,” says Tabacznik. It is not the intention to give children an insufficient score on the basis of the test, he adds, but to help children with movement delays in a more targeted way. “What do they like, what suits them? Good motor skills are essential for everyone, you are less likely to get injured, you enjoy sports more, obesity decreases and self-confidence increases.”
"Dutch children sit still for 7,5 hours a day." Image: Rob Niemantsverdriet
Luttik and Scipio have been using the MQ scan in their schools for a few years in a row. “It's a great tool to have a baseline measurement,” says PE teacher Luttik. “At my school I see that children have less versatile exercise. Our school is located in the Bollenstreek and children often have many opportunities to play outside and the parents also encourage this. But you have not been able to offer them the full range of physical education.”
Scipio: “In our region we see that children spend a lot of time in front of their screens, they go outside less, parents don't take the initiative. Corona has especially not done those children who are not on sports any good. After-school sports also had to stop during corona. 1100 children participate in this every week in Almere.”
Children learn more than just moving during a gym class. They also learn to work together
Children learn more than just moving during a gym class. “They also learn to work together,” says Luttik, “which is a big loss during a lockdown. At home you can do everything at your own pace. In the gym they suddenly have to learn how to adapt to another person and how to deal with winning and losing.”
Director Cees Klaassen sees that most progress is made in collaboration between the school, the municipality and after-school care. “The municipality is responsible for the sports accommodation. Not everyone knows that, the municipality gets money for it. An exercise-friendly building and schoolyard also help, so every school day becomes a dynamic school day.”
Also read: Motor skills quickly reverse during lockdown
