Sport England's Drive to Get Children Moving this Summer

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

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

The video, they are encouraging everyone to share on social media, has been put together with the help of their 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.

Schools are one of the main environments where children and young people can get active, so during the holidays Sport England are 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, 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 it one of the five big issues in Sport England's 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 Sport England have produced a set of hints and tips about how to get children and young people active. They are:

• Focus on the fun and enjoyment
• Try to make it family-friendly
• Offer a choice.

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

Advice on open funding streams, details of Sport England's 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.

In addition to this, as part of the Join the Movement campaign, Sport England have collated a list of free activities for parents and carers to try with their children this summer – some of which are funded by Sport England.

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.

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.

Click here for these and many more activities.

(Source- Sport England)