We have created this policy from recommendations within the British Heart Foundation National centre’s ‘Early Movers’ pack and their recommendation that children should have the opportunity to be active 180 minutes a day and also National guidelines on physical activity levels of sedentary behaviour, issued by the Chief Medical Officer.
Please visit http://www.ssehsactive.org.uk/earlyyearsguidelines/index.html for more detail.
Please also see policies for; Health and Safety, Suitable wear, outdoor play, outings and trips.
Aim
To provide varied developmentally appropriate physical activities for all children to enjoy regularly throughout the course of every day. This is because being physically active is vital to improve our health, wellbeing and helps us to live longer. If children are active from the earliest months it will establish a positive pattern for their whole lives.
Objectives
To joining in fine motor activities and providing resources for all developmental stages. As a setting, we would expect this to be done energetically and encouraging children to join in and praising their efforts. Physical activity can be planned by an adult or spontaneous from a child’s interest/lead.
Staff encourage this by using phrases such as ‘get comfy’ at story/carpet time, we have tummy time when we do remembering time i in our routine and encourage everyone to stand up when we are doing singing.
Ethos and environment
As a child care provider I have given thought to how indoor and outdoor spaces can support and enhance children’s experience and opportunity for active play and allow children to move freely between both environments. Our routine and development of staff ensures that we operate a free flow environment, that we have opportunities to dance, sing and explore movement as a whole group and individually on the movement area (following DMP ethos). We ensure the environment is also rich in opportunities to develop fine motor skills and ensure equipment is varied to meet all developmental needs. But adults offer support to encourage children to develop their skills with harder equipment (i.e normal scissors, bikes with pedals, smaller balls).
Resource provision and facilities
In our parent welcome pack we ask that parents provide their children with suitable clothes for all weathers, however we do have enough full waterproof suits and welly boots for all children/sunhats/hats and gloves for colder weather so all children can go outside whatever the weather. Outside we have tents/dens that can provide shade when it is very hot. Inside we have the movement area where children have a safe area to explore different movements and skills. We have gathering time daily where we do a physical action song and talk about the affect this has on our body, in addition we are a Bronze Healthy Eating so therefore discuss healthy food choices at snack and lunch time with the children. Since embarking on the silver physical our weekly planning has two physical focused large group times a week and we have weekly visits from dancing groups/football skills/drama to help develop different physical skills. As mentioned earlier in the policy are resources are accessible to all as we ensure they are at varying skill levels.
Early years curriculums/frameworks
This policy supports the following requirements:
Community links
We have local forest /ponds we can go to visit. We are also close to shops / post office where we can walk to and link to learning in the preschool. We have successfully secured two grants (co-op community fund and Tesco bags for life) where we have used the money to bring in other professionals to do physical activities with the children and ‘lifecycles’ equipment for outside (bug hunts, digging, pouring etc)
Active travel
Active travel is practiced whenever possible and is promoted to families as best practice for increased physical activity. We hold regular ‘walk/scoot/ride to school’ weeks and encourage parents to participate.
Assessment/recording/reporting and working with parents
Children’s progress will be assessed, recorded and monitored and progress relayed to parents through the use of our daily observations, planning and home learning sheets and termly parent consultations and daily chats. Here we will work together to support each child’s development. We will also link with other professionals that can offer support or advice, including Health visitors, doctors, sure start.
We also as a team use the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS) to ensure the setting is providing all the activities/resources to meet the children’s physical needs and that we are developing good practice. We use this to monitor the environment/staff and the setting to improve our Physical Activity. This also highlights any staff training needs and the setting expectations of role-modelling and joining in will be covered in all staff induction programmes.
Consultation
Families will be consulted on physical activity practice and needs of the child. Families will be informed of any up-dates on the guidelines issued by the BHFNC. We will do this through regular questionnaires and updates on our website/newsletter, Facebook page and inviting parents in to learn more about the importance of physical activity and what they can do at home as well.
Document ID-
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Policy adopted at meeting – Nov 2017 |
Reviewed by : Ladybirds Directors
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Date reviewed |
5/11/2019 |
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Nov 2017 |
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March 2018 |
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