Michael Syddall Primary School in Catterick have been embracing physical activity and the benefits it can have on children’s lives/learning and have made a number of changes over the last few years.
At the start of last academic year 2018/2019 they took the decision that no child should sit for longer than 20 minutes at a time throughout the school day. This was partly based on the direction the school had taken around the importance of physical activity and exercise, looking at research and evidence that backed up the assertion that Physical activity improves concentration and engagement and the benefits to children’s well-being and enjoyment. Also, contextual information around some of the year groups, including year 6, supported the school’s need to act to try to impact on children’s learning and progress in a different way.
As a result they removed items from their classrooms to give the teachers and children more space to be active and they utilised a number of resources and supported teachers to embrace activity breaks. This includes the North Yorkshire Sport resource, 30 things for 30 minutes.
Due to the rapid impact that this step had on the school, ahead of last year’s SATS, through conversations with senior leaders, they took the decision to implement a physical activity break during the tests. The school ensured that, as it was normal classroom practice and met the requirements of the access arrangements document, the integrity of the tests was not compromised.
The children could stand but could not move away from their desks, the physical activity break would have to be under exam conditions, so no talking etc and that the school could not allow more time for the exam. (However the physical activity break was not part of the exam so time could be stopped.)
The school practiced under exam conditions throughout the year and teachers spent time stressing importance of exam conditions! Initially the children talked, were excited etc but after practice and correct messaging the children were able to take part in the physical activity break under exam conditions.
When the SATS time came, they were held under exam conditions as normal, however at the 20 minute mark an alarm sounded, children put down their pens and shut their booklets and stood up to follow some short physical activity shown on a screen at the front of the room. They then returned to their seats and completed the exam, all in silence.
The school found, as a result of previous practise, that the children were able to manage their time, knowing whether to start a question before the PA part or to just read it and start when they sat back down etc.
The school have never been above national average for results whilst the current Curriculum lead of PE has been in post (4 years) however the last SATs results bucked that trend and resulted in:
Percentage of children achieving the expected standard in Reading = 78% (National 73%)
Percentage of children achieving the expected standard in Writing = 89% (National 78%)
Percentage of children achieving the expected standard in Maths = 94% (National 79%)
Percentage of children achieve the expected standard in reading, writing and maths = 78% (National 65%)
In addition to the health benefits and apparent improvement in SATS scores (not that all of this improvement is down to the physical activity, we all acknowledge that) the children also benefit from unintended and unmeasured consequences, for example:
• They felt trusted that they could maintain exam conditions before, during and after the break.
• Their management of the test improved as they knew when the break was coming and how to manage questions around it.
• They got the message that whilst the exams were important they were not the be all and end all and they did not over-ride the schools ethos, of no more than 20 minutes sitting at a time throughout the school day.
Due to the success of the approach, the school is continuing to work in this way. Children concentrate better for the time they are working and are more productive. It has become normal classroom practise across the whole school and will continue to be the case during assessments as well.