FIVE rEcommEndatIons

FIVE recommendations
FOR kids to be more active at school
PRESENTED BY
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
Physical inactivity has been amply
documented as a risk factor for
overweight, obesity, and numerous
chronic diseases 2 .
Only 7%
of Canadian
children
and youth
are sufficiently
active 1 .
Physical activity
at school is
essentiaL for
the development
of children and
constitutes
one of the most
effective means
of improving
their health 4 .
96% of Quebecers
agree that
children and
youth should
be allowed to
engage in more
physical activity
at school 10 .
Physical inactivity is the cause of 1 in 10
deaths in the world 3 .
HEALTH AND WELL-BEING: Physical
activity among youth has beneficial
effects on physical health, psychological
well-being, mental health, social skills,
and cognitive abilities 5 .
ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT: Physical
activity improves academic performance
by fostering, in particular, attention
skills, concentration, memory, and better
classroom behaviour 5 6 7 8 9 . It
also elicits a sense of belonging at school
and tends to promote greater academic
perseverance 5 6 . School is an ideal environment for
acquiring the knowledge, skills, and habits
that will allow leading a healthy and active
life 4 .
Only 27% of the population believes that
young people have sufficient opportunity
to be active at school 10 .
For young people to be more active,
parents, the community, institutions, and
government all have a role to play. Numerous
initiatives have already been implemented just
about everywhere in Quebec to help improve
the situation. Schools have long been
recognized as establishments favourable
to physical activity initiatives. More than
ever, they are becoming an ideal setting
for encouraging and supporting a physically
active lifestyle among young people 11 .
For young people to feel like being active
now and later in life, it is essential that they
experience physical activity in a positive
way. It is therefore necessary to offer them
quality supervision and fun, structured
activities that take place in an atmosphere
of respect and trust and that fit different
individual characteristics (sex, age, ability).
To maximize the gains for young people, it
is important also to consider the duration,
intensity, frequency, and nature of the
physical activities proposed.
OBJECTIVE
Increase and maximize the occasions
for young people to be active, from the moment
they leave for school in the morning until
their return home, in order for them to accumulate
a minimum of 60 minutes of physical activity per day.
We recommend five effective
and promising measures
to government, schools,
and municipalities in order
to allow children and youth
to be more active
4 12 13 14
.
These proposals make it possible
to reach a large number
of young people, regardless
of their socioeconomic status,
and can be adapted to the reality
of each environment.
Recommendation 1
Prescribe a mandatory minimum
amount of time dedicated to physical
education and health courses
Why?
Physical education and health courses foster in children the acquisition of fundamental motor skills
conducive to learning sport skills and complex
movements 15 . Lack of motor skills diminishes the
pleasure felt doing physical activity and, in turn,
one’s interest in it. It is also a determinant of the
abandonment of physical activity in adolescence,
particularly among girls 16 .
This academic subject reaches all children and adolescents, without discrimination, in order to allow
them to acquire the skills, knowledge, and behaviours necessary to adopt an active and healthy
lifestyle 17 . Hence, physical education and health
courses constitute an ideal opportunity for transmitting to young people the pleasure of being active,
for having them try out different activities, and for
allowing them to discover those that they will enjoy
practising throughout their lives.
What is the current situation
in Quebec?
Physical education and health courses have been
mandatory in the province since 2006. However,
the Ministry of Education, Recreation and Sports
has not specified the amount of time to allot to this
subject, limiting itself to rough guidelines, which
has created leeway for the disparities that exist
from one school to the next. It need be noted also
that the period of time allotted to physical education and health courses does not necessarily correspond to the amount of time that young people
are actually active 18 . Consequently, in addition to
these courses, children and youth must be offered
other opportunities to be active at school.
Amount of time indicated in the
Basic School Regulations 19
Estimate of actual time
Preschool
No time proposed
30 minutes/week 20
Elementary
120 minutes/week
45 to 60 minutes/week 21
Secondary, cycle 1
100 hours total in junior high
About 50 hours/year
(about 150 minutes/9-day cycle)
150 minutes/9-day cycle 21
Secondary, cycle 2
50 hours/year
(about 150 minutes/9-day cycle)
What can government do?
For preschoolers, prescribe a mandatory minimal time of 60 minutes per week of physical education and
health courses.
In elementary school, ensure that schools offer a mandatory minimal time of 120 minutes per week of
physical education and health courses.
In secondary school, ensure that schools offer a mandatory minimal time of 300 minutes per 9-day cycle
of physical education and health courses.
Promote adequate and continuous professional development among physical education and health teachers in order to establish programs that set acquiring motor skills, adopting an active lifestyle, and making
being active fun as top priorities and that include appropriate methods of evaluation. Recommendation 2
Encourage intramural and
extracurricular physical activities
Why?
Offering intramural and extracurricular activities can
contribute to raising the level of daily physical activity and allow young people to choose from a broader
variety of activities 22 23 .
What is the current situation
in Quebec?
1/3 of children stop practising sports when they
enter adolescence 24 .
Girls who practise no sport at the age of 10 years
have only a 10% chance of being active at the
age of 25 years 25 .
Children from low-income families are three
times as likely never to have practised any organized physical activity or sport 26 .
What can government do?
Ensure adequate funding to sustain extracurricular physical activities, particularly in disadvantaged communities.
Ensure funding for and access to suitable, safe,
and quality installations and equipment.
Provide greater support to service providers
responsible for extracurricular activities and
recognize extracurricular involvement in educational tasks, particularly for physical education
and health teachers.
Ensure appropriate training for kinesiologists,
coaches, and other persons involved in providing physical and sports activities in order to give
them the means to set up safe, quality activities
that emphasize the pleasure of being active and
that meet the specific needs of certain client
groups more at risk of remaining inactive, particularly girls.
Offer financial support for transportation for the
purpose of extracurricular activities and revise
the rules for outings.
In elementary schools, offer daycare service
providers appropriate training and support for
organizing physical activities and active games.
What can schools do?
Offer a vast choice of physical and sports activities that are:
varied and fit the tastes and schedules of
young girls and boys, as well as the financial means of families;
geared as much to initiation and recreation
as to competition and excellence;
practised in an organized, structured context or freely and informally;
adapted to the level of development of
children and to their skill level, taking account of their individual characteristics
(sex, age, ability);
centred on play and pleasure;
held in an atmosphere of respect and trust.
In elementary school, promote active play in
daycare services.
In secondary school, at lunchtime, offer intramural physical and sports activities.
Offer more extracurricular physical and sports
activities, with special attention paid to 7th and
8th graders.
Offer young people, particularly adolescent girls,
the possibility to develop their leadership skills
and become empowered relative to their practice of physical and sports activities and involve
them in decision making.
Make sure that service providers in charge of
extracurricular activities have followed basic
training in coaching and offer them complementary training opportunities regarding client
groups at higher risk of remaining inactive.
Establish partnerships between the school, the
municipality, and youth organizations in order to
optimize the use of installations and equipment.
What can municipalities do?
Maintain and develop agreements with schools
to optimize the availability and utilization of
infrastructures and equipment.
Support coordination among associations, community groups, and schools for the practice of
physical and sports activities.
Recommendation 3
Integrate physical activity
in other teaching programs
What can government do?
Why?
Integrating physical activity in other teaching programs not only allows all students to be more active
on a daily basis but also fosters the appearance of
factors conducive to learning 5 6 7 8 . Moreover, it is necessary to develop sensory and motor
skills beginning in preschool, all the more so among
disadvantaged groups. By offering teachers appropriate training and support in setting up activities, it is possible to integrate
in the class schedule short periods in which to be
active outside of physical education and health
courses 27 .
The Mon école s’active project:
a format tried and tested in the Estrie
region of Quebec
The Mon école s’active project integrated in the
class schedule of an elementary school 20 minutes
of physical activity each day led by the classroom
teachers. The teachers noted increased capacity for
memorization, improved attention skills and concentration, and better classroom behaviour 27 .
«
Doing physical activity every morning
considerably improves the children’s readiness
to work and prolongs their attention span when
performing tasks. This creates a very positive
atmosphere in the classroom. In addition, we help
young people develop healthy living habits.
Gisèle, elementary school teacher
»
Offer all teachers appropriate training in healthy
living habits.
Develop a supply of services to accompany
teachers in implementing physical activities.
Make sure that preschools offer 30 minutes per
day of active periods so as to contribute to the
psychomotor development of preschoolers, as
stipulated under Competency 1: To perform sensorimotor actions effectively in different contexts
of the Québec Education Program 28 .
Integrate courses on children’s sensorimotor
development and on health education in training
for providers of daycare services and for all
teachers, while respecting the competencies
specific to physical education and health
teachers.
What can schools do?
Recognize the involvement and foster the support and expert roles of physical education and
health teachers in:
Integrating daily active time in other school
subjects in elementary and secondary
school or in specific projects.
Integrating the development of a healthy
and active lifestyle among students in the
school’s educational project, success plan
or management agreement.
Recommendation 4
Organize and direct active recesses
in well-designed and -equipped
schoolyards
Why?
The schoolyard is an ideal place to foster the practice of physical activities, be it during recess, lunchtime, extracurricular activities, daycare, or before
and after class time. Children and youth are more
likely to be active in a well-designed schoolyard with
some greenery, playground markings, and a variety
of sports equipment 29 .
Recess allows young people to develop different
physical, social, and intellectual abilities 30 31 32 .
This period of physical activity contributes also to
the children’s academic and educational success 33 .
After benefitting from a period of recess, students
are less agitated and show better attention, concentration, and behaviour upon returning to the classroom 33 34 35 .
In addition to maximizing the opportunities to be
active, a well-designed schoolyard with structured
activities seems, also, to reduce violent behaviour
36 37 .
What is the current situation
in Quebec?
The Basic school regulation for preschool, elementary
and secondary education prescribes two periods
of recess per day in elementary school without
specifying their minimum duration, whereas no
recess is prescribed by law in secondary schools 19 .
Also, the Quebec government has set up a special
financial assistance program to help schools beautify
their schoolyards (Measure 50530). However, the
complexity of the process and the limits of the
financial assistance provided curtail the number of
schools ready to invest in an application submission.
What can government do?
Instruct elementary schools to offer a minimum
of 30 minutes of active recess per day.
Give schools the resources to design and equip
a schoolyard appropriately and to offer proper
structured activities and supervision (e.g., the
guide Ma cour : un monde de plaisir).
Improve, facilitate, and simplify the application
process regarding the financial assistance offered
by the government to schools wishing to improve
their schoolyards.
Offer schoolyard supervisors proper training in
how to set up, direct, and supervise activities.
Provide the financial resources necessary to allow
schools to have access to enough quality equipment and material outside of physical education
and health courses (e.g., recess, lunchtime, daycare, physical activities in the classroom).
What can schools do?
In elementary school, ensure that structured, fun,
physical activities be organized during periods
spent in the schoolyard.
Use schoolyards more and design them for safety
and versatility.
Involve and train students in leading activities
during recess.
Make schoolyards available outside of class time
(evenings, weekends, and summer).
Recommendation 5
Encourage active transportation
between home and school
Why?
Walking or biking to school is an excellent way for
children and adolescents to be more active on a daily
basis 38 . The short distance between homes and
educational establishments allows a larger number
of children to have the chance to get to school by
foot or bicycle and, thus, engage in about 18 minutes
of physical activity per day 39 .
What is the current situation
in Quebec?
In elementary school, nearly 70% of students do
not walk or bicycle to school on a regular basis 39 .
In secondary school, nearly 60% of students engage in practically no active transportation during
the school year 40 .
What can municipalities do?
Favour rules and regulations, urban planning, and
neighbourhood designs that give preference to
safe, active transportation (e.g., traffic calming,
sidewalks, bicycle paths).
Render school zones safer through the implementation of various measures (e.g., traffic calming,
school-bus loading zone) and ensure established
rules are respected (e.g., no-stop zone for automobiles, speed limit of 30 km/h, no parking within 5 metres of pedestrian crosswalk).
In partnership with school boards and schools,
implement a tailored school transportation plan
that will improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists between home and school.
Valorize active transportation and raise awareness among different road-users about the
importance of adopting safe behaviours, respecting pedestrians and cyclists, and sharing the road
with them.
What can government do?
Offer tools and financial support to municipalities
to make streets safer for pedestrians and cyclists,
including through the implementation of trafficcalming measures, in order to facilitate active
transportation.
Make sure to build and keep schools in residential
neighbourhoods.
What can schools do?
Revise school transportation policies in favour of
active transportation (e.g., limit on-site parking,
define territory taking account of pedestrian potential).
Facilitate measures for accompanying elementary
school students who walk or bicycle to school.
Valorize active transportation to school in the eyes
of young people and their parents and contribute
to promotion and awareness efforts.
Install bicycle stands.
Offer young people basic training in how to walk
and bicycle alone safely.
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systematic review. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 43 (3), 320-328.
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contribution to children’s daily physical activity. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 46 (10), 741-746.
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weight of children and youth: a systematic review. Preventive Medicine, 48(1), 3-8.
39 Lewis, P. & coll. (2009). Le transport actif et le système scolaire à Montréal et à Trois-Rivières – Analyse du système
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Ville et mobilité.
40 Institut de la statistique du Québec (2012). L’Enquête québécoise sur la santé des jeunes du secondaire 2010-2011 –
Tome 1. Québec : Gouvernement du Québec. Consulted on October 22 2012 at www.stat.gouv.qc.ca/publications/
sante/eqsjs.htm
For more information, tools, and resources or to find out
about existing initiatives FOR children and youth
to be more active at school, visit www.cqpp.qc.cA/EN
under the section “Physical activity at school”.
The recommendations were made by a panel of experts consisting of:
Daniel Auger, Kino-Québec Coordinator, Agence de la santé et des services sociaux de l’Estrie
Félix Berrigan, Assistant Professor, Faculté d’éducation physique et sportive de l’Université de Sherbrooke
Fannie Dagenais, Executive Director, ÉquiLibre
Luc Denis, Executive Director, SPORTSQUÉBEC
Élaine Lauzon, Executive Director, Égale action
Marie-Claude Leblanc, Communications Director, Fédération des kinésiologues du Québec
Valérie Lucia, Executive Director, Fédération des kinésiologues du Québec
Véronique Marchand, Director of Operations, Fédération des éducateurs et éducatrices physiques enseignants
du Québec
Suzie Pellerin, Executive Director, Weight Coalition
Annie Rochette, Project Manager – Sustainable Development, Centre d’écologie urbaine de Montréal
Alain Roy, Executive Director, Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec
Annick St-Denis, Director of Active Transportation, Vélo Québec
Mathilde St-Louis Deschênes, Physical Activity Coordinator, Québec en Forme
Carine Thibault, Development Officer, ÉquiLibre
Michel Trottier, Regional Officer – Montréal, Québec en Forme
Sylvain Turcotte, Chair, Département de kinanthropologie de l’Université de Sherbrooke
Corinne Voyer, Active Lifestyle Project Manager, Weight Coalition
© February 2014
Production of this document has been made possible through financial support
from the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer and Health Canada.