A GLASGOW school is winning the war on childhood obesity - by teaching pupils sport is as important as the three Rs.
Battlefield Primary, in the South Side, was one of the first schools in Glasgow to fulfil a government recommendation that all children should be given two hours of sport each week.
School with activities
Battlefield Primary School is located in Langside in the south-west of Glasgow and caters for 242 pupils.
It was designed by McWhannell, Rogerson & Reid and built in 1912.
The school has an active school board and Parent Teacher Association (PTA).
Each year pupils are elected to join a range of representative groups including the Pupil Council, Playground Buddies, Playground Friends and Playground Committee.
The school offers an extensive programme of Expressive Arts', including music, drama and art.
Pupils have benefited from specialist voice training, and art and design is a school strength.
Obesity problem
ONE in six boys and one in seven girls are now obese and Scotland is the second-fattest nation in the world, behind only the US.
Research shows around 900,000 UK children aged under 11 are overweight - a 50% increase on a decade ago - and nearly one in four primary one pupils in deprived areas are obese.
Glasgow now has around 55 Active Schools co-ordinators - a team of dedicated teachers and freelance instructors whose jobs it is to encourage schoolchildren to take more exercise.
However, there are only 17 dedicated PE teachers across all 170 schools.
More than 20,000 overweight children are to be given counselling and taught how to cook healthy meals as part of a £2million drive to tackle obesity in Scotland. |
It is also one of only a small number of Glasgow's 170 primary schools to have its own dedicated PE teacher.
Headteacher Claire Curry says the secret of their success is teaching physical activity as a "life-long skill".
And the school is already reaping the rewards.
Battlefield was named Scottish badminton champions last year and a number of pupils look set to apply for the Glasgow School of Sport at
Bellahouston Academy.
The school's focus on sport was sparked by a pilot project run by Glasgow City Council and the health board in 2005 to tackle the rise in childhood obesity and falling levels of physical activity.
Seven South Side primary schools were picked out to determine the prevalence of obesity and help develop activities that would encourage more children to be active.
Studies which measured the BMI (body mass index) of pupils taking part in the pilot showed that 24% of children were classified as either overweight or obese.
And almost 30% of youngsters found to be obese were not meeting the recommendation of one hour of moderate intensity exercise at least five times a week. Obesity was more prevalent in boys, but girls were less active.
Ms Curry said: "The study identified that children needed to be more active. It was before obesity was more widely accepted and was quite controversial at the time.
"Children were measured for their BMI. We were one of the first schools to fulfil a recommendation from the Scottish Government for children to have two hours of PE a week.
"We also identified a member of staff to teach physical education.
That has brought the benefit of consistency. The teacher knows if a child is underperforming because he is monitoring their development.
"Our ethos is to teach children to see physical activity as a life-long skill.
"It's about looking after the emotional health of pupils as well as the educational side."
Battlefield Primary is also one of only a few schools that offers all pupils swimming from P4. Some schools only offer one session in P7.
Youngsters can also take part in hip-hop dance, ballet, aerobics, golf and bowls, as well as the more traditional school sports including football, netball and hockey.
The school has good links with nearby Langside College and took part in the Soccer Circus programme at Braehead with English football legend Kevin Keegan.
The Scottish Government insists it is still committed to a pre-election pledge by the SNP to give every pupil in Scotland two hours PE a week, despite reports the move had been abandoned.
Statistics show the vast majority of councils are falling well short of the 120-minute mark.
Frank McCann, 53, has been Battlefield's PE teacher for four years and a teacher at the school for 11.
He said: "The children are very positive about PE. They want to do it. They are disappointed if they don't do it.
"Everything they learn in the gym they take into the classroom.
"The main point of it is that it should be fun.
"All the children experience success. There are certain aspects where competitiveness is recognised but children are encouraged to compete against their own performance and not against each other.
"In the past few years we have had three or four pupils picked out for elite clubs.
"One pupil has already been picked out by one of the top badminton clubs.
"Because we do so much sport his talents were recognised immediately, which might not have been the case otherwise."
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