Children are becoming more sedentary! Dan the Skipping Man® takes action …

At Dan the Skipping Man® we love to keep an eye out for activity based articles in the press. And 10 days ago in the Guardian, we noticed a piece by Andrew Gregory (Twitter: @andrewgregory) about just that. Sadly, it summed up that children’s activity levels have been declining in the wake of the Covid 19 pandemic. And this is obviously not good news.

The article noted that a study led by the University of Bristol “found that by the end of 2021, only a third were meeting the national recommended physical activity guidelines”. Professor Russ Jago, of the University of Bristol, summed it up well:

“These findings highlight a greater need to work with children, families, schools and communities to maximise the opportunities for children to be physically active as we all emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic”.

You can read the article here. They even used a skipper’s shadow/skipping rope as a lovely generic “active” shot.

At around the same time, and for six weeks before the article was released (and totally unconnected to the Guardian piece), Team Dan the Skipping Man® had been working away on an amazing project with The Luke Wheaton Legacy Trust. We delivered the Dan the Skipping Man® concept in Bristol based primary schools, helping to get school children and teachers skipping. As a simple, fun and engaging and sustainable form of exercise.

On our eighth and final (for now) visit to the schools engaged (six across Bristol) we had a special guest. ITV News came along to take a look at the hard work we had been doing. As well as the impact of our work alongside The Luke Wheaton Trust.

Here is their super news feature. So, have a watch to find out more …

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