- School pupils took part in a National Obesity Awareness Week (10-16 January) workshop on Tuesday
- Year 5 pupils were shown an interactive assembly on ways to improve health and fitness
- Filbert Fox was also on hand to demonstrate activities
- Forest Lodge Academy is a Leicester City in the Community Premier League Primary Stars partner school
Key Stage 2 pupils at Forest Lodge Academy, in New Parks, spent an afternoon with Leicester City in the Community coaches discussing ways they can measure and improve their heart rate and food intake.
The session began by looking at Public Health England’s Eatwell Plate and discovering which foods belong in each different food categories. Pupils also discussed the traffic light system on food labels and what each colour means regarding nutrition.
Ryan Bromyard, Primary Stars Coach at Leicester City in the Community, then discussed the importance of education surrounding health and nutrition.
“We are doing workshops like this to raise awareness of a national problem that we have going on at the minute in terms of obesity,” he explained. “One part of afternoon involved reading food labels and noticing what’s on the packages.
“Hopefully that attention to detail will help when children may go food shopping with their parents and carers and help them to make better life choices for what they want to eat.”
After completing activities on nutrition, children discovered how to find and check their pulse, alongside Club mascot Filbert Fox.
Year 5 pupils measured their resting pulse rate, before running on the spot for 30 seconds and finally checking their active pulse rate to see how much it increased.
The interactive afternoon ended with pupils discovering that 60 minutes a day of exercise is recommended, however this includes walking to school, playing in the playground and helping with the food shopping.
Evie, a year 5 pupil at Forest Lodge Academy, reflected on the informative afternoon.
“I’ve learnt that you should do an hour a day of exercise to stay fit and healthy,” she said. “My favourite activity was doing some exercise and Ryan telling me how to check my pulse afterwards, because now I know how to do it at home.”
National Obesity Awareness Week aims to help people start the New Year by thinking about their food and nutrition, and ways to improve their fitness.
To find out more information about the Premier League Primary Stars programme, please contact Primary Stars Coordinator Glenn Short: glenn.short@lcfc.co.uk.