Evaluation of physical activity at Forest School
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Date
2009Author
Lovell, Rebecca
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Abstract
While the health benefits of physical activity are commonly recognised, increasing
evidence indicates that significant percentages of children, particularly girls, are not
sufficiently physically active. Children spend a large proportion of their waking
day at school; however their opportunities to be physically active during the school
day, beyond the traditional PE lesson and break times, are limited. Increasing
children’s levels of physical activity during their time at school may be a key
approach to increasing children’s overall levels of physical activity. The aim of this
study was to evaluate the outdoor education programme ‘Forest School’ as a source
of school based physical activity. A review of existing research showed that there
had been no rigorous evaluation of physical activity during Forest School sessions.
A two phase mixed method design was used. The first phase used a repeated
measures controlled design to objectively measure the amount, intensity, duration
and frequency of the participants’ (n26 age 9-10) physical activity during Forest
School. The second phase used semi-structured paired interviews (n24 age 10-11) to
understand the subjective experience of the Forest School physical activity. The
study was conducted in the central belt of Scotland.
The results showed that during Forest School sessions the participants engaged in a
significantly greater total amount of physical activity, at a higher intensity, and
with a greater frequency of longer bouts, in comparison to the typical school days.
The children were also shown to reach the recommended hour of MVPA during the
Forest School sessions. The children reported enjoying and appreciating the
opportunity to be physically active in an environment they had little previous
experience of using. Existing barriers to physical activity in other contexts, in
particular bad weather and low motivation, did not appear to be relevant at Forest
School. The inequality in levels of physical activity and motivation to be physically
active, between males and females, was shown to typically be lower on the Forest
School days.
The findings suggest participation in Forest School resulted in greater quantities of
inclusive and enjoyable physical activity at higher intensities than otherwise
experienced at school.