july 2011
July
newsletter from
Change4Life
The summer holidays are almost here and at Change4Life, we’re almost as
excited as the children because the really big summer adventure is about to
start! Keep an eye out for our new TV ad, launching this Friday, which we
hope will get everyone thinking about getting more active this summer.
And it would be great if you could
help us bring the really big summer
adventure to life for children and
Read on and discover some of
families where you are.
the other exciting activities
happening as part of the
really big summer adventure.
Contents
Generate
some fun
Really big summer
partnerships
Win sports
equipment fo
your school r
sical
New phyidelines Supporter of
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the month
activity ngched
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If you work with schools, or you’re a teacher, now’s the time to make
sure the children each have an adventure map for the summer. By the
end of this week, you should have received your special really big
summer adventure box containing enough maps for years 3, 4 and 5,
through the School Fruit and Veg Scheme. And hopefully you’ll be
using the teacher resource booklet to run a special, end of term session
to get the children geared up for their summer holidays.
Healthy
bites
Generate
some fun!
We all know that there are times when the summer holidays can feel
like an eternity for children and their families. How do they fill all
that time? What if it’s raining? How can they be sure the kids are
getting their 60 active minutes every day?
Without the structure of a school timetable to follow making sure
kids get their 60 active minutes can be tricky for busy families.
Many parents over-estimate how much activity their children are
doing each day but help is at hand! Change4Life’s online
Fun Generator has more than 100 activity ideas to generate a little
fun for families this summer.
Simply input whether you want to play indoors or out and
how many people want to play, the generator will work its
magic to deliver a range of suitable activities.
From Shadow Tag and Hula Hula to Pineapple Fun and
Mystery Tour, each Fun Generator activity comes with
simple instructions or a quick video to explain how to play.
Fun is just a few clicks away, try it yourself and don’t forget
to recommend it to the children and families you work with!
Create your own really big summer adventure posters
Are you running some exciting Change4Life activities and want to create posters unique
to your event? Make Sport Fun’s free Change4Life poster design tool could be exactly
what you are looking for. The tool allows you to choose the size and layout of your
poster and include your own exciting images as well as details of your activity. We
have uploaded the Change4Life font, the Change4Life characters and all
the logos to the site so all you have to do is sign up and get designing.
Really big summer
partnerships
We’re very proud to announce the amazing range of
partners ready to help make the really big summer
adventure a success. Partners will be offering discounts
on healthy food and activity-related products
to help children get their 60 active
minutes every day.
These offers will be available through a
voucher book containing over £50 worth of
savings. Just some of the deals included in
the voucher book include:
ff fruit
o
y
e
n
o
M
ables
t
e
g
e
v
d
an
at Asda
Offers on sp
clothing anodrts
equipment
Money off play
sessions
Money off
children’s
swimwear from
George at Asda
The voucher book can be found in the Daily Mirror on
Saturday 23rd July and will also be available in all Asda stores
from the 1st August. We haven’t forgotten about our local
supporters either and there will be voucher books available
for you to order free from the DH Orderline while stocks last.
The Daily Mirror
and Asda will be
helping to promote and
distribute the voucher book
Win sports
equipment
for your
school!
We know that you might not want to think about September right
now but we wanted to give you something to look forward to.
We have one prize of £1,000-worth and two prizes of
£500-worth sports equipment for each region in England – the
North West, North East, Yorkshire and Humber, West Midlands,
East Midlands, East, South West, London and South East.
To enter, all you have to do is find out which was your class’
favourite really big summer adventure activity and to tell us why
in a six word story. The most imaginative story will win.
How to take part
How do you find out which is your class’ favourite activity? In your
Change4Life box you will find a wallchart and some red dot stickers. The
idea is to get pupils to vote for their favourite activity by placing a red
dot sticker on their top three activities. The children will then be able to
quickly see which activity is the class favourite.
You then need to come up with a six word story to explain why. You
could do this together as a class or you could ask each student to write
a story, using the suggested back-to-school activity in the teacher
resource booklet, and choose the most imaginative one as your entry.
Once you have your class’ favourite activity and the six word story
you need to complete the competition form and return it in the
envelope provided by 30th September 2011.
Winners will be notified by 7th November 2011. There can be only one entry
per class, but multiple entries per school are permitted. One prize per school.
Enter now for your chance to win!
And don’t
forget, if you
need any back-toschool activity ideas the
teacher resource booklet has
some suggestions for you to choose
from.
ical
s
a
ctivity
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New p
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guid
We all know that being active is important for a healthy lifestyle,
however many people are not active enough to reap the wide-ranging
benefits. To emphasise the importance of regular physical activity, the
four Chief Medical Officers have launched new guidelines for the UK.
For the first time, these guidelines cover early years and older adults, as
well as addressing sedentary behaviour. This is particularly important
as recent evidence shows the increased health risks associated with
being sedentary, such as sitting watching TV, no matter what age.
For children over five and young people, the recommendations remain similar
to before – they should take part in moderate to vigorous intensity physical
activity for at least 60 minutes every day. Evidence shows the importance of
activities, such as jumping, dancing and running, which strengthen muscle and
bone and children should take part in these activities at least three times a week.
For children under five, the
guidelines focus on the importance
of movement for babies and for
toddlers being active for at least
180 minutes every day.
Adults need to do 150 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity per week. We now know an individual’s total
amount of activity is important but that there are added benefits in being active daily and the new guidelines allow more
flexibility to reflect this.
Although the recommendations for older adults are similar to the adult guidelines, there are some important differences,
particularly as older adults can vary widely in their ability to take part in activity. With this in mind, the guidelines
emphasise the benefits of some physical activity rather than none, as well as the importance of improving balance and coordination to reduce the risk of falls.
Further information can be found on the
Department of Health website
Football club uses
its head to support
Change4Life
Football is without question, the most popular sport in the country, so
it makes it an obvious platform to get children involved in exercise. Notts
County FC Community Liaison Officer and Club Nutritionist, Matthew Lawson,
has used his head to come up with an initiative promoting much more than that.
‘A Game of Two Halves’ is an activity that involves getting Nottinghamshire’s
children thinking about their fitness and their diet with the aim of helping them
understand the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Staff from the football club make regular visits to local primary schools and take the pupils through a fun and
informative two hour session. As the name suggests, the session is split into two halves. The first half focuses on
healthy eating messages and features a DVD from the Notts County players. Within this part of the workshop, the
children are also taken through the Change4Life healthy eating messages.
When the whistle blows for the second half – outdoor fun!
In this session the children are encouraged to get up and get active. The Notts
County staff will take the children through some fun ways to keep fit including
stretches and exercises. Finally, what better way to end the session than, you
guessed it, a game of football!
By the end of the two hour session, the children are a little wiser, a bit fitter
and each has a coveted bag full of Change4Life goodies including stickers, fun
wheels, posters, recipe cards, snack swappers and more!
A Game of Two Halves has proven to be very popular so far with over 1000
children being involved. Here’s just some of the positive feedback the scheme’s received:
"This is the most innovative
intervention I have been involved
in during my 20 years in the
service. This exciting partnership
between the Football Club and
the Health Service is flourishing it's a breath of fresh air."
"I want to extend a big thank you to Notts County
Football Club for coming in and delivering the
session. It was a pleasure to have them and I want
the team to come back and do it again with other
classes. Before the session, not all of the kids would
have known about Notts County - but they loved it
and all certainly know about the club now."
NHS Community Team Leader Sophy Parkin
Deputy Headteacher at St Wilfrid’s Primary School,
Kevin Wright
Don’t forget to share your story with us for your chance to be
Supporter of the Month
Healthy Bites
Please keep signing up!
Share your stories
Sharing your stories with Change4Life is really
easy! Our new online survey aims to give you the
opportunity to share information and photos of
Change4Life events or activities you’ve run – and help
us to recruit and inspire more campaign supporters in
the process. Why not take a few minutes to tell us what
you’ve been up to and complete the survey here and who
knows, you could feature in this newsletter next month!
If you’ve been forwarded this email or
think any of your colleagues might want
to receive it, you can register on the
Change4Life website and it will be sent
straight to your inbox. As a registered
local supporter you can use all of our
resources free of charge and create your
own materials using the brand assets.
Complete survey
Follow Change4Life
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You can keep up-to-date and find out about
activities taking place around England by
joining our 50,000 Change4Life Facebook
fans (by clicking ‘like’) or following
Change4Life on Twitter.
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Are your details up-to-date? Please don’t forget to let us
know if your contact details have changed, or are about
to change. We’d love to be able to keep you in the loop on
everything we’ve planned in 2011. Send your new details to
c4lpartnerships@dh.gsi.gov.uk and put ‘Details change’ in
the subject heading.
If your school hasn’t received their really
big summer adventure box, or needs an
extra one, please call 0300 123 3434.
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