Qualification: NCFE CACHE Level 3 Diploma for the Early Years Educator
Unit: Unit 1.2: Support healthy lifestyles for children through exercise
Learning outcome: Understand children’s need for exercise
Assessment criteria: Evaluate national and local initiatives which promote children’s exercise
Many national and local initiatives aim to promote children’s exercise. To evaluate the effectiveness of these initiatives, it is essential to consider several factors, such as space and equipment limitations, staff training, and marketing and reach.
On the positive side, national initiatives such as Change 4 Life (previously discussed in the healthy eating unit) and Forest Schools can have a broad reach, potentially reaching thousands of children across the country. Local initiatives, such as playschemes, adventure playgrounds and activities organised by local authorities and community groups, may be more limited in scope but can still significantly impact the children who use them.
One potential downside of national initiatives is that they can be less responsive to the needs of specific local communities. For example, a national initiative may not consider the fact that some children do not have access to safe outdoor spaces. On the other hand, local initiatives can be more tailored to the needs of specific communities.
Another factor to consider is staff training. National initiatives may have the resources to provide comprehensive training for staff, but this is not always the case with local initiatives. This is not necessarily a drawback, however, as local initiatives can often draw on the expertise of existing staff and volunteers.
Finally, it is worth considering marketing and reach when evaluating these initiatives. Some national initiatives have large budgets for advertising and marketing, which can help them to reach a wide audience. Local initiatives may have more limited resources, but they can still be successful if they are able to target their marketing to specific groups of children.