Walk to School Week is a proposed initiative in South Yorkshire aimed at increasing physical activity levels in children to address high obesity rates. It would encourage children to walk to school through organized walking groups. Research shows walking to school provides health benefits like increased cardiovascular fitness. It could help meet government policies targeting obesity. Recommendations to improve the initiative include adding competitive elements between schools and activities appealing more to girls, like walking with friends. Expanding local park run events could also help engage more children in physical activity.

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Managing the Development of
Sport in the UK
66-5703-00L
BSc (Hons) Sport Business Management
Module Leader: Rebecca Peake
Module Staff: Vicky Norman
Word Count: 2594
By Adam Price

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Managing the Development of Sport in the UK: Evaluation report of a
programme from a school or community setting
Contents Page
Title page: Page Number:
Contents Page 2
Introduction 3-4
How the initiative meets current policy
processes
4-6
Main Findings 6-7
Recommandations 7-9
References 10-12
Appendix 13

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Introduction
Childhood obesity is increasing year by year and being described as an “Epidemic”
(Buchanan, 2012). Children are getting fatter and this is not due necessarily due to
the amount they are eating, but rather due to the lack of exercise that they are taking
part in (Hall, 2001). It is universally believed that the only real way to lose weight is to
eat less and participate in more exercise (Harcombe, 2010). With more children
becoming obese, it means that they are in danger of taking this into adulthood and
inflating the already astronomical figure of 400 million adults worldwide being
described as being obese (Buchanan, 2012). However, obesity is a preventable and
curable condition because if the amount of energy output exceeds the amount that is
inputted, obesity becomes treatable and therefore reversible (Duphar Medical
Relations, 1988). One of the methods that has been implemented to counteract the
epidemic at an early age elsewhere in countries such as the USA and Canada as
well as many European countries, have been walking to school buses. This is where
families take in turns at walking a group of children to school in a structured and
planned way. The impact of the walking to school buses has been predominately
positive with more children walking to school and participating in general physical
activity as a result (Smith et al., 2015). There have been many variations of this also,
predominantly the bicycle train in which children ride their bikes to school instead of
walking. Further to this there have also been other similar initiatives, one being Walk
to School week and another being Walk Once a Week which has seen 400,000 child
participants (Living Street, 2015) which shows that there is a demand for this type of
project all over the world.
In this report, the focus will be looking at whether Walk to School week would be a
suitable initiative for South Yorkshire. In order to try and introduce this concept into
the South Yorkshire community, Walk to School Week would be a well-matched
programme to encourage people and especially children to maintain a healthier
lifestyle.
The target audience of a Walk to School week in South Yorkshire would be children
who attend both Primary and Secondary schools. As well as the children, parents
would also need to be targeted as they are needed to make Walk to School week
possible. The centre for disease control and prevention recommend 1 adult to every

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6 children and 1 to 3 if the children are between the ages of 4 and 6 (Walking School
Buses, 2015). Further to this, the target audience obviously would be especially
driven towards overweight children who are in danger of being/ are overweight and
are being driven to school. A potential secondary target market could be parents who
drive to work as children were less likely to travel to or from school by car if their
parents used other modes of transport to work other than a car (Wen et al., 2008).
With research showing that individuals should engage in moderate intensity activity
every day of the week (Bessesen and Kushner, 2002) it appears that Walk to School
Week would be an ideal method of helping to achieve this. There are a sparse
amount of aims and objectives for Walk to School Week. The first objective is, as
previously stated; to decrease the amount of children who are deemed to be obese
and to encourage them to walk to school in the future and potentially achieving what
Bessesen and Kushner stated above of participating in this every day of the week.
Another aim of the programme would be to decrease congestion time, which is
already high due to work rush hour times; "Whilst also helping to reduce congestion,
improve safety around the school and boost your fitness levels" (Colburn, 2015).
How the initiative meets current policy processes
The reason why there is a serious need and demand for a programme such as this
to be implemented, is because reports conducted by Sport England in as recent as
February 2014 have shown alarming obesity rates in the South Yorkshire area. In
Sheffield just under 60 percent of adults were classed as obese while in Rotherham
and Barnsley the figure was steeper at 65.3 percent and 70.5 percent (The Star,
2014). You may wonder why adult statistics have been included in this report, but
adults who are obese are more likely to have children who also are obese (NHS,
2009).
There are currently many programs that South Yorkshire Sport are providing and
funding currently, such as This Girl Can, School Games and Sportivate (SOUTH
YORKSHIRE SPORT, 2015). However, there are some drawbacks with these
initiatives, as they are primarily focusing on either, gender specific, age specific or
competitive sport. Therefore, there is a huge gap that has been left unfilled in the 4-
11 year olds, primary school category. By ignoring such a huge age range, despite

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how young they are, would be a huge mistake due to the fact that obese children
have the longer term risk of becoming an obese adult and suffer health-problems in
the future as a result (Daniels, 2006). As well as this, there has been a decrease in
the amount of physical activity that children participate in due to the more frequent
use of cars (Dietz, 2001). Therefore, with this in mind, and the fact that we have
established a certain need for physical activity to be increased, Walk to School week
will be a method to target young children and further encourage and enhance the
amount that they are participating.
Walk to School week is not a costly regime either, due to the limited number of
overheads, which will mainly be organising and marketing the event. It is an initiative,
which as stated above, runs itself as parents will supervise it which is beneficial as it
is relatively easy to implement.
The current policy process that Health England is implementing focuses specifically
on obesity rates in the UK. In 2011, the Government published
"Healthy lives, healthy people: a call to action on obesity in England"
And walk to school helps to achieve this massively as it reaches 13 million people,
making it the UK's leading behaviour change campaign (LIVING STREETS, 2015).
The fact that Health England (2011) also says:
"Creating an environment where people actively choose to walk and cycle as part of
everyday life can have a significant impact on public health".
This once again backs up that there is a definitive need for the initiative and that it in
fact sits hand in hand with the current policy process that the UK Government is
trying to implement with success.
Further to this, the Chief Medical Officers of the 4 Home Countries (2011) produced
a report which gave their stance to the extent that Physical Activity helps improve
health. In this report, it stated that the most acceptable forms of Physical Activity are
those which are incorporated into everyday life, i.e. walking and cycling. This
furthermore backs up Living Streets' stance that it is an extremely beneficial initiative,
and also proves that it meets current policy process.

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The Department of Culture, Media and Sport (2015) have recently stated in a report
regarding their strategy for the future that they are looking for a more active nation.
In this report, they spoke about 5 strategies which focused upon physical wellbeing,
mental wellbeing, individual development, social and community development and
economic development outcomes. Walk to school week therefore fits this new policy
brilliantly, with all 5 outcomes being targeted.
Main Findings
Walk to School Week in the past, has been a huge success in places that have
bought into the idea. 10 million children have taken part in Physical Activity because
of this campaign (LIVING STREETS, 2015). There are a variety of benefits to both
the children participating in the initiative, as well as for the parents. In an article
written by The Guardian (2012) a headmaster was interviewed and he was very
positive regarding the initiative. Although in his opinion the biggest positive was the
spin off effect of Walk to School Week. The initiative brought about environmental
activities such as Bike-It schemes which encouraged children to cycle or scooter to
school. This consequently highlights the success of the scheme, as it is able to
encourage schools to not only participate in the Walk to School concept, but think up
their own initiatives to help increase future physical participation.
Benefits for the Children:
The first benefit to the Children of Walk to School Week would be the health and
fitness benefits. The journey of walking to school accounts for around 35% of all
journeys that children make and therefore contribute hugely to the amount of
physical activity that they participate in (Roberts, 1996). Research suggests that
children who walk or cycle to and from school also have higher cardiovascular
fitness and lower body fatness compared to children who get driven to school
(Hatfield and Chomitz, 2015). Studies also show that children who walk to school are
more likely to participate in other sports. Mackett and Paskins (2008) research
suggests this as it found that walking away from home, can contribute to the child’s
volume of Physical Activity significantly, resulting in very positive health implications.

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Physical activity for girls is known for being beneficial, especially for their mental
health (Harvey et al., 2010).
Further to the Health Benefits, it has been found that walking to school has a positive
effect on children’s concentration at school. This is due to the fact that after physical
activity, it causes an increase in the amount of blood flow to the brain. It also raises
the levels of norepinephrine and endorphins which in turn helps to reduce stress and
improves a child’s mood as well as gives them a feeling of calm which puts them in a
better frame of mind to work (Taras, 2005).
Walking to school has other benefits that are not related to health and fitness. It has
been found that it can also help children develop social skills by communicating to
fellow students and can be a foundation of forming friendships (WALKIT, 2015). Due
to the positives it is vital for schools to encourage these initiatives in order to achieve
this.
Negatives for the Children:
Walking to school does however also have its negatives. Young children as well as
females do put their backs at risk due to having to carry heavy backpacks (Moore,
White and Moore, 2007). Back pain is also associated with lost school time as well
as lost school sports time. With this in mind, the initiative must be aware in order to
ensure that this does not become an issue.
This is not the only negative point for walking to school. The center for disease
control and prevention (2016) states that children face an increased risk of
pedestrian injuries. Given that children's safety is paramount it could have an
adverse effect if parents consider their children's safety is being compromised by this
activity.
Recommendations
In order for the initiative to avoid stagnating, losing enthusiasm as well as
participants, it is essential for the programme to develop and improve as time goes

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by. One method of achieving this is to make the initiative a lot more competitive
between schools. Boris Johnson (2015) stated in an article written in The Telegraph,
that his solution to obesity would be to have competitive games every morning.
However, due to the unpopular opinions that Teachers currently have on this, it is
unlikely such an idea that will ever happen. However, the competitive aspect is
actually a very good idea, especially for the development of the Walk to School
Week campaign. Top Foundation (2014) states that participating in competitive sport
and physical activity is beneficial for children and is known to aiding the
developmental outcomes for a healthier lifestyle. As well as this the competitive
nature of schools (OECD, 2014) will increase the number that is participating (Which
according to Living Streets, 2015 is roughly 2000) as well as the frequency that
these weeks occur. The way that it would have to work, would be to have an award
which all of the schools aim to achieve, and would be given to the school which had
the highest percentage of participants for Walk to School Weeks. This therefore,
would encourage schools to enforce more Walk to School Weeks to try and compete
for the top accolades.
Something that has also been recognised as an area that could be improved is the
amount of girls that participate in Physical Activity in the UK. Appendix 1 shows this
with only 24% of girls participating compared to boys who currently have 32%.
Firstly, this is worrying because there is sufficient evidence to suggest that physical
activity is hugely beneficial to girls specifically as they are more prone to
psychological disorders, i.e. anxiety. The University of St Andrews conducted studies
which found that 54% of girls had 2 or more health complaints once a week (BBC,
2015). It has also been proven that those who engage in leisure activity regularly of
any intensity will be less likely to be diagnosed depressive symptoms (Harvey et al.,
2010). With this in mind, it would be massively beneficial therefore to make Walk to
School Week more attractive to increase the amount of girls in physical activity. The
NHS (2012) stated that girls are interested in having a choice in the activity available,
having fun, being with their friends and enjoying sport rather than competing on a
competitive level. A recommended method of increasing participation for girls would
be to provide physical activity of an informal nature, with friends (Whitehead and
Biddle, 2008). In order to try and achieve this therefore, it could be suggested that a
Walking with Friends Week could be a good idea. By doing this, it would not only

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encourage more girls to want to participate in physical activity, but it would also keep
the initiative fresh and in the process also encourage boys to continually want to take
part too. It would work by the means of parents of the children taking turns in order to
supervise walking each other's children to school with their own child by picking them
up in their "Walking Bus".
Initiatives such as Park Run which is based all over the country and including many
venues in South Yorkshire have been relatively successful at attempting to engage
people of all ages in being more active, although for some people this may not seem
appealing. Currently, there are no real initiatives in place that target the whole
population in the area. Despite the success of park run in increasing physical activity
participation, there are definitive flaws in respect to the fact that it is a 5km run, and
therefore the distance is seen as far to excessive for a lot of the population, and
particularly for children. In fairness, Junior Parkrun’s have been introduced also
(PARK RUN, 2015), that are only 2km runs, however, the amount of these which are
staged in the South Yorkshire area are far fewer, with Barnsley being one of the only
places that this event is accessible. Therefore one development could be to set up
Park Run's locally for schools in South Yorkshire using school fields, in order to cater
for the needs of children who want to take part in a more intense activity than
walking. The runs should last only 1-2 km's in order to ensure that it is still an activity
appropriate for children.

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References
BUCHANAN, David (2012). Nutritional and Physical Education. New York City. Nova
Science Publishers.
HALL, Celia (2001). Lack of exercise blamed as children get fatter. The Telegraph, 5
January.
HARCOMBE, Zoe (2010). The obesity epidemic. Caldlicot, Columbus Publishing.
DUPHAR MEDICAL RELATIONS (1988). Current Approaches: Obesity.
Southampton, Litho.
SMITH, Liz., et al. (2015). Walking school buses as a form of active transportation
for children- a review of the evidence. [Online]. London, Wiley.
LIVING STREETS (2015). [Online].
http://www.livingstreets.org.uk
WALKING SCHOOL BUSES (2015). [Online].
http://www.walkingschoolbus.org/
WEN, L M., et al. (2008). Factors associated with children being driven to school:
Implications for walk to school programs. [Online]. Oxford, Oxford Journals.
BESSESEN, Daniel and KUSHNER, Robert (2002). Evaluation and Management of
Obesity. Philadelphia, Hanley and Belfus.
COLBURN, Paula (2015). Walk to school with your children during national Walk to
School Week. [Online].
http://www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/news/walk-to-school-with-your-children-during-
national-walk-to-school-week/126015.article
BLACKLEDGE, Richard (2014). Obesity report: Sheffield aims to become fittest city.
The Star, 5 February.
NHS (2009). [Online].
http://www.nhs.uk/news/2009/07July/Pages/FatnessRunsInFamily.aspx
PARK RUN (2015). [Online].

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http://www.parkrun.org.uk/events/juniorevents/
SOUTH YORKSHIRE SPORT (2015). [Online].
http://www.sysport.co.uk/programmes/
DANIELS, S R (2006). The consequences of childhood overweight and obesity. US
national library of medicine national institutes of health, 16 (1).
DIETZ, William (2001). The obesity epidemic in young children: Reduce television
and promote playing. [Online]. London, BMJ.
ROBERTS, Ian (1996). Children and Sport: Walking to School has future benefits.
[Online]. London, BMJ.
MACKETT, Roger L and PASKINS, James (2008). Children's Physical Activity: The
contribution of playing and walking. [Online]. New Jersey, Wiley.
TARAS, Howard (2005). Physical activity and student performance at school.
[Online]. London, Wiley.
HATFIELD, Daniel and CHOMITZ, Virginia R (2015). Increasing Children's Physical
Activity During the School Day. [Online]. New York City, Springer Publishing.
WALKIT (2015). [Online].
https://walkit.com/
HEALTH ENGLAND (2011). [Online].
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/25679
6/Briefing_Obesity_and_active_travel_final.pdf
Chief Medical Officers of the 4 Home Countries (2011). [Online].
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/21637
0/dh_128210.pdf
JOHNSON, Boris (2015). My solution to the obesity crisis: competitive games every
morning. The Telegraph, 27 September.

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TOP FOUNDATION (2014). [Online].
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/38000
2/A_20review_20of_20literature_20The_20impact_20of_20competitive_20school_20
sport_20on_20students_E2_80_99_20academic_20performance_20within_20school
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Resources, Policies and Practices PISA. Paris, OECD Publishing,
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-34603755
HARVEY, Samuel., et al. (2010). Physical activity and common mental disorders.
The british journal of psychiatry, 197 (5) 357-364.
WHITEHEAD, Sarah and BIDDLE, Stuart (2008). Adolescent girls' perceptions of
physical activity: A focus group study. European physical education review, 12 (2).
DRURY, Emma (2012). How schools are encouraging students to walk, cycle and
scoot to class. The Guardian, 5 October.
MOORE, Michael, WHITE, Gregory and MOORE, Donna (2007). Association of
relative backpack weight with reported pain, pain sites, medical utilization, and lost
school time in children and adolescents. [Online]. Journal of school health, 77 (5)
232-239.
CENTRE FOR DISEASE AND CONTROL (2016). Get to school safely. [Online].
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active-nation

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Appendix:
Appendix 1:
Table 3. The
percentage of children
meeting previous
physical activity
guidelines Country
Boys Girls
England (aged 2–15) 32% 24%
Northern Ireland (Years
8–12)
19% 10%
Wales (aged 4–15) 63% 45%
Scotland (aged 2–15) 76% 67%
Chief Medical Officers of the 4 Home Countries (2011). [Online].
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/21637
0/dh_128210.pdf