Nursery World - Assessment of PD: something isn't adding up

How can 86 per cent of children achieve an ‘expected’ level for PD in the EYFS Profile when 90 per cent have woeful levels of physical activity, asks Dr Lala Manners, director, Active Matters

Statistics rarely – if ever – tell the whole story. Mostly this is known and accepted – we fill in the back history ourselves based on experience and level of expertise in the chosen field. It is when their unreliability has the potential to harm that we should be extremely concerned and start asking some pretty searching questions.

We have a situation concerning Early Years Physical Development in which two sets of statistics flatly contradict each other.

First: Based on the 2011 Early Years Physical Activity Guidelines we know that only 9 per cent of boys and 10 per cent of girls aged two to four years in England are meeting the current guidelines for physical activity for children under five years of three hours per day. So, nearly 90 per cent of our youngest citizens are not experiencing a level of daily physical activity that would support their overall healthy development and well-being.

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