·
Over a third (36%) of young people
regularly go at least a week without undertaking moderate or strenuous physical
activity, either in or out of school
·
Problem most acute among teenage girls:
Four-in-ten (39%) 16 year old girls never take any strenuous activity in
school, and nearly a third (31%) never undertake any outside of school
·
Campaign will enable 500,000 young people
to embrace activeness over the next five years and address in and out of school
activity
Virgin
Active, the UK’s leading health club chain, in collaboration with leading
sports charities and educational organisations, today launches a five-year
Active Inspiration campaign to help tackle rising levels of youth inactivity.
New research
shows that one in five (19%) young people go at least a week without
undertaking vigorous physical activity, such as running or playing football, outside
of school, and one in eight (13%) admit to rarely exercising in school either.
Additionally, nearly one in ten of young people (9%) never undertake any light
physical activity outside of school, such as walking to a friend’s house.
This trend is
heightened with girls, particularly those in the older year groups. One in six
(17%) girls never do any vigorous activity such as hockey or tennis outside
school, and 13% never do any in school hours. For 16 year olds, this rises to
four-in-ten (39%) not doing any intense exercise in school and nearly a third
(31%) outside of school hours.
By bringing
together, and collaborating with experts from the public, third and education
sectors, Virgin Active will deliver a series of initiatives to give 500,000
young people access to activeness over the next five years, focusing on both in
and out of school activity.
The first year of Active Inspiration will seek
to tackle two specific problems:
Stopping young people falling off an
activity cliff as they get older
– whilst 14% of 8 year olds regularly go a week
without undertaking vigorous physical activity outside of school, this rises to
over as third (35%) of all sixteen year olds. This is reflected in the attitudes of young people; 22%
of eight year olds claim they don’t enjoy doing sport, a figure which more than
doubles to 46% of 16 year olds.
Addressing the fact that girls, in
particular, become increasingly inactive as they approach and enter their teens – Whilst only 4% of 11 years old
girls do not ever take any strenuous exercise in school, this rises to four-in-ten
(39%) 16 year olds. What’s more, whilst 12% of 11 year old girls do not take
any vigorous exercise outside of school, this rises to nearly a third of (31%) of
16 year olds. And whilst 24% of boys claim that they don’t enjoy doing sport in
their free time, this figure rises to 38% of girls.
In its first
year, the campaign will focus on tackling these issues through collaborating
with organisations whose knowledge and skills complement Virgin Active’s
expertise in activeness:
In
partnership with the Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation, Virgin Active
is aiming to help young girls change their attitudes to activeness through a pilot
experiment with the Year 7 girls of Handsworth Grange Community Sport College in
Sheffield. The project will work with
the girls to devise and carry out a programme of physical activity – in school
during PE lessons, in their community and in their local Virgin Active health
club - to address and overcome the barriers to girls being active, ultimately
providing insight which can be applied more widely.
In
partnership with Youth Sport Trust, Virgin Active is linking up with ten
Primary School networks across five UK cities to offer Active Crew, a 24-week programme designed to improve
levels of fitness. The in-school programme, which is also available in Virgin
Active clubs to junior members between 8-16 years, will provide 240
sessions to 300 pupils.
In
partnership with Enabling Enterprise, Virgin Active will support the
development of enterprise and employability skills through Active Minds: a Primary and Secondary school
programme focused on taking activeness beyond PE and changing the way it is
taught through the curriculum in five schools with 150 students.
Matt Merrick, Managing Director of
Virgin Active in the UK,
said: “We are in the midst of an inactivity crisis which is most severe among
young people and, in particular, young women. Active young people are more
likely to be happy, perform well in school, be healthy and become active adults
and parents. By working with young people directly, expert organisations and
the communities throughout the country to which our clubs belong, we will
enable 500,000 young people to experience a more active life both in and out of
school. We hope that we can inspire them and play a role in stopping them being
sucked into the expanding black hole of youth inactivity.”
Helen Skelton, Active Inspiration
Ambassador, said: “Living
an active lifestyle is something which should be the norm for every young
person. It’s worrying this is not currently the case and I’m proud to be part
of a campaign working to change this. Staying active shouldn’t feel like a
chore so it’s important to find something that’s fun and sociable, so it can
become a part of the everyday”.
The Active Inspiration partners will work together
with Virgin Active to reach young people in the communities around its clubs
and to work directly with them to change behaviour:
Baroness
Sue Campbell CBE, Youth Sport Trust, said “At present, young
people’s levels of activity halve between the ages of nine and 15. What’s more,
inactivity can impact younger years in the more immediate term: being active
can improve concentration, increase levels of academic attainment and reduce absenteeism
from school. We need to find as many ways as possible to inspire young people
to get active and stay active. Our work for the Active Inspiration campaign is
to take an exercise plan designed by experts into communities and schools and
enable young people to see the benefits of regular activity.”
Ruth Holdaway, CEO, Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation, said: “We are delighted to
be a part of the Active Inspiration campaign giving girls greater involvement
in their physical education and sporting activities. It is our mission to
transform sport for the benefit of every woman and girl in the UK. Our research
and insight tells us that while girls do want to be active, they have very
different needs to boys. Understanding what girls want from their physical and
sporting experiences will help us enormously in designing a programme that will
engage them and keep them interested for many years to come.”
Tom Ravenscroft,
Founder and Managing Director, Enabling Enterprise, said: “We are thrilled to have this opportunity to work
with Virgin Active to help students develop the skills and attitudes they will
need to succeed. Through our work as part of the Active Inspiration campaign we
will enable young people to come up with innovative ideas in the classroom, to
inspire their peers to lead a more active life. Supporting these skills in the
context of developing active lifestyles for themselves and those around them
has huge potential to transform their readiness for happy and successful
lives.”
ENDS
Notes
to editors
*All stats from Survey of 2006 young people aged between
8-16 years old was conducted by Springboard UK, May 2014
Press
contacts
Press team: 020 7367 5222 [email protected]
Elle Macgregor-Chatwin: 07825 981 859 [email protected]
Dan Smith: +44
7880200975 [email protected]
About
Virgin Active Health Clubs
Virgin Active is one of the largest
global health club companies (2nd in current global ranking by revenues). It
employs 24,000 employees looking after over 1.5 million members in 270 health
clubs. It currently operates in eight different countries worldwide: UK, South
Africa, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Australia, Namibia and Singapore.
Since being formed in 1999 by Matthew
Bucknall and Frank Reed, Virgin Active has achieved consecutive years of double
digit revenue and profit growth. Virgin Active’s success has been built on a
strategy that focuses on three key factors:
Service - We are a dynamic business with one of the world’s most recognisable global brands, which enables us to attract great people who are very passionate about customer service.
Virgin
Active is owned by CVC Capital Partners and Virgin Group. For more information, please go to www.virginactive.co.uk
About Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation
(WSFF)
The
Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation is the organisation committed to
transforming sport for the benefit of every woman and girl in the UK. By
drawing on our unique insight, WSFF champions the right of every woman and girl
in the UK to take part in, and benefit from, sport: from the field of play to
the boardroom, from early years and throughout her life.
Celebrating
its 30th anniversary in 2014, WSFF is widely recognised as the
authority on women’s sport in the UK.
About Youth Sport
Trust
The
Youth Sport Trust is passionate about helping all young people to achieve their
full potential in life and in sport through the delivery of high quality PE and
sport.
The
Youth Sport Trust works to:
1.
Give every child a sporting start in life through high quality PE and
sport in primary schools
2.
Ensure all young people have a sporting chance by developing
opportunities for those with special educational needs and disabilities
3.
Support all young people to achieve their sporting best in school and
their personal best in life
Find
out more by visiting www.youthsporttrust.org
About Enabling
Enterprise
Enabling Enterprise works to ensure that one day, all students leave
school equipped with the enterprise skills, experiences of the world, and
aspirations for future success. We do this by working in partnership with over
fifty top businesses to bring the world of work into the classroom through
lesson-time projects, challenge days, and trips to those businesses.
Set up by a team of teachers in 2009, Enabling Enterprise has worked
with 35,000 students from the age of 5 to 18 in the last year alone.
Enabling Enterprise is a not-for-profit organisation and for more
information please go to www.enablingenterprise.org
