Guernsey Press

Positive increase in students actively travelling to school

Youngsters are becoming more active, however, fewer pupils walk to school than their UK counterparts, a survey has found.

Published
La Mare de Carteret High School students with the findings of the Guernsey Young People’s Survey 2019. Left to right are Caitlin Guilbert, 14, Toby Godley, 15, Health Improvement Commission’s education lead Alun Williams, Peter Lesbirel, 15 and Emily Goncalves. (Picture by Adrian Miller, 26296681)

An average of 52% of UK primary school pupils walk to school compared with just 35% of Guernsey pupils, this year’s Guernsey Young People’s Survey has found, and 62% of those pupils usually arrived by car in contrast to 49% in the UK.

In the Bailiwick’s secondary schools, those who walked was even lower, at 19%.

Yet, young people stated they would like to travel to school actively if given the choice and this can be seen in the 3% increase of primary and 8% increase of secondary pupils from 2016.

Health Improvement Commission active travel officer Nix Petit said it was reassuring to see a slight positive increase in the number of pupils actively travelling to school.

‘It is encouraging to see that despite the majority of pupils being driven to school, many report that they would like to travel actively,’ she said.

‘This provides the perfect opportunity for the Health Improvement Commission to implement long-term active travel initiatives in local schools and the wider community enabling daily active travel behaviours which contribute to World Health Organisation guidelines for physical activity.

‘This work will contribute toward closing the gap between active travel rates in Guernsey compared to the UK.’

The survey, which was conducted in the spring, had over 1,400 students across the Bailiwick take part across Years 6, 8 and 10.

It also found that 20% of primary and 16% of secondary school students achieved 60 minutes or more exercise daily, with 71% of primary and 57% of secondary pupils stating they were active for at least 60 minutes on four or more days in the week.

Plus, the number of students doing no physical activity has remained low at less than 5%.

The Health Improvement Commission’s education lead Alun Williams said activities such as the daily mile was a great start to enable young people to take part in exercise.

‘It is encouraging to see a significant increase in perceived levels of activity,’ he said.

‘Especially with more young people being more active over four to five days per week.The Health Improvement Commission has referred to the next few years being a golden opportunity to embed high levels of physical activity as the norm across all sectors of the community and this is an encouraging sign that schools and families are incorporating activity into all aspects of young people’s lives.’

However, Guernsey Sports Commission Jeremy Frith added that there were signs that some groups are not as active as others, which needed to be addressed.

‘Over the coming years there is a golden opportunity for the sport and physical activity sector to increase its level of positive impact on all of our community,’ he said.

‘The release of the Guernsey Sports Commission five-year action plan in January 2020 will help it set out how it aims to support our local clubs and associations to work towards delivering an inclusive offer for the island’s young people.’

Their hope is to develop a supported pathway for young people from enjoying positive experiences of sport at school to successfully integrating into their sporting clubs and associations, with the aim of increasing their opportunity to develop a lifelong engagement with sport.

In terms of healthy eating, the survey found that the proportion of students eating five or more portions of fruit and vegetables a day, has increased from 2010, from 30% to 39% in primary school children, 11% higher than their UK counterparts, and 19% to 30% in secondary pupils.

Education Services aims to use the findings to inform planning decisions as well as being used in the classroom as the stimulus for discussion with young people.