Drop in excess weight among Year 5 pupils

But still children at States schools are nearly twice as likely to be overweight than their private school counterparts.

The annual report, which has run since 2013, looked at excess weight among children of primary school-age. It found that Year 1 pupils – aged five and six years old – had stabilised, with about four out of five pupils being a healthy weight. Among the rest, about 10% were overweight and 10% were obese.

With Year 5 children, aged between nine and 10 years old, three-quarters were a healthy weight, with 11% overweight and 17% obese.

While the numbers were higher for the older children, there was a reduction in the levels of excess weight among Year 5 children, with the overweight and obese percentage sitting at 27% – nearly the lowest since the reports started.

Dr Nicola Brink, director of Public Health, said she was encouraged by the long-term trends seen in the latest data.

‘Our vision is that all families will be able to raise their children in environments where it is easy and affordable for the whole family to be healthy,’ she said.

However, there is a growing disparity between fee paying and States pupils. During the first survey 30% of non fee-paying and 25.7% of fee-paying pupils were overweight or obese.

While non fee-paying has dropped to 28.7%, fee-paying pupils have dropped sharply to 16.8%.

The report said the findings appeared to show a health inequality by socio-economic status, and Dr Brink agreed.

‘There is a health inequality evident,’ she said.

‘If we take this together with findings from the recent Wellbeing Survey 2023, where the cost and time needed to prepare healthy foods were cited as the top two barriers to healthy eating, then we see an emerging picture that healthy choices are not always easy or possible for some islanders. This is an area that we need to focus on more.’

Participation in the report was at 90%, meaning that 267 children were estimated to be living with overweight or obesity across the two year groups.

Head of health intelligence Jenny Cataroche said the latest data from 2024 showed higher proportions of excess weight in both year groups than had been seen in the past few measurement rounds.

‘But this does not change the longer-term picture of a stable trend in overweight and obesity for Year 1s, and a declining trend for Year 5s,’ she said.

‘While the absolute levels of excess weight among primary school-aged children are still concerning, the change over time, the stabilisation and reduction which we are currently seeing, is positive. When fewer children live with excess weight, it means fewer children will be at risk of developing conditions that could negatively affect their health.’

The island’s results are better than those seen in Jersey and the UK.