More South Holland children getting recommended amount of exercise

Children at St. George's C of E Primary School in Stockport,play hop scotch during playtime.

More children in South Holland hit the recommended amount of exercise time last year, new figures show.

But just under half of children in England met the Chief Medical Officers’ guidelines of an hour or more of exercise a day, which Sport England said demonstrates the "challenge facing our country".

Figures from the organisation’s annual Active Lives survey found 60% of children and young people in South Holland were classed as 'active' – meeting the recommended amount of activity – in the 2022-23 academic year.

It was up from 42% in the previous academic year.

Of the area's 219 respondents last year, 19% were classed as 'fairly active' – meaning they did between 30 minutes to an hour of activity per day – while 21% did less than half an hour of exercise a day.

Across England, 47% of young people were active for an average of 60 minutes a day in the recent academic year. It is roughly the same proportion as the year before, but up from 43% in 2017-18 when the survey began.

Tim Hollingsworth, chief executive of Sport England, said while the figures reveal some positives, they indicate more work must be done to get children and young people active.

He added: "The fact that fewer than half are meeting the Chief Medical Officers’ guidelines demonstrates the scale of challenge facing our country.

"Too many children and young people are missing out on the benefits of living an active life – to their physical health but also mental well-being and positive social connection with friends and their community."

Sports Minister Stuart Andrew said: "This underlines the need for more action – and greater concerted focus across government departments, as well as across the sport and physical activity sector.

"We welcome the launch of the new Physical Activity Taskforce, which meets next week, as a chance for this action to be debated."