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Children and young people

Building positive attitudes to sport and physical activity in children from an early age can help them to feel more motivated, confident and able to get active throughout their life.

At a glance

Every child or young person has the right to be active and benefit from doing so in a safe, positive and trusted environment, and to have an equal chance to achieve their potential.

Building positive attitudes

Positive experiences at an early age help build the foundations for an active life.

If children and young people have experiences that feel fun, positive and give them a sense of confidence, they're more likely to want to be active in the future.

That's why building positive attitudes to sport and activity is one of the five big issues being tackled in our Uniting the Movement strategy.

Learn more about our strategy

A group of children in a sports hall.

Getting young people active

There are currently seven million children aged five to 15 in England and more than half are not doing the recommended daily amount of exercise.

The Chief Medical Officer in England recommends children to at least 60 minutes of activity every day - for one reason or another, this isn't the case for the majority of young people.

Physical literacy

We know physically literate children and young people are more likely to be active.

Physical literacy has five elements - enjoyment, confidence, competence, understanding and knowledge. Each one is key in getting more children and young people active, and the more elements present, the more active a child or young person is likely to be.

Learn more about physical literacy

A family cycle together

The role of families

Our insight tells us that families, and particularly parents and caregivers, play a key role in shaping a child's attitudes and behaviours

Find out more

Our work

You can find out more about our work to build positive attitudes to sport and activity in children and young people in the third tab on this page - the work currently includes:

  • Sharing the learnings from our programme of free teacher training to staff in every secondary school in England.
  • The Studio You programme designed to engage girls who have previously been disengaged with more traditional PE lessons.
  • Ensuring children and young people feel safe when taking part in sport and activity.

Learn more about our safeguarding work

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