Children skip way through summer

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Children are skipping their way through the summer.

Schools within BMAT take part in National Skipping Day each year, with sports leaders creating a buzz among children as they tour schools encouraging various activities.

With the event falling just as lockdown hit earlier this year, the schools – in Harlow, Epping and Stansted in Essex and Newham in London - revamped the initiative with Skipping Week.

Pupils and school staff kept a tally of their skipping, with top scorers given recognition for the most skips in 30 seconds, the highest number of non-stop skips, the highest number of skips in a day and the most skips in a week.

Phil Dawes, BMAT director of PE and sport, said: “To encourage our students to keep active at home, we have had a weekly project to promote running, cycling as well as skipping.

“Skipping is great exercise; cheap, easy for everyone and a full body workout. It benefits your cardiovascular fitness as well as co-ordination and focus; there’s a reason boxers, some of the fittest athletes there are, do lots of skipping as part of their training. It also improves your muscle tone, bone density and is good for your mental health, releasing lots of those ‘happy hormones’.

“We have given away skipping ropes to families that don’t have their own to get more children skipping at home; hopefully, this will continue all summer for our families. After all, it’s a fun way to burn calories and easier on the joints than running.

“Many celebrities ‘jump rope’ as part of their daily workout; if it’s good enough for Katy Perry, it’s good enough for us!”

Elaine Luscombe, PE teacher at Roydon Primary Academy, said: “The children are loving their weekly challenges and Skipping Week was popular.

“Skipping is such an amazing cardiovascular sport.”