PUPILS at Fordcombe Primary School have been dancing away the winter chill before classes to work up an appetite for their Healthy Eating Week, which took place last week.
Every morning the KS2 Dance Club and parent Poppy Wealands were leading the rest of the school a merry dance with the Wake Up, Shake Up sessions in the playground.
Teachers and parents also joined in the choreography to go with two songs played over loudspeakers each day before school started.
Mrs Wealands said: “There was a teacher at the school called Miss Piper who used to start each day with 20 minutes of dancing in the classroom and it was fabulous.
“It improved the kids’ concentration so much. I’ve done quite a bit of research on this and the statistics back it up.
“As well as the obvious benefits to your fitness, it gets the endorphins going and the blood pumping. And it means you can all have a smile and a laugh at the absurdity of it all.”
She has been impressed by the way the girls in Year Six took control and they have said they would like to do it every morning – or maybe just play the music and see what happens.
“It was brilliant,” said Mrs Wealands. “I know my week at work has been great after starting the day like that.
“It would have been better to have more boys involved but a lot of them were just standing around flossing!”
The week also included Healthy Living assemblies describing the importance of nutritious eating, taking exercise and keeping healthy teeth.
Zebedee’s, who provide the school dinners, brought in a nutritionist to talk about the benefits of different food groups.
One of the KS2 classes were invited to make healthy pizzas to take home, and there was a Healthy Eating poster competition.
Headteacher Chris Blackburn said: “There has been much in the news recently about the level of sugar that children are eating, with the average child eating double the recommended daily intake.
“Pupils undertook an exercise in class around creating a healthy packed lunch, and members of the Pupil Council went into the school hall to give stickers to those children who have made healthy choices.”
Parents were also invited to come in and eat lunch with the children free of charge, with a Zebedee’s representation answering questions about the choices on offer.
Mr Blackburn said: “In the run-up to -Christmas, I was eating fairly regularly in the dining hall. The food that the pupils are eating is hot, wholesome and varied.
“Each day, the children were presented with two choices, with vegetables or salad, that I feel is a pretty good meal.
“Children being children means that some eat it all, some pick around the veggies, some eat only the plain pasta.”
