Exclusive: 'Horrific' impact of third lockdown on schoolchildren's physical and mental health revealed

The “horrific” impact of the third national lockdown has been laid bare in a major new study which found that 84 per cent of schools have identified a decline in children’s physical fitness and two thirds thought that pupils had gained excessive weight.

The survey, which was commissioned by the Schools Active Movement, and is the largest analysis of how the winter lockdown impacted young people, also records alarming drops in pupil resilience, activity levels, social interaction and fundamental movement skills.

School leaders are now actively prioritising physical activity during the summer term, but the findings will amplify calls for a long-term national strategy and future guarantees over the £320 million PE and Sport Premium. This is an annual payment which is ringfenced to improve the provision of PE, school sport and physical activity levels in primary schools, whether through staff training, specialist coaching or resources.

Of 2,647 schools that were surveyed, teachers were asked to score how children had returned from nine weeks of lockdown between January 4 and March 8 according to a series of key physical and emotional measurements.

On the physical, 84 per cent of schools judged that children had experienced a decline in fitness, 66 per cent said that children had gained excessive weight and 67 per cent recorded a regression of pupils’ fundamental skills and movement.

Almost two-thirds of schools judged children to have a lower resilience and 60 per cent reported that the general wellbeing of pupils had regressed against an improvement of only 5 per cent.

The survey data also found that children in urban communities were more likely to have been impacted than those in rural areas surrounded by more open space.

The speed of gathering the data has ensured that urgent remedial work is already underway and there is optimism that a marked improvement will be achieved by the end of the summer term.

The Telegraph’s ‘Keep Kids Active’ campaign successfully urged Government to prioritise the return of children’s sport following the lockdown, but now also better utilise schools sport facilities outside of teaching times and ensure that PE is placed on a par with core subjects.

The Government has created a new Office for Health Promotion, and the Youth Sports Trust has said that tackling “poor health, wellbeing and low levels of physical activity among young people” should be its top priority.

The Schools Active Movement, a voluntary organisation whose members work on the delivery of PE, school sport and physical activity to three million children in 11,900 schools, is now calling on the Government to guarantee crucial funding for the next academic year, but also work on long-term improvements to school’s infrastructure.

Alan Watkinson, who co-founded SAM with Vincent Brittain and taught PE to Sir Mo Farah in Feltham, said that schools had been “exceptionally proactive” over recent weeks in promoting an active recovery.

“Having this data locally and nationally allows us to get to work immediately to try to negate some of the horrific outcome from the third lockdown,” he said. “This will be considerably more effective if Government are able to announce a long-term strategy and funding.”

Andy Pope, who oversaw the survey, said that there had been an extraordinary response from schools. “With over 2,600 schools responding in one week, SAM has a robust set of data to work with partners in targeting the most important areas of recovery,” he said.

"They have had the feedback instantly, and are therefore in a great position to work with schools to ensure the maximum impact during this term."

The national school sports week will be held from June 19 and a new Active Recovery Hub was launched last month by the Youth Sports Trust and Sport England, which is designed to help children meet the daily recommended minimum activity time of 60 minutes.

“The stark picture painted by this research reinforces the huge toll the pandemic has taken on young people’s wellbeing and why a focus on sport and activity needs to be an essential part of their recovery,” said Ali Oliver, the chief executive of the Youth Sports Trust.

“Many schools are doing an incredible job harnessing the benefits of an active recovery, building up to this year’s national school sport week. However, the focus on young people’s recovery will extend long beyond this term and it is therefore vital that schools have the certainty they need around funding to plan for next year.

“In the longer term, we really want to see a joined-up national strategy for our young people to be the happiest and most active in the world.”

The survey follows new data from Swim England which shows that two million children have missed out on swimming over the past year and how 250,000 more children will be unable to swim 25 metres unaided.