Merton Headteacher’s Meeting – Moving More In Schools

Moving More in Schools

Meeting for Head Teachers at the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC)

At Merton SSP we wanted to reinforce our message to school leaders that an active and healthy childhood can make such a positive difference to our students’ journeys through education and into adulthood.  We have lots of colleagues in Merton who also share our beliefs and so discussions commenced with our partners in LBM’s Leisure, Public Health and School Improvement teams to plan a networking session where we could best convey our messages, share ideas and good practice.

Our friends at the AELTC were also keen to help us connect with the Merton school leaders and they kindly offered the Championships site at Church Road for us to host the Primary School Heads meeting, scheduled for 13th March 2025.

We wanted to use this opportunity to enhance collaboration between our schools and supporting partners. Providing opportunities, sharing good practice, ideas and awareness around health and wellbeing themes. With a focus on every child moving more in school and in turn reaping the benefits of an active and healthy school environment and culture.

It was brilliant to have so many of our Merton Head Teachers and local partners in attendance with 42 primary, special and secondary schools represented and keen to reimagine the landscape with us.

The session began with an inspiring story from Neurodiverse Sport’s Caragh McMurtry. Caragh is a GB Olympic Rower who, as an autistic individual, knows first-hand how important it is for children to be able to move and regulate themselves throughout the school day as well to be able to take part in sport and physical activity in the community throughout their lives. The session with Caragh and Leah (COO at NDS) really set the scene for the rest of the meeting with all of us thinking about how we could make a difference to children’s lives by enabling them to be active every day and by better understanding their neurodivergence to help them thrive in their school environments.

Head’s then took the chance to reflect on their own school’s activity levels. MSSP prepared individual health and activity reports for each school. The reports included a range of health, activity and other data; including their 23-24 Active Lives survey reports, Merton School Sport Mark Awards, Healthy Schools London awards, Childhood Weight Management Programme Data and their provision across EDI groups. Janna Scott and David Gentles from the Merton Borough of Sport Team delivered a reflection and planning workshop to consider what was working well and where we could enhance opportunities for our students to be active.

Our Head Teachers believe there are some key things that could support children to be more active in our schools –

Last year 67%  Merton Schools completed the Sport England Active Lives survey as part of a big push to increase activity levels in our Borough. This was by far the largest percentage of surveys completed by a London Borough.

The meeting continued to hear from a range of presenters including anti-bullying and LGBTQ+ education charity Diversity Role Models, The Belly Bugs, Active Travel Plans, Good Oral Health (Kings College NHS Foundation Trust) and important updates from Elizabeth Fitzpatrick, Director of  Education and Early Help (LBM).

We were also delighted to be joined by Joanne McCarthy, Deputy Mayor of the GLA to find out more about Water Only Schools and the Healthy Schools London Award Scheme. Merton is encouraging all Merton schools to become ‘water only’. Being water only means making sure that water (and plain semi skimmed or skimmed milk, lactose free or soya milk) is the only drink in your school.

Primary PE Coordinator, Tahmina Kabir, provided a first-hand perspective of how the MSSP Sports Leaders Inspiration Day, funded by the Wimbledon Foundation, helped to get The Sherwood children much more active during lunch times. It was great to see this in action through the video footage taken on site. From MSSP’s recent consultation with schools we know that they really value the Sports Leaders running active lunchtime sessions; targeting those children that may be more sedentary at lunch and who may avoid the likes of a football game on the MUGA.

Jimmy Culnane, Director of Hockey from The Wimbledon Hockey Club provided information on free opportunities for children to take part in their activities and they kindly provided parking spaces for our delegates and deliverers.

After a very jammed packed schedule we finally got to hear from our exceptional hosts at the AELTC. Maggie Weiss, Schools and Universities Manager introduced Wimbledon’s Learning Programme which provides schools with a fantastic learning opportunity at the Church Road site. With a core focus on history, technology and business, their award-winning learning programme is a fantastic way for schools, colleges, and universities to discover the magic of Wimbledon and its impact on a global scale.

There was also just about time for Nicola, Director at MSSP, to thank the Head Teachers for their ongoing commitment to PE, PA and Sport in their schools and for signing up to another year of affiliation with their Merton School Sport Partnership. For now, the affiliation will be extended for one more academic year, while we await any government updates; following their review of the PE Curriculum and the Primary PE and School Sport Grant.

After lunch, the attendees were treated to a whistlestop tour of the prestigious grounds where they found out more about the rich history of the Champs.  Before they left, attendees made pledges on how they plan to improve physical activity levels in their schools. The BoS team later got in touch with the attendees and provided additional information via email to support each school to achieve their ‘pledge’.  We are looking forward to finding out how these unfold over the coming year.

Key take aways from the meeting for all included: