Representatives from the National Charity Partnership, comprising the British Heart Foundation, Diabetes UK and Tesco, paid a visit to two East London schools and the Olympic Park last week.
The National Charity Partnership is funding the eight-week scheme which ends on 11th November, and representatives had a go at playing Beat the Street as well as hearing stories from the schools taking part.
The group walked to St Dominic’s Catholic Primary School in Hackney and chatted to children, staff and parents tapping the Beat Boxes on their way into school.
Inside the school, they were treated to a special presentation held by the school’s new prefects who shared stories about encouraging their families to get walking and tapping. Additionally, this week’s ‘top tapper’ Ethan was congratulated for his contribution to St Dominic’s points total and was presented with a goody bag by Louise Ansari, Director of Prevention of Type 2 Diabetes at Diabetes UK.
St Dominic’s has embraced the Beat the Street competition as it complements their healthy eating and physical activity ethos demonstrated by their ‘Health Heroes’ programme which aims to reduce sedentary time and increase activity. The school has 415 players and is currently fourth on Hackney’s total points leaderboard and fifth on the average points leaderboard.
The group then moved onto the Olympic Park where they met representatives of St Joseph’s Catholic Junior School, Waltham Forest who currently top both leaderboards.
The school’s impressive performance was motivated by the sad death of their school caretaker from a heart attack, just before the start of term. Drawn to the scheme by the British Heart Foundation’s involvement, the school is keen to promote the benefits of physical activity for prevention. They’ve since made up for their slower start to the game by introducing walks and using the project for lessons such as geography and maths.
The school’s top tapper for the week Chloe Glanville was also presented with a goody bag by Louise Ansari while Amanda O’Regan from the school said: “Not only are the children enjoying Beat the Street, but we’ve had great feedback from parents too who say that they’re spending more time with their children and getting to have a really good chat. Teachers say that the levels of pent-up energy in the classroom have decreased and that work is generally of a higher standard.”
