If children wear trainers to school for the whole day, will they be more engaged in active play?

This is the question posed to Year 5 as part of a research project St Margaret’s Lee are participating in. The aim of the project is to identify ways of getting more children active, with a particular emphasis on girls.

Q1: How many children in Year 5 wear trainer-style school shoes?

Answer: 14 (less than half the class, of which only 2 are girls)

Q2: How many children regularly change their shoes for lunch play?

Answer: 2 (both boys)

Q3: In a  normal week, how much active play are you currently engaged in?

The children used Excel to generate stacked bar charts that show levels of active play throughout the week.