VIDEO: Wake up call for schoolkids

WATCH THE VIDEO (1 available - click to expand)

Video 1

For many of us the sound of the school bell meant registration and classes, slumping into a chair and suppressing a yawn in the early morning, writes Nick Mayo.

But for schools around the country the bell ringing now signals time to get physical each day.

At St Mary’s school in Cookham Road the children stash their bags and coats safely in their classrooms and then head for the playground to Wake Up and Shake Up.

On Thursday at about 8.50am, as on every morning, the 270 pupils aged five to 11 gathered outside along with teachers and staff at about 8.50am to get invigorated and ready for the school day ahead.
One class and teacher led the rest of the pupils in a workout to music pumped out over the school’s tannoy system for five to 10 minutes.

It is now so much part of the children’s daily routine that they get upset when they can’t do it in the playground because of the weather and have to make do with a session in the classroom.

Emma McDonald, from Marlow, took over as the school’s PE co-ordinator in September and has been at St Mary’s for two years after completing her teacher training there.

Emma said: "We have definitely noticed a difference since we started doing it. The children get a lot out of it. Any sort of fitness is a good thing and it is good to get people going in the morning when they come in tired. 

"The other pupils get transfixed with the class in front who are leading them and soon pick up the routine. I would recommend it to all schools, it is a great thing to start the day with."

St Mary’s started doing the programme last summer during PE week, encouraged by the Sports Partnership, and now the school has a different routine every half term and some teachers have started choosing and choreographing their own one.

Favourites include YMCA, When the Going Gets Tough, Mamma Mia, Blame it on the Boogie and It’s Raining Men. Parents often join in with the morning wake-up too.

Emma said: “Parents loved it from the start. We had a lot spectators at first and encouraged them to join in and now we have the mums and dads, and sometime babies, have a go as well.”

Jo Clougherty, mum to Flynn, five, who goes to the school, said: "My son comes home full of enthusiasm and shows us all his moves. Its good for confidence too as the class who learn the new routines first stand out in front of the whole school."

Wake Up and Shake Up was dreamt up in 2002 by Ruth Mitchell, then a school sport co-ordinator.
Concerned at the lack of daily physical activity taking place in some of the primary schools she was working with she wanted to come up with something which was easy to implement and would not impact on the curriculum or teachers’ time.

Her answer was a short burst of aerobic activity to lively pop music. She created routines with fun actions, based on using major muscle groups, and put them to well-known tunes. 

Ruth, from Cornwall, said: “The impact has been great, a lot better than I would ever have imagined it would have been. Wake Up and Shake Up has spread to playgrounds across the UK and overseas from Dubai to Bermuda.”

Schools which have taken part in Wake Up and Shake Up for a long and sustained time period, like St Mary’s, report an improvement in pupil’s co-ordination, rhythm and timing, improved concentration with children more alert and ready to engage in work, better behaviour and more enjoyment of school life.

For more details on the programme visit www.wakeupshakeup.com

 WATCH: See St Mary's School children in action in our video of the Wake Up and Shake Up routine.