Ms Claire Heneghan:

I thank committee for the opportunity to attend today to talk about what has become the norm in classrooms, namely, childhood obesity. I have been a primary teacher for ten years and work in Scoil Róis, Galway. I got the opportunity to specialise in the study of childhood obesity when undertaking a master's degree in science and exercise in 2013. My mission is to strive to help combat the childhood obesity crisis in primary schools. I have first-hand experience of the existence of this epidemic in classrooms and I am clear on the root causes.

I see evidence of obesity every day in the classroom. One in five primary schoolchildren are now obese. In a junior infant classroom where children are four or five years old uniform size can vary from size 4 to 5 all the way up to a much greater size. The larger size is now becoming the more uniform size. Obesity is a real problem.

I extensively researched best practice in countries such as Australia, New Zealand and Finland that have led the way in school-based programmes and initiatives that can make a difference to children's health and well-being. While many of the studies focus on healthy eating alone, which is very important, I was interested in how physical activity could be promoted throughout the school day. I believe there is one key area of the primary school day that is not being utilised fully to help combat this epidemic, namely break times. The recommendations state that for good health and well-being children need at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity per day. From the recent Growing Up in Ireland study it emerged that only a quarter of children met those recommendations. Those patterns have been shown to carry into adulthood. Children spend 183 days per annum in primary school, so it is a key area to target.

In a sedentary education system children generally have two outlets for physical activity in school, namely, PE and break time. PE alone has been shown not to meet physical activity recommendations needed for health benefits. That is especially true in this country where primary schoolchildren are allotted only 60 minutes of PE each week, which is just half of the EU average. The NCCA reported that primary teachers identified there being insufficient time to adequately cover all 11 curricular subjects due to an overloaded curriculum. A total of 52% of teaching time in primary schools is awarded to the core subjects, namely, English, Irish and maths, leaving 48% for the remaining eight subjects, including PE. As a result, the EU Education Information Network in 2013 found that Irish primary schools offered fewer hours of PE than any other EU member state.

Comprising three hours and 20 minutes weekly, break times are a key period to target the promotion of physical activity in children at school. After research and a stint working in New Zealand and Australia where break times have played a significant role in combatting childhood obesity levels I focused my research on the effect of fixed playground equipment such as climbing frames, monkey bars, swings, slides and balancing beams on the fitness levels of Irish primary schoolchildren and how that could help combat childhood obesity. No previous study of that nature has been done in Ireland to date.

Generally, Irish school playgrounds can be described as flat and uninspiring pieces of tarmacadam with equipment being scarce and basic. I was working in St. Conleth's infant school in Newbridge County Kildare at the time when a playground was installed in the school grounds. It was installed in 2009 at a cost of €80,000 that was raised by the school community. Primary schools with a fully equipped playground are very much in the minority in this country. Images are shown in the handout of the scarce scattering of equipped school playgrounds around the country. In countries such as New Zealand, Australia and Finland fixed playground equipment is the norm on school grounds. As outlined in my submission, my completed study found that the presence of fixed playground equipment in schools had a significant, positive effect on the fitness levels of children over the school year in the areas of endurance, balance, speed and agility. The children from schools with fixed playground equipment were fitter than those from the control school who did not have access to equipment during their break time over the academic year. It was the first study of its kind in Ireland and was subsequently published in 2015 by the Irish National Teachers Organisation.

My recommendation is clear. We need to utilise break times in a significant way to help raise children's activity levels. In New Zealand, the United States, Australia and even in Scotland activity co-ordinators have been employed in clusters of schools to promote physical activity in students. They are qualified PE and health promotion practitioners. Their job is to make the school environment more activity promoting, especially during break times.

Schools can often be obesogenic in their environment, that is sedentary promoting. Children spend a lot of time sitting, especially on wet days, which is unnatural and detrimental to health. In a local school where I live in Galway a fast-food chain is advertised on school grounds. What kind of message is that sending to children? I propose that it should be mandatory for all schools to have a health and well-being policy in place and implemented with schools highlighting the importance of activity through active homework, the promotion of walking to school, activity-promoting staff and active break times. Break time is a key period at nearly three and a half hours per week that can be easily targeted. A lot of current health promotion initiatives such as Playworks can be short lived and fleeting in schools, here today and gone tomorrow. The installation of a fixed playground in schools is a commodity that will be used daily. It is an asset to the community. It brings people together. It promotes activity, fitness and well-being by its existence. It promotes outdoor play, freedom and fun. An aesthetically pleasing playground entices children to move, climb, balance and be active, to be children. A recent Irish study revealed that almost half of children-----