A primary school in Somerset has introduced standing desks in some classrooms to improve pupils’ learning and health. Research says that some children learn better when they’re more active in class. It also potentially offsets sedentary lifestyles, as standing, three hours a day, five days a week, could burn 30,000 calories a year.
How interesting, but I feel sorry for the children. Are they going to have armchairs and beds (perhaps a couple of hospital drips) in the playground so that they can rest during playtime?
Well done to the school for making an effort to think inventively (and, of course, they don’t make the pupils stand all the time), but while standing desks may have benefits, when used for significant periods, surely they have drawbacks in terms of concentration and comfort and diminished teacher control?
While standing desks are an inventive response to the child obesity crisis in schools, what about more obvious ones? The real answer must lie in the type of food children are served, the nutritional education they receive and the physical education regimes they are given.
Then there’s breaking that pesky, state-sanctioned habit of selling off school playing fields. It has been reported that more playing fields were sold off in 2016 than in any other year since 2013, with the equivalent of one sold every two weeks since the London 2012 Olympics.
While schools are supposed to prove that they are able to continue operating their sports curriculums, many such sales remain a direct consequence of tightening government budgets. If this trend for selling off school plots to survive continues, the underfunded, highly pressurised state education system could become standing room only for real.
