Physical activity levels of Maltese children are very low, and recent studies have shown that only 24% of Maltese eleven-year olds meet the WHO recommendations for at least an hour of daily moderate to vigorous physical activity. Therefore, there is an urgent need to increase the physical activity levels of children, and schools are the ideal place for new initiatives which cultivate an active lifestyle.
The Institute for Physical Education and Sport (IPES), in collaboration with the Ministry for Education, Sport, Youth, Research and Innovation (MEYR), and SportMalta have launched SkaRF – Skip a Rope for Fitness. This is an experimental study that was carried out at San Ġwann Primary school, and was led by the Director of the Institute, and Chairperson of SportMalta, Prof. Andrew Decelis. The aim of this study was to teach rope skipping to year 4 learners, while improving their fundamental movement skills, increasing their fitness and physical activity levels, and reducing sedentary time.
All year 4 learners attending San Ġwann Primary (70) participated in this project, two classes as an experimental group, and two classes as a control group. Learners in the experimental group were given a skipping rope each, and attended daily rope skipping sessions of about 15 minutes for a period of four weeks. During this period, the learners were also encouraged to skip the rope during the school breaks in a specifically assigned area in the yard, and also to practice outside school hours. Both the learners in the experimental group and the control group (which were not given a skipping rope during this phase but who will be participating in the second phase in October), were tested for their skipping rope ability, their fundamental motor skills (agility, coordination, speed), fitness levels (cardiovascular endurance, body composition, strength), physical activity levels and sedentary time (wearing an accelerometer on the hip for five days), both before and after the four-week intervention. The results of all the pre and post intervention tests for both groups will be analysed in the coming weeks.
The project leader, Prof. Decelis, said that “Initial analysis of the results has shown that all the learners who participated in the programme have improved their rope skipping ability and their fundamental skills, confirming that a simple four-week intervention can improve the competence and confidence in children to be active for life”.
Based on these initial results, Prof. Decelis is recommending that every learner in Primary schools has a skipping rope in their bag besides the books, and that during recess, an area is allocated for skipping in every school yard.
He thanked the Head of School, Mr David Caruana, for his support and interest in this study, the research assistant, Mr Alec Felice Pace, Ian Felice Pace for designing the logo, the school PE teacher, Mr Michael Scerri, and the class teachers Ms Jessica and Ms Erika, and the Learning Support Educators, who were all very keen to see their learners improving their fundamental skills. He also thanked Mr Marvin Spiteri and the Minister Hon Dr Grima for supporting the initiative from its inception. This project was funded by the University of Malta Research SEED Fund 2023.
Teachers’ and parents’ resources, including videos showing progressions for teaching rope skipping are being prepared and will be launched in the coming months. Following the success of this small-scale experimental study, the SkaRF project will be extended to the whole school and in other schools. The main objective of the SkaRF project in the coming years is for all the learners to be able to skip a rope with confidence by the end of Primary schooling.
