According to recent studies, a significant percentage of Maltese children are not meeting the recommended daily levels of physical activity. The school environment plays a pivotal role in shaping children's behaviours and habits and, therefore, it is an ideal place for targeted interventions that prioritise and promote physical activity.
In 2023, the Institute for Physical Education and Sport (IPES), in collaboration with the Ministry for Education, Sport, Youth, Research and Innovation (MEYR) launched SkaRF - Skip a Rope for Fitness. This is an experimental study that was carried out at San Gwann Primary school, and was led by the Director of the Institute, Professor Andrew Decelis. The aim of this study was to teach rope skipping to primary school learners, while improving their fundamental movement skills, increasing their fitness and physical activity levels, and reducing sedentary time.
During the first phase of the study which ended in June 2023, all Year 4 learners attending San Gwann Primary (70) participated in this project, two classes as an experimental group, and two classes as a control group. The second phase of this project started in November 2023, with the same cohort of learners, now attending Year 5, who were all given a skipping rope, including the ones who were in the control group during the first phase. All the learners participated in a daily 15-minute session of rope skipping for another four weeks, and 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.
All the learners were once again tested before and after the four weeks programme, 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. Comparisons of accelerometery data from phase 1 and phase 2 are being carried out as data separation and analysis of phase 2 physical activity and sedentary behaviour data are currently underway.
The project leader, Professor Decelis, said that “Initial analysis of the second phase results has shown that all the learners in the experimental group in phase one retained their skill levels and improved further, while the new participants who originally were in the control group also improved their rope skipping ability. This confirms that a four-week skipping rope intervention can improve the competence and confidence in children to be active for life”.
In preparation for the next phase of this project, funding is being sought to provide a skipping rope to each learner in this school, aiming to have the first local SkaRF School. 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, and for this purpose this project will be extended to other interested schools. Professor Decelis is recommending that every learner in Primary schools has a skipping rope in their bag, and that during recess, an area is allocated for skipping in every school yard.
He thanked the Head of School, Mr David Caruana, the assistant Head Ms Susanne Mifsud Triganza for their support and interest in this study, Mr Daniel Attard for delivering the introductory skipping session, the research assistant, Mr Alec Felice Pace, the sports manager Oliver Mallia, the Year 5 class teachers Ms Marsilv, Ms Melissa, Ms Fiona and Ms Christabelle, the Learning Support Educators, and Mr Michael Xerri, PE teacher, who were all very keen to see their learners improving their fundamental skills. He also thanked Mr Jude Zammit, Director General, MEYR, Mr Jonathan Attard, College Principal, and, Education Officers Mr Marvin Spiteri and Mr Kevin Azzopardi, for supporting the initiative from its inception. This project was funded by the University of Malta Research SEED Fund 2023.
The main project objective is to approximate EU sport policies closer to non-governmental sports movement, especially having them more accessible and comprehensible for stakeholders on all levels, local level included. It will be achieved through a platform entitled INCLUSION FIRST.
There is a nice play with the name of the project, where the word FIRST does not only emphasize the inclusion as a priority of the project, but also means an abbreviation of five basic project elements: FRIENDSHIP, INNOVATIONS, RUNNING, SUSTAINABILITY and TEAMWORK.
Proposed consortium aims to focus on the very recent sport agenda of the EU, such as sport policies outlined by the EU Work Plan for sport (2021 - 2024) and priorities of the EU programme Erasmus+ (2021 – 2027) in the field of sport. The consortium will notably develop Council conclusions on sport as a platform for social inclusion worked out by the Maltese Presidency and Council conclusions on sport diplomacy developed by the Slovak Presidency. With the selected countries, it strives to be a practical follow up of the EU sport agenda of Malta and Slovakia approved during their presidencies of the Council of the EU.
The project is digital, green and innovative in the sports sector. It places a strong focus on the green and digital transitions and contributes to priorities of the Erasmus+ 2021-2027 programme and the current call. The project contributes to the creation and development of transnational networks and to fostering synergies with, and between, local, regional, national and international policies.
The Institute for PE and Sport hosted the DE-PASS Cost Meeting between the 28th and 30th of March 2023.
The COST Action "Determinants of Physical ActivitieS in Settings" (DE-PASS) will focus on identifying, understanding and measuring the determinants which promote, maintain or inhibit Physical Activity Behaviours (PABs) across the lifespan and in different settings and translating this knowledge to assist policy-makers to achieve greater health impact.
For more information, visit the website on https://depass.eu/
The European Sports Leadership Program (ESLP) is an Erasmus+ project aimed at increasing sport participation on campus and promoting voluntary activity in sport. There are five universities involved in this project with five sporting disciplines having been selected by the ten ESLP Sport Leaders, namely Move to the Beat (Dance & Fitness), Tchoukball, Beat the Keeper (Handball), Ultimate Frisbee and RUNiversity (Athletics).
The aim is to provide new recreational activities for university students at each institution based on student demand. Student demand was gauged during the first three months of the programme, February – April 2018, through a consultation process provided by each university. The process of targeting students was made through appropriate marketing techniques aimed at those who do not currently play sport regularly at university. The programme is delivered by the Sports Development Coordinator at each university and the key method of delivery is through using students as volunteers to work as Sport Leaders. Two Sport Leaders were recruited per sport therefore, each university has a minimum of 10 Sport Leaders, allowing for any drop-out or loss of Sport Leaders during student placement or other off-campus activities. The Sport Leaders were provided with training prior to the start of their work.
Each Sport Leader is required to track attendance for each session and record student demographic data such as name, age, course, year of study, and which is then to be entered into a spreadsheet for monitoring and evaluation purposes.
The ESLP aims to increase the use of existing university resources such as facilities and equipment. To offset this, the Sport Leaders could, where relevant and where a demand exists, help improve the capacity of under-resourced facilities. Success within the programme would show increased student engagement in sport and thus, would increase sport facility usage that universities could also use to help build a case for the future provision of additional resources to universities. In addition, this project provides students with an opportunity to enhance their personal and professional development also increasing their employability following graduation. In fact, each student Sport Leader forms part of a Careers and Mentoring programme to help them enhance their personal and professional development whilst working as a Sport Leader. This would be in the form of four workshops as a training and development programme as well as through the assignment of a mentor within the workplace to help support their personal and professional development.
More information on each of the workshops held so far may be accessed below.
Workshop 1 - 11 May 2018 [PDF]
Workshop 2 - 27 July 2018 [PDF]
Workshop 3 - 4 April 2019 [PDF]
Workshop 4 - 27 March 2020 [PDF]
Multiplier Event - 22 June 2020 [PDF]
ESLP Dissemination [PDF]
Interview with Etienne Camenzuli - ESLP Employer Mentor and Director of Hudson Holdings as part of the multiplier event activities related to the Institute's participation in the ERASMUS+ European Sport Leadership Programme (ESLP).
Interview with Liam Harrison - ESLP Sport Leader and BSc(Hons) Sport and Physical Activity student as part of the multiplier event activities related to the Institute's participation in the ERASMUS+ European Sport Leadership Programme (ESLP).