A new exercise regime which allows teachers and parents to monitor pupils’ activities throughout the school day is being rolled out across the country in a bid to eradicate childhood obesity.

The Health Active Schools System (HASS) has been devised by the children’s activity provider Fit for Sport and is designed to provide schools with reports that chart the activity of individual children on a daily basis.

The initiative, launched on 31st January, has come to fruition after a report published by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health revealed that 40% of children in deprived areas across the country were diagnosed as overweight or obese in 2016. This is compared to just 27% in more affluent areas.

To address this issue, the Government’s new Childhood Obesity Strategy states primaries should deliver 30 minutes of “moderate to vigorous” activity for pupils every day through active break times, extra-curricular physical education (PE) clubs and active lessons – with parents responsible for providing another daily 30 minutes.

The government expects schools to pay for this using cash from a sugar tax levy that will double the primary school physical education premium, including £10 million to fund breakfast clubs.

The strategy acknowledges many schools already offer an average of two hours of PE per week, but adds: “We need to do more to encourage children to be active every day.”

To ensure schools are adhering to the new guidelines, HASS will monitor the overall progress of pupils whilst also checking how effective schools are at investing and implementing new sports initiatives with additional funding.

HASS will also provide schools with a breakdown of physical activity levels for each child, class, year group for teachers to be able to see which areas need improvement.