The Data Driving Discipline, in China

Learning From China

There are a few of things that immediately strike you upon entering a school in China... and the discipline of the pupils is definitely one of them. 

Returning to their class after play or lunch, the message is clear - 'teach me'. 

Arriving on the field before a PE or football lesson, (two different things in China where each child has one hour of PE per day and at least one football lesson per week), I was amazed at how they lined up, left the equipment alone - which was organised into neat lines - then immediately began participating in the lesson. 'Teach me'. 

No child ran around to let off steam and not a single one in ANY of the lessons we saw touched any of the equipment before the teacher asked them to... (Less surprising of course when you consider they don't have pent up energy as that was all used in active break times). 

But without a shadow of a doubt, the biggest thing that strikes you about the schools are the facilities. These places are like a University Campus, with most a higher standard than anything I've seen in the UK. Proper sprung running tracks around the AstroTurf pitches, tens of basketball and volleyball courts and indoors - table tennis tables all over the place. 

What I did find fascinating was the equipment in the gymnasium. Electronic measurement systems to record each individual’s skipping, ball throwing and standing long jump. They also measure the times for a child to run a certain distance. 

Now don't get me wrong, not every school had this equipment - instead they just did it the old-fashioned way - one coach, (most PE and football teachers are subject specialists), measuring with a stopwatch, counting out loud and recording by hand. No excuses. No reason why they can't measure every child...

I asked each school what they do with that information and what I heard next was music to my ears, 'we measure it and support each child to attain certain levels'. 

Whether the measurement in this case is right or wrong, (not the debate for his piece), the fact they are measuring some kind of physical attainment has to be a good thing, doesn't it?!

I mean, if you disagree with the Activity they measure, then show me something else which has millions of kids doing it with virtually none overweight? 

We have campaigned vociferously since the publication of our research paper in partnership with the UK Active Research Institute for data driven decisions and some kind of measurement on children's fitness levels. 

This research proved that children's fitness improved during the school term, but then DECREASED by up to 80% in the short 6 week Summer holiday. 

It proved that children in schools where we were delivering alongside the teachers, had greater gains in their cardiorespiratory level from when they started, than schools where we don't partner and that the drop off in fitness the Summer was less. 

More importantly it proved that the BMI measurements currently in schools often have no correlation to the cardiorespiratory levels of the children and that the form of measurement we operated is scalable (we also proved that children actually liked doing it before you ask!). 

This research was published at the world leading voice of the American College of Sports Medicine and we now have various associations and governments around the world talking to us about this programme and the subsequent intervention mechanism to follow. 

Two UK local authorities are currently partnering on a 3 year pilot, where already schools and parents are saying children are changing their behaviour toward physical activity as a result of the progress they are being measured on and want to make. 

Couple this with our bespoke technology used in partner schools which records and measures the learning progress of an individual (in line with the national curriculum), it is very easy to see WHO needs intervention and more importantly, WHAT kind of intervention would be best suited to engage them for life. 

It's like throwing handfuls of darts and hoping one hits the bullseye, or taking the time to choose the one that will and hit it - FIRST TIME. 

The increase in Sport Premium and the sugar tax levy is certainly welcome, but working in an organisation that tries to measure waste - I can't help but wonder, HOW MANY OF THESE ADDITIONAL ￡MILLIONS IS LOST ON ONE OF THE 9 WASTES?!

Local decisions by Head Teachers certainly help ensure individual children are affected rather than a one size fits all approach, but providing head teachers with more information on each of their pupils can only help their improvement, can't it?

If someone argued China have got it wrong, that they are measuring the wrong things, then you would find plenty of advocates to support this point of view. 

However, I’m sure you could also find as many if not more, who think at this point in time, maybe they have it LESS WRONG than us?

PS - Catch up with me later where I will share findings on the Chinese football revolution, how their talent pool is growing in the opposite direction to ours and a theory on why so many more Chinese girls are engaged in football than in the UK...