Brown Backs Fitness
Gordon Brown has reiterated his commitment to ensuring that all children in the UK should have the opportunity to access four hours of sport and PE a week, with schools providing two hours of curriculum time, and a further two hours to be made available out of school hours.
Computer games battle childhood obesity
The Venue Leisure Centre in Elstree, Hertfordshire, is one of the first in the UK to launch a completely interactive gym of computer games. The new facility includes games designed to be operated by the body rather than the thumbs and have been provided by ZigZag children's fitness solutions. The gym, called Xergaming, has been created in an attempt to tackle childhood obesity by enabling the children to engage in physical exercise while their minds are distracted by a game. There are also three giant computerised Sportwall panels with hundreds of games. Children score against the clock by zapping lights on the panels, simultaneously tracking a ball, targets, sounds, scores and a time clock, earning extra points for skill, speed, cardiovascular stamina and team co-operation.
REPs get serious about CPD
The compliance officer is helping encourage Register of Exercise Professionals (REPs) members, training providers and employers to work together to ensure that the CPD programme operates as effectively as possible. Training providers are being encouraged to use a template to send REPs the details of who attended their courses. These are validated records, which will then be used to automatically update individual records of CPD. The compliance officer will be checking that members keep records for checking. The first meeting of the Professional Practice Committee will be held in April to consider action for those members who are unwilling or unable to make a reasonable attempt at meeting CPD requirements. REPs is anxious to ensure that CPD is seen as a positive move to drive up standards in the industry.