VIVO Improves School Pupils Exercise Adherence and Enjoyment
VIVO IMPROVES SCHOOL PUPILS' EXERCISE ADHERENCE AND ENJOYMENT
To monitor, motivate and encourage their pupils during PE, forward-looking educational establishments are beginning to take advantage of innovative connectivity technology.
We take a look at Swadelands School in Kent and Southfields Community College in Wandsworth, which have become the first in the country to install VIVO from Life Fitness into their new gym facilities…
SWADELANDS SCHOOL, KENT
Swadelands School in Kent celebrated the official opening of its new fitness facility in November 2006. The recently completed Laurel Centre is a custom built health fitness, exercise and dance facility. It includes a Fitness Suite with 21 pieces of Life Fitness equipment and new connectivity system, VIVO, together with a dance studio and treatment room.
Catering for 900 pupils aged between 11 and 18, Swadelands has been a specialist school and sports college for four years. Funding for the £900,000 project came from the Big Lottery Fund, the Peter Harrison Foundation and the school itself.
Jo Turner, Director of Sport, says: "Life Fitness and VIVO met our requirements perfectly. With school and community use planned, we needed sturdy and robust machines that are easy and straight forward to use. We also wanted to ensure that the equipment chosen was IFI approved or could be adapted to be inclusive for exercisers of all ages and abilities."
She continues: "We particularly liked the fact that VIVO operates by entering a PIN because it's simple, quick and costs nothing to replace, which is an important consideration with 900 pupils. It has tremendous potential, and will not only aid the way we teach, it will also add value to our Healthy Child Initiative. Using VIVO, each student will have a personal exercise plan which will be used to set targets and record progress. This ‘real-life' data can then be used and manipulated in other areas of the curriculum, which they will hopefully find interesting and motivating."
A very high priority is placed on improving facilities and resources at Swadelands and there has been major investment in the school over the past five years. The Laurel Centre is the first gym in Kent to install the VIVO software. Jo adds: "We're really proud of the Laurel Centre, and feel that the choice of equipment and installation of VIVO all add to the ‘wow' factor. We've already had a fantastic response from students about the new Fitness Studio, and have no doubt that it will have a positive impact on both the health and fitness of our pupils, and our academic results too."
SOUTHFIELDS COMMUNITY COLLEGE, WANDSWORTH
Southfields Community College in Wandsworth has completed the final phase of a £500,000 development project to improve its sports facilities. The new Fitness Suite, complete with 17 pieces of Life Fitness equipment, also had the VIVO connectivity system fitted in November 2006.
The school, which attained specialist sports status in 2000, caters for 1,350 pupils aged between 11 and 19. It is the full service extended school in the Borough of Wandsworth and as such its facilities are available from 7.30am until 10.00pm, seven days per week.
The new Fitness Suite, which was funded by the school, has been created by converting the existing gym, adding a mezzanine floor as a dance area and building a new PE classroom.
David Holt, Director of Sport at Southfields, says: "The information provided by VIVO will enable crossover links with PE and other curriculum areas, such as maths and ICT. In these subject areas students will be able to access and manipulate personal data about themselves which they will have generated through working in the Fitness Suite in their PE lessons. We anticipate they will find this more interesting, relevant and motivating than simply using fictitious examples, and hopefully, in turn, this will have an impact on raising levels of attainment across the college"
Southfields is also firmly committed to improving the health and lifestyle of those in the local area. In conjunction with the Wandsworth City Learning Centre, based at Southfields, primary and secondary schools in the vicinity, together with members of the local community, are able to utilise the school's extensive sports and state-of-the-art ICT facilities. With the introduction of VIVO, plans are underway to introduce a GP Referral Scheme. The system's wireless technology, and ability to connect fitness equipment both inside and outside the gym via the worldwide web, make it perfect for this type of initiative and enable doctors to monitor their patients' progress quickly and accurately.
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