Evaluation
What can Fit For Football achieve ?
Fit For Football has provided activities to over 16,000 children in 130 different schools within the Humber region. A number of techniques have been used to evaluate changes in knowledge, skills and behaviour of the children as shown below:-
Use of the Optivote System
The Optivote System provides a method of carrying out whole class evaluations quickly and simply and has the added advantage that the children enjoy using it. It provides each child with a handset with a series of numbers on it. A question is displayed on a large screen with a number of possible answers. The child chooses what they think is the right answer by pressing the relevant number. All of these results are collected by the assessment system and can be displayed graphically or saved for further analysis.
Children who have participated in the Fit For Football programme complete the questions in the classroom at the same time as those who havn’t been involved. This provides an opportunity to directly compare the results of each set of children to determine the impact that Fit For Football has had.
623 children from 21 schools took part in Optivote evaluation sessions in 2005 and 2006. In all of the 19 questions, children who had completed the Fit For Football sessions did better than those that hadn’t with each child scoring on average 10%-15% more than those who didn’t attend. Additionally :-
} 68% state they are doing more physical activity since participating in Fit For Football
} 77% of the children state that they are eating more fruit
} 71% state that they eat more vegetables.
} 75 % believe that they are now less likely to smoke.
} 90% attended all Fit For Football sessions at their school
Children’s evaluation forms
At the end of their last FFF session, children are asked to complete a very simple “Tell us what you think” evaluation form. 407 children completed the forms in 2006 of which:-.
} 87% thought that Fit For Football had been “very useful” in encouraging them to lead a healthier lifestyle and a further 12% thought it was “useful”.
} 65% preferred the physical activity elements the best, 34% preferred healthier eating activities and 1% enjoyed the smoking games the most.
You can see some of their comments by scrolling down to the end of this page.
Tracking of children through the programme
15 children and their parents at Scunthorpe Church of England school in Crosby, Scunthorpe participated in an exercise to identify what specific changes their children make to their lifestyles which are attributed to the Fit For Football programme.
Diaries were completed before the programme commenced and several weeks after it finished to provide information on any real changes that have been made as a result of participating in Fit For Football. The results of this work were as follows:-
● Some changes in the diet of the children was noted at the post evaluation with fruit and vegetable consumption increasing by an average of 3% and a corresponding decrease in consumption of foods containing fats and sugars.
● Half of the children increased their physical activity, some by as much as 177%.
●6 out of 10 parents noticed an improvement in their child’s attitude to smoking.
Evaluation questionnaires to parents and teachers
In 2006, we started to send out a new questionnaire to parents asking their views about the programme and what changes they had seen in the children. Eleven schools were chosen for this exercise in 2007. These gave the following results :-
● 95% of parents said that they had discussed the FFF programme with their children and 95% of children had enjoyed the programme
● 58% of parents had noted a change in their child’s food choices
● 79% noticed a change in their child’s attitude to smoking and 68% felt that their children felt more positive towards adopting a healthier lifestyle.
Tell Us What You Think
Children’s Quotes
It has helped me to realise that I should not smoke and eat more healthier – Luke age 11
I would not smoke cigarettes when I’m older – Charleigh age 9
I will start exercising – Rebekah age 9
It made me enjoy football, so I will play more – Erica age 10
It has taught me to eat more fruit and vegetables – Liam age 11
It has told me what you need for a healthy diet and what you don’t need – Luke age 11
Now I know how important it is, and I have been encouraged – Sanchit age 10
I know now what foods to eat and not to eat, also I know what things to do to keep healthy – Maria age 11
I have been encouraged to try new things – Charlotte age 10
I never thought that fruits taste so good until I tried them – Subham age 10
It helps you improve your lifestyle in fitness and in strength – Michael age 11
It teaches you to eat fruit and vegetables and run about – Joshua age 11
I liked the food more than some of the sweets I have – Collette age 11
I have tried new fruit and vegetables – Jake age 10
I will play games a lot more instead of watching telly and will eat more fruit – Laura age 11
I realised that keeping fit could be fun as well – Catherine age 10
It has encouraged me not to smoke when I am older – Ryan age 11
I have learnt to play fun activities that keep you fit – Kyle age 10
It has shown me the fun way to be healthy – Ikah age 11
I didn’t know that so many different foods together was nice – Max age 10
It showed me what and how much of one sort of food you should eat and it was fun at the same time – Sheena age 10
I now know how to make a healthy sandwich and how to play sports activities – Oriel age 10
I learnt that being healthy is fun – Sophie age 10
After school I am being more active – Charlotte age 10
I have been running and eating fruit – Lewis age 10
I am a lot fitter and healthier – Reece age 10
I asked my Mum to buy more fruit – Kirsty age 11
I have been doing more activities – Jack age 10
I have been having pasta and loads of meat and fruit for my pack up – Jasmine age 10
Don’t smoke or you lose 40 seconds off your life – Ashley age 10
It has made me enjoy fruit more than I did – Gabby age 10
When you get fit young, your body looks after you later in life – Samantha age 10
Now I am eating healthier – Its told me to eat healthier food – Joel age 10
I eat a lot of salad and fruit and a lot of exercise – Lucy age 10
I eat lots of fruit and train and exercise more – Kirsty age 11
I have been taught to eat healthy and what it can do if you don’t – Jamie age 10
Danielle Since doing food work I’ve been eating more fruit and making my own lunch – Joel age 11
It has made me aware of healthy foods – Lauren age 11
I eat more fruit & veg and I exercise 1 hour a day – Aaron age 11
It teaches us to eat healthy – David age 9
It has got me to be more healthy and enjoy exercise – Nicole age 10
It is good for you and it is nice – Hannah age 9
I don’t eat chocolate as much – Kyle age 10
I do more exercise and eat more fruit – Sophie age 10
It has made me aware of the amount of time you lose if you smoke – Bradley age 9
I am going to eat healthy because healthy food is ill – Bethany age 10
I tried new things to eat and I really liked the grapefruit and Its been fun – Dionne age 10
Now I’m going to eat healthy, I will be healthier when I am older - Abigail age 10
I will not take drugs or smoke – Rebecca age 10
If you don’t eat healthy then you can get very fat – Rebecca age 10
Football is making me healthy and fit – Stephanie age 10
It encouraged me to play more football and its easier to play when your fit –
Stephen age 10
I eat more health food and it has encouraged me not to smoke – Shannon age 9
It has encouraged me not to smoke, because it has shown me what it can do –
Shannon age 10
