Group Photo after a Kinball Session
Recently in 2017, a study conducted by the Health Promotion Board (HPB) found that 7 in 10 children who are overweight at seven years of age will remain overweight well into their adult years(The Straits Times, 2017). This will create a major health pandemic in Singapore as the rate of obesity among youths is also increasing due to poor dietary habit, lack of physical activities and a sedentary lifestyle.
Singaporeans and obesity
Title of Study: Exercise Experience and Changes in Affective Attitude (Sudeck, Schmidt & Conzelmann, 2016) |
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Purpose | To examine the relationship between exercise experiences and changes in affective attitude. |
Methods |
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Key Findings |
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JVS Fitness First programme was designed based on the Singapore Teaching Practice framework, and begins by taking into consideration the learners’ profile, namely our Sec 1 Obese Students (STP, 2017). We stressed the importance of fostering a Positive Classroom Climate and so we designed a programme where the obese students will participate in physical activities at their own ability level together with the Sports Leader. The programme was carried out from 17th July 2019 to 21st August 2019, a total of 6 weekly sessions.
Objectives of Programme
As part of our collaboration with Health Promotion Board (HPB) where the school engaged their instructors to conduct our weekly sessions. HPB provided complimentary step trackers for our programme and also provided weekly progress report based on the results which the teachers used for debriefing after each session.
Weekly Spin the Wheel Challenge
Health Points Reward System (Individual Outcome)
Tier Level | Step count (Daily) | Health Points |
Tier 1 | 5000-7000 | 10 |
Tier 2 | 7001- 10000 | 25 |
Tier 3 | >10000 | 50 |
Spin the Wheel (Group Outcome)
Group Outcome (Weekly) | No of Spins |
Whole group to attain Tier 1 at least 5 days in a week | 1 |
Whole group to attain Tier 2 at least 5 days in a week | 2 |
Whole group to attain Tier 3 at least 5 days in a week | 3 |
The main objectives of this programme for the Sec 2 Sports Leader are as follows:
There is no prior training conducted for our Sports Leaders. This was the first programme that they were involved in after they were nominated.
Philosophy | Process | Product |
Being intentional and setting time aside to debrief our Sports Leader helps them to learn from the experience. | Creating opportunities for Sports Leader to develop their leadership skills and to “learn on the job” | Through the debriefing process, Sports Leader are able to reflect and process their experience, and thus, have a more meaningful learning experience. |
Creating meaningful leadership experiences is important in the leadership development of our Sports Leader. | Weekly debrief session conducted by the teachers to provide feedback on their facilitation skills and management of the group. | Sports Leader role-model the qualities and values of being a good leader for their peers by putting what they have learned into practice. |
Teachers intentionally use teachable moments during the session to highlight certain values and qualities of being a Sport Leader. |
Session | Programme |
1 | Intro to Programme:
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2 | JVS Step Challenge Week 1 + Powerball Session |
3 | JVS Step Challenge Week 2 + Dodgeball Session |
4 | JVS Step Challenge Week 3 + Kinball Session |
5 | JVS Step Challenge Week 4 + Treasure Defence Session |
6 | Captain’s ball + Finale Finale
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Beautiful memories
Post-survey results
Participants’ Sharing | Excerpts from Sharing |
Darwisyah (Sec 1 Obese Student) | “My experience in the fitness programme was great. I had a lot of fun and met a lot of nice people. I felt more motivated to exercise together with my friends as the sessions were fun and enjoyable. I love interacting with my Sports Leader as they continue to motivate me.
This programme has taught me to take control of my own fitness by making the right choices to exercise and eat healthily” – Darwisyah |
Sophia (Sec 2 Sports Leader) |
“There were many different things I learnt from the programme. Firstly, I would say that I am not a confident person initially. However, this programme has helped me develop my confidence and leadership skills by voicing my opinions and interacting with different people.”
During this experience, I managed to motivate my buddy successfully through inspirational words like “You can do it” and exercising with them after school.” – Sophia |
Participants’ Sharing
KEEP | IMPROVE | START | STOP |
Continue to equip our future participants with step trackers to allow them to monitor their activity level through engaging in physical activities. | Empowering our Sports Leaders to play an even larger role in the planning process. | Involve a larger cohort of our student body by engaging the Sports Leader to plan more after-school sporting activities, for example interclass volleyball tournament. | To consider removing activities which were not as engaging according to participants’ feedback and replacing it with activities that participants enjoy. |
Continue to engage the Sports Leaders to support the programme as health advocates so that they can role-model and inspire their peers to live a healthy lifestyle. | Increasing the duration of the programme so that participants will develop a more sustainable lifestyle over a longer period of time. |
Develop a more holistic approach to our healthy lifestyle programme by expanding the scope of our sessions to include other aspects of health, for example, food and nutrition. |
Please feel free to contact Adriel Chia or Dr Shah if you are interested to know more about this programme.
We can be reached at:
Lai, L. (2017, June 22). Chubby kids are more likely to be fat as adults.
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/health/chubby-kids-are-more-likely-to-be-fat-as-adults
Ministry of Education Singapore (2020, August 31). The Singapore teaching practice.
https://www.moe.gov.sg/about/singapore-teaching-practice
Sudeck, G., Schmid, J., & Conzelmann, A. (2016). Exercise Experiences and Changes in affective attitude: Direct and indirect effects of in situ measurements of experiences. Frontiers in Psychology, 7.