82% of primary school parents say getting active together as a family is the best motivation post lockdown

By GreaterSport | 14 June 2021 | TAGS: Children and young people, olympics, paralympics

With less than 50 days until the Tokyo Games kick off Team GB and ParalympicsGB are inviting schools and families across the UK to get active this summer through their Travel to Tokyo virtual challenge. Join over one and a half million people already taking part on their active journey ahead of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Travel to Tokyo is part of Get Set, Team GB and ParalympicsGB’s youth engagement programme, created with funding from Sport England and Spirit of 2012. Travel to Tokyo empowers young people and their families across the UK to get active and create healthy habits alongside their classmates and celebrate their progress online as one school team.

Staying active offers significant benefits to young people and their families and has the potential to reduce stress and anxiety by providing routine and structure and increasing feelings of wellbeing. However, recent findings from Sport England found that only 44.9% of children and young people (3.2 million) reached the recommended average of 60 minutes or more of exercise a day.

Travel to Tokyo can support schools and families to get active. Recent research shows that 82% of families agreed that Travel to Tokyo could help them and their family to be more active and 79% agreed that Travel to Tokyo could help them and their family to fit activity into their day-to-day lives.

Every physical activity, no matter what it is, can be logged online as part of the Travel to Tokyo virtual challenge on the Get Set website. Available on the website are a range of inclusive resources to get the nation moving. All logged activity is converted into distance to make the 47,349 kilometre ‘round-the-world’ journey from London to Tokyo. Travel to Tokyo is a fully inclusive programme that has been designed to get the whole family taking part, and the materials use simple household items so anyone can get involved, regardless of their background or ability.

To encourage young people to log activities, Travel to Tokyo allows them to discover different countries and cultures at home or in school as they make the journey to Tokyo. As part of this, young people can unlock prizes to win for their school and families including school visits with Team GB and ParalympicsGB athletes, Nintendo Switches and Micro scooters.

Andrew Oliver, Assistant Headteacher at Pallister Park Primary School in Middlesbrough, said: “The big appeal of Travel to Tokyo at my school is that we run it as a whole school project where everyone including staff, students and families can all get involved. We wanted to get students motivated, get them back into good habits as they return to school and Travel to Tokyo was the perfect fit as anyone of any ability could do it.”

Mike Sharrock, Chief Executive of the British Paralympic Association: “It’s exciting to reach the final stage of Travel to Tokyo this summer term and to see the incredible progress over 1 million participants have made on their virtual journeys to Tokyo. Travel to Tokyo celebrates young people of any ability to get active in their own way and we can’t wait to have school teams support our athletes as we kick off the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games this summer.”

Neil Townshend, Chairman of the British Olympic Foundation, said: “We’re thrilled to see over 1.5 million participants be part of Travel to Tokyo. It’s so encouraging to see people get active from all across the UK and to join our athletes on their journey to the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games.”

Mike Diaper, Executive Director of Children, Young People and Tackling Inactivity, Sport England said: “It’s fantastic to see just how many youngsters and their families are getting active together through the Travel to Tokyo programme. Helping to hopefully set habits for life, schools, pupils and families have all worked so hard and achieved great accomplishments. I am so excited to see them complete their journey to Tokyo this summer.”

Discover the free school and family activities at getset.co.uk/travel-tokyo

Stay updated with the latest news on Twitter @GetSetCommunity and @GetSetClub on Instagram and follow the journey using #TTTYourway.