Stockport Creating Active Schools (CAS): A Case Story of Success and Impact

By GM Moving | 30 January 2025 | TAGS: youth, Stockport, creating active schools, cas, schools

What began as a pilot project in a couple of Stockport schools has blossomed into a borough-wide movement aimed at ensuring children are more active, both during school hours and beyond. This has had a profound impact on the community, promoting a sustainable shift in school culture around physical activity, health, and well-being.

Setting the Context

The Creating Active Schools (CAS) framework was introduced as a pilot phase in 2023. This framework uses a whole school approach, to address the issue of increasing the time children are active and healthy during a school day. The aim was to provide schools with an opportunity to embed and prioritise physical activity as a key driver to improve the well-being of children and young people in Greater Manchester. The goal was to integrate physical activity into daily school life, with a specific focus on the '60 Active Minutes' agenda - a key School Games priority and outcome, ensuring that children are active for at least 60 minutes a day, not just in PE lessons but throughout the school day.

A Tailored Approach to CPD

A key success of adopting the CAS framework has been its ability to adapt to the unique needs of each school. This initially targeted two schools, selected based on their levels of deprivation and their strong leadership teams (SLT). Both schools received targeted support, with CAS leaders sitting down with staff to help them complete a profiling tool that assessed their current physical activity practices.

To ensure sustainability, Stockport's CAS team revamped the process. They designed a half-day CPD course that was more accessible to schools, incorporating a practical approach that involved SLT and Primary Link Teachers (PLTs) collaborating on action plans during the session. The course was streamlined, to make the process quicker and more manageable.

This approach not only improved the accessibility to adopt the CAS framework, but also made it more engaging. By incorporating active participation, such as discussing one action they could take back to school, staff were able to create immediate impact and reflect on how to improve physical activity levels in their schools.

Success Indicators: The Results So Far

The adoption of the CAS framework has seen growing success across Stockport, with more schools choosing to implement this approach each year. From the outset, the focus was on not just increasing activity levels but also ensuring long-term cultural change. One of the standout outcomes has been the integration of physical activity beyond traditional PE lessons. For example, a primary school now implements active playtimes for all students, which has become embedded in school culture, even with leadership changes.

This whole school approach has directly contributed to meeting the 60 Active Minutes goal, with a focus on creating physical activity opportunities during informal and curriculum time. One area of particular success has been integrating "brain breaks" into the classroom, encouraging physical movement during lessons like maths and English. The positive feedback from schools highlights how small changes can have a significant impact on the health and well-being of children.

Impact on Children and Young People

Where schools have adopted a whole school approach this has provided children with more opportunities to be active throughout the day, promoting not just physical health but mental well-being. By involving a wide range of stakeholders, including SLT and staff, CAS has fostered a culture of collaboration and accountability. Schools are working together to share best practices, with some schools even developing their own unique approaches—such as daily active routines when the bell rings. This variety ensures that the approach is tailored to the specific needs of each school, ensuring broad engagement and long-term impact.

A more active approach has also addressed inequalities, especially for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), and is expanding to include more schools, including secondary schools, to widen its reach.

Looking Forward: Expanding the Impact

Looking ahead, Stockport is aiming to build on its success by expanding the principles of the CAS framework further. One of the key goals is to engage secondary schools, which will provide an opportunity to ensure that physical activity continues to be prioritised as children transition to higher education.

CAS’ success is underpinned by a focus on sustainability. By making small, incremental changes that are easy to implement, the initiative ensures that physical activity becomes a natural and embedded part of school life. The involvement of leadership teams, as well as regular networking and practice sharing, has helped create a supportive community of schools that are collectively working towards the same goal: improving the health and well-being of children across Stockport.

Conclusion

Lee Sanders, from Stockport Shapes Alliance said,

"We wanted to think of a way to expand and grow CAS. We felt that we could do this by focusing on those permanent changes of habit. We wanted schools to create sustainable, cultural changes, rather than relying on short-term projects or external support. The focus on internal support, embedding active habits, and engaging the entire school community, including SLT and staff, contrasts with past approaches that may have been more fragmented or isolated. The approach is about lasting impact across all aspects of school life, not just isolated physical activities or short-term projects.”

Stockport’s CAS success, is a powerful example of how a local and place-based approach can make a lasting impact on the physical activity levels of children. With clear success indicators and a strong emphasis on sustainability, CAS is helping create healthier, more active children and young people—empowering schools to make physical activity an integral part of daily life, not just a box to tick. This is a model of success that could inspire other areas to take action and invest in the long-term well-being of their pupils.