More children in Cherwell hit the recommended amount of exercise time last year, new figures show.

But just under half of children in England met the Chief Medical Officers’ guidelines of an hour or more of exercise a day, which Sport England said demonstrates the "challenge facing our country".

Figures from the organisation’s annual Active Lives survey found 52 per cent of children and young people in Cherwell were classed as 'active' – meeting the recommended amount of activity – in the 2022-23 academic year.

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It was up from 47 per cent in the previous academic year and in line with pre-pandemic levels in 2017-18.

Of the area's 362 respondents last year, 25 per cent were classed as 'fairly active' – meaning they did between 30 minutes to an hour of activity per day – while 23 per cent did less than half an hour of exercise a day.

Across England, 47 per cent of young people were active for an average of 60 minutes a day in the recent academic year. It is roughly the same proportion as the year before, but up from 43 per cent in 2017-18 when the survey began.

Tim Hollingsworth, chief executive of Sport England, said while the figures reveal some positives, they indicate more work must be done to get children and young people active.

He added: "The fact that fewer than half are meeting the Chief Medical Officers’ guidelines demonstrates the scale of challenge facing our country.”

 

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This story was written by Matthew Norman, he joined the team in 2022 as a Facebook community reporter.

Matthew covers Bicester and focuses on finding stories from diverse communities.

Get in touch with him by emailing: Matthew.norman@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter: @OxMailMattN1