Customer Story - Selby Abbey Primary School

Stacey Cannon is PE Lead at Selby Abbey School in North Yorkshire in the UK. Here she explains how Moki has helped power an active curriculum for the whole school.

The perfect PE & Sport Premium solution

For years, Stacey had been looking for a sustainable, long-term investment for the school’s PE & Sports Premium (PESP) funding from the government.

“I wanted something that would really excite the children and get every single one of them to enjoy physical activity at school. I'd been looking at pedometers, Fitbits and other similar step counters, but they simply weren’t practical for the whole classroom.

"I can't think of a single thing you could buy with your Sport Premium that would have as big an impact as Moki has had for us.”

Completely by chance, I saw an ad for Moki on Facebook, and I knew immediately it was just what I’d been looking for. I took it straight to our head the next day!

I can't think of a single thing you could buy with your Sport Premium that would have as big an impact as Moki has had for us.”

Active learning for the whole school

Initially, Stacey planned to trial Moki with her own class, before getting the rest of the school involved for a big activity push in the run up to Sport Relief. But once the kids had got a glimpse of Moki in action, she knew she’d have to bring the roll-out forward!

“From Day One, the children have been completely invested and incredibly excited. And it’s never, ever worn off! We have two classes in each year group, so Moki is perfect for running little day-to-day challenges, as well as whole school initiatives.

The children can get quite competitive, but they are also determined to improve the personal best step counts every day. Straight away, every child in the school was hitting their 30 minute targets for MVPA (moderate to vigorous physical activity).

"I remember the head teacher running up to me one day, saying: ‘You need to come outside and see the playground!’ 

I remember the head teacher running up to me one day, saying: ‘You need to come outside and see the playground!’ Every single child was on the move. It was just on another level to anything I’d seen before - everyone running around, moving about and playing games. It was great to see!” 

Everyone's happy, even Ofsted!

Active learning is at the heart of Ofsted’s objectives for primary school children. Teachers are encouraged to factor daily exercise into each day, but the logistics of fitting it in to a busy curriculum can be tough to overcome.

“The Daily Mile was an initiative we tried, where every pupil goes out and runs or walks a mile every day, but personally I have never been a fan. I know it works well for some but I think it would have put me off physical activity when I was younger. I just wouldn't have enjoyed exercise for the sake of exercise. But with Moki, the kids can do any sort of physical activity they choose, whether it's dancing, gymnastics, playing a bit of tennis or practising ball skills - and it's all captured by the bands and recorded.

Now I know that when Ofsted ask me how I know our strategy is working I can show them exactly how much activity the kids are doing. Moki is perfect as it gives you peace of mind that every child is getting the exercise they need - even the ones who have previously been reluctant to take part in more formal activities.”

Sport Relief gets the competitive juices flowing!

Soon after getting started with Moki, Stacey decided to make it a focal point for the school’s Sport Relief charity initiative. Individual and class challenges were set, as well as sports quizzes and other fun activities. Results, awards and prizes were then revealed in a special whole-school assembly at the end of the day.

“I have never seen the kids so motivated as they were that day! Every lesson had a physical element to it, the corridors were full of children getting in extra steps whenever they had a spare minute. Teachers were taking fractions lessons and geography out into the playground. There was just movement everywhere.

“The team at Moki are so supportive - they are always on hand to help you get the best out of the bands and the reports.”

I think the leading performer recorded 25,000 steps between 9am and 2pm! Certainly everyone smashed their MVPA targets and achieved the best Moki Grade. We were into the millions for cumulative steps that day - and it was great to see!”

“The team at Moki are so supportive - they are always on hand to help you get the best out of the bands and the reports.”

Stacey’s tips for getting the best out of Moki:

• All staff in our school also wear the Moki bands throughout the day to encourage them to be active role models for the children
• The class data is just as useful as the individual data to see where active learning is taking place
• Setting challenges is a great way to encourage physical activity
• The reports are very comprehensive and allow you to analyse different groups of pupils, so have a play around with them! 
• Moki is a fantastic resource for meeting the activity level guidelines set by Ofsted, so use data from the reports to show them how well your school is performing!

Using Moki at your school? Want to share your story with the community? We'd love to hear from you! Contact us.