Celebrating a fifth year of partnership, Public Health England (PHE) and Disney UK launched a brand new national Change4Life programme to encourage children to Train Like A Jedi. Using the excitement of Star Wars and its characters, the programme aims to make physical activity fun and inspire children to move more, helping them learn and master six key Jedi-inspired skills. The moves are all specially designed to increase children’s heart rates and relate to skills such as technique, strength, stamina, speed, agility and mastery.
Building a new generation of Resistance recruits, British taekwondo athlete and double Olympic gold medallist Jade Jones, leads children through the sequence of moves in a play along video, which also features a special appearance from BB-8. In addition, free Star Wars themed packs with mini active challenges for the summer holidays were made available through primary schools. The Train Like A Jedi activity can be done in 10 minute bursts anytime and anywhere and will help children meet the daily recommended physical activity guidelines they need for healthy development and to maintain a healthy weight.
To launch the programme before the start of the school holidays, Jade Jones visited a south London school to take a group of young students through the Jedi-inspired moves. She was joined on the day by a special guest, ex-pupil and Star Wars actor John Boyega, who surprised the kids and helped lead the activity to get their hearts pumping.
The Change4Life programme has been designed following joint research by PHE and Disney which found that more than four in five children (82%) would be inspired to move more if they saw their favourite characters being active. 2018 marks the fifth year PHE and Disney have worked together to use the power of Disney storytelling to inspire children to get active, with an estimated 300 million extra minutes of activity inspired to date. The play along video and more details can be found at https://www.nhs.uk/change4life.