This week, we had a long overdue catch up call with MOKI – the team committed to Moving Kids!
Why? Like Chris Dyson, Headteacher at Parklands Primary School in Leeds, we were buzzing like the proverbial fridge, following the pilot combining tags and trackers.
Check out the smiles of these incentivised kids…
The call with MOKI nudged us back to a carpool karaoke podcast podcast from Ryan at the PE Umbrella – which featured James Huggins, co-founder of MOKI! What followed was one pearl of wisdom after another. How many notes were made when we pulled over at the motorway service station?! Check out the podcast here.
Analogue and Digital Working Together
All of our team have ‘smart watches’ that record our moves. Not in a 1984 Big Brother way – but as a way to nudge us towards activity, especially on days when we are office-based. But what about moving the kids? How can we incentivise children to get more steps in over the course of the day?
During Tagtiv8 Days we are noticing increasing numbers of children wearing Fitbits or similar. Often there is friendly rivalry between the children – and indeed some of the teachers – as to how many steps they have achieved!
However, is this enough? Is there a better solution? Step forward MOKI.
Moving Kids – a Sensible Approach
The podcast references our friends at Thorner Primary School in Leeds. They set about trialling their Moki bands with one teacher and one class – in this case with Year 5. According to the teacher, “the boarding process is easy – it really is user-friendly.” As to the children, they loved it – especially when they were put into teams. The teacher challenged them to get a certain number of steps and then beat their previous bests – with even the more reluctant learners joining in. We love the fact that children take the lead in organising MOKI in their school – a shared ethos with our own ‘Move & Learn Champions’.
Impact of MOKI
In terms of impact, the data is tracked by the team at MOKI and the results make fascinating reading. As school leaders and teachers we need to ask ourselves Why:
- is the variability between individual children so large?
- are girls less active than boys?
- are there still many schools with an ‘inactive curriculum’?
- do we sit more on a Monday than other days?
For full details of Professor Dylan Thompson‘s initial findings, click here.
Moving Forwards with MOKI
If you want to find out more about fitness trackers for children, check out MOKI. Their ethos and approach definitely resonates with the team here at Tagtiv8. In our experience, nudge theory works. You can get in touch with MOKI here. Tell them we nudged you in their direction – we look forward to hearing how you get on with Moving Kids in your own settings.
Psssst – if you use the code MOKIREF400, you get a 10% discount. Simply click here.
Don’t forget to nudge others and pass this on…