PANCO
Physical and Nutrition Coordinator
The PANCo promotes positive nutrition: By focusing on achieving a whole setting environment that promotes healthy eating for children and their families.
They promote physical activities: By having an understanding of the importance of children’s physical development and emphasizing the skills and tools required to ensure children can access a wide range of activities and active play.
Change is managed: By examining factors which influence well-being within the setting and focusing on strategies for implementing change that encourage healthy nutrition and activity.
The aim is to:
- Put the well-being of the child at the center of practice by developing a specialist PANCO role.
- By supporting the wellbeing of the children, families and staff. By promoting the framework and spreading the knowledge through activities.
- By working together as a whole setting establishing close working relationships with a range of different partners which will include other professionals.
Physical Activity
The government recommendation is that pre-school age children SHOULD be active for at least 3 hours, spread out throughout their day.
Currently, nationally in the age range of 2-4 year olds only 9% of boys and 10% of girls achieve the governments recommended levels of physical activity.
Weight Matters
- One in five children in Reception (age 4-5 years) is overweight or obese.
- By Year 6 (age 10-11 years) this has risen to 1 in 3!
- In 2015 62.9% of adults in the UK were overweight or obese (67.8% men and 58.1% women)
Fat, Salt and Sugar!
Fat, salt and sugar are all needed as part of a healthy, balanced diet. However, as a nation we eat far too much which can have a negative effect on health.
FAT – too much can lead to weight gain, high cholesterol. It can also increase the risk of heart disease and stroke.
SALT – too much increases risk of high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke.
SUGAR – too much can lead to weight gain and tooth decay.
Authority Schemes
Central Bedfordshire Council and the government have several schemes in place to promote good nutrition and physical activities in the Under 5's. There are also schemes available for children over 5 and their families.
Here are some of the following Schemes: HENRY, Live well Plate, Change for Life, Xplorers, Eat Better-Start Better.
My Smile is a local initiative that Toddington Childcare & Forest School has been accredited and awarded certification to carry out supervised tooth brushing for 3 and 4 years olds.
My Smile is a supervised group activity where the children are encouraged to brush their own teeth once a day, we always gain parental consent for each child. Tooth brushing is a group adult lead activity which involves the children taking charge of their own brushing, staff will train children the correct technique of brushing teeth which is a skill they can take into adulthood. While the children are brushing, staff members sing songs promoting tooth brushing and good oral health. Staff have been trained in how to store the tooth brushes and how to eliminate cross contamination.
All brushes are cleaned daily after brushing and kept in a specially designed toothbrush bus, children learn the colour of their brush and which animal character relates to their specific brush. Our setting supports and promotes the importance of good oral health care, we have a celebrations policy that works alongside this and is tooth friendly. All staff embrace how important this activity is for the children as 17.7% of 5-year-old in Central Bedfordshire already have tooth decay. Our children enjoy taking part in tooth brushing as it promotes their independence and self-care and has become an integral part of their daily routine.
As part of our PANCo initiative, Toddington Childcare & Forest School introduced ‘Teddy Tennis’, a multi-sports programme for children aged 2-5 years. We run a Teddy Tennis session once a week for both our Zebra and Giraffe Room children to help promote their physical activity levels, which also helps to support building our children’s confidence, turn taking and team and social skills.
Sport Music and Fun for the Very Young
Visual Learning
Auditory Learning
Kinesthetic Learning
