Specialist edtech platform myphizz aims to improve health of Britain's children

The specialist edtech platform, myphizz has joined forces with Bishop Hedley High School in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales as the first stage of a planned rollout across the country.

myphizz, which launched in September 2021, is an app built for schools to engage pupils in an active curriculum.

Using a live leaderboard, children have the ability to set ‘phizz’ challenges in their classrooms or at home, comparing results across their school, as well as nationally.

A spokesman said: “Physical activity among pupils fell dramatically during the pandemic, with more than 31% of children undertaking less than 30 minutes of exercise a day; this is a huge contrast to Ofsted’s recommendations that pupils should engage in exercise for an average of at least 60 minutes per day across the week.”

Adrian Davies, a teacher at Bishop Hedley High School, who is leading the introduction of myphizz commented: “After spending almost two years in a home learning environment, many of our pupils increased the time they spent being static and we wanted to find a new way to get them moving.

“In secondary schools we need to be innovative to encourage pupils to engage and take part in group challenges. As myphizz is accessed directly from a PC or device, it has proved to be a great tactic to drive engagement with PE via a channel they are comfortable with.

“We have already seen pupils engaging with ‘phizzes’ which are fitness challenges set from the app and have even noticed pupils starting to set their own challenges. Young people are very competitive, especially with teachers, and having phizzes set by teachers is a great way to get pupils motivated to exercise.”

Anthony McBride, co-founder of myphizz, said: “By drawing on the expertise of schools, myphizz has been built to give pupils control over their own physical activity, whilst contributing towards the national curriculum’s physical education objectives. We’re absolutely thrilled that Bishop Hedley is seeing the benefits first hand of myphizz. myphizz provides a way for schools to continue communicating and engaging pupils in exercise whilst not in a school setting.”