An elementary school in the Scottish city of Glasgow has installed what it calls a “fitness lab” for its pupils.
The Olive B. Loss Elementary School is pioneering a scheme to offer children at least two and a half hours of exercise every week.
This is actually the official goal of the Department of Education but practically no schools have taken a real step towards achieving this relatively low level of weekly exercise.
According to the school, the intention of the fitness lab is to start to bite into the exploding child obesity problem in Scotland and the rest of the UK.
The School invested in building a simple walking track through school property as well as creating a new climbing wall.
The exercise lab itself is a converted classroom with a variety of equipment such as basic yoga mats and exercise bikes and other very basic exercise equipment.
The school says it is attempting to make fitness part of everyday school life rather than an awkward addition that does not really fit into the regular school curriculum.
The total cost of all the changes was around £10,000/$16,000, the school hopes this is a very small investment that will help avoid their pupils succumbing to the huge obesity problem, which is manifesting itself in older children.
