CHAPTER SIX: PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT
Theme 2: Sub-theme 2: The school facilities
Another factor which falls under the physical environment theme and that may affect children’s body weight is the school facilities. I found during my observation that the private schools were very distinguished with regard to school facilities and that private school showed evidence of money being spent in order to create a good school environment, starting with the high cost of installation and repair of the central air conditioning and modern lifts in the school building. The private school also place great importance on their indoor and outdoor playgrounds. They have a large building for the gym, which contains a sizeable swimming pool and a place for playing football.
“We entered the sports club. It was really distinguished by many things such as the presence of a large swimming pool”
“The school has a gym and underground floor, which contains a large hall, equipped for use in sporting activities”
(Field notes, Private School)
The private school also has a large open stadium with good facilities and two play areas. The two play areas have carpet on their floors to protect the students when they play, and it covers the surface to protect the children from sunlight.
“I saw a big stadium in front of the school building with many stairs for sitting to watch the match. Some of the places were covered to protect students from sunlight and some were not”
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“I saw a group of students wearing sports clothes at small stadiums with their teacher”
(Field notes, Private School)
The private school opens its facilities to the students after school time. Therefore, participants noticed that some of the students used the facilities during school time and after school, which is a good way to support students in maintaining their regular physical activities, as quoted below.
“Many students go to sports clubs, and we have a gym at the school that is open at school time and afternoons for those who have
memberships, and we have many students attending in the afternoons because they want to lose weight.”
(PT3. Teacher Interview, Private school)
The action mentioned above is supported by six out of nine students who participated in this study from the private school. They recommended doing sport to maintain a healthy body weight.
“To do different type of sport at home or at the backyard such as abdominal sports, back sports and jump.”
“Do a lot of sport that helps the circulatory system to work better.”
(Students interviews, Private School)
School physical environments in the Islamic and the public schools were not designed in a way that supports students’ physical activities in different weather conditions, because the weather can prevent students’ from taking part. One participant mentioned that the weather can stand as a barrier against playing and doing some physical activities, as quoted below.
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"As we all know the Makkah temperature is very hot, and it is not suitable for kids to go out of the house and play in their backyard or race freely in front of their houses as in other countries such as Egypt, and the normal situation of children here is to relax under air
conditioning for long time."
(P2T3. Teacher Interview, Private school)
School facilities at the Islamic and the public school were not in a good condition compared to facilities at the private school. The Islamic and the public school do not have facilities such as a swimming pool, gym and library. Other facilities, such as outdoor areas, were not prepared well and some facilities are restricted, such as the school lobby. The school lobby at the Islamic and the public school should function as an indoor playground. However, the lobby in both schools was inadequate. In both schools, the lobby was covered with a mosque carpet. The difference between the two schools is that the lobby in the Islamic school was surrounded by a barrier to keep the carpet clean. This action limited the space available and this affected the students’ physical activities by preventing them from moving around, as quoted below.
“When I entered the Islamic school, I noticed that the school lobby was covered by carpet. It was surrounded by ironwork a half-metre. This action works as a barrier for students from rapid entry to keep the place clean for praying and if the students want to cross the lobby to the other side, they will stop and remove their shoes. Some students ignore this instruction and they just jump and run to the other side.”
(Field notes, Public School)
The function of a school lobby is to give free space for students to walk around within the school however, students’ physical movement at the Islamic and the public school lobby was
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limited and I noticed that the air inside the lobby of both schools was hot. Because the weather outside was very hot and the air conditioners were too old and insufficient to cover the lobby, this can be a barrier to students’ physical movement, as quoted below.
“The school's atmosphere was a little hot, because there is no central air conditioner but separate air conditioners. There are limited air conditioners inside the school lobby and they were not enough to cover the space. So walking in the school was inconvenient”
(Field notes, Public School)
The school administration of both the public and the Islamic school were not interested in the outdoor facilities. . The public school has a large schoolyard with two sections. In the first section, there is a furnished playground area, this area is covered to protect students from the direct sun and to enable students to be physically active. The second section is not covered or furnished and this limits physical activity. The situation at the Islamic school was worse. I saw a playground outside, but there was no grass so it would not be suitable for football. This makes it difficult for students to enjoy playing, running and walking, as quoted below.
“The Islamic school has four floors and no car parking and the outside school facilities offer one playground which is not prepared well to play.
When I walked inside the Islamic school, I looked for a school library and sport facilities. I could not find it, so I decided to ask the teacher about it to guide me to it. I asked one teacher who walked close to me, he stopped walking and looked at me with his smiling face and he said
‘sorry man we don’t have a library and we don’t have inside sport facilities’. I said thank you and continued searching for that.
Unfortunately, in time I concluded that he was right.”
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(Field notes, Islamic School)
It is clear that the Islamic school facilities do not support physical exercise among the students, consequently the students have little or no opportunity to participate in physical activities for many reasons. Firstly, the school has no good facilities. Secondly, there is a huge number of students at the school. However, ten out of twelve students from the Islamic school who participated in this study recommended doing sport and running to decrease body weight.
“Run daily in the street”
“Doing sports”
“Doing sports and eat little”
“Continue sports, not overeating and continue moving”
“Doing sports”
(Students interviews, Islamic School)
Physical environment is important in the Islamic and the public school to motivate students to increase physical movement. Eight out of twelve students who participated in this study from the Islamic school recommended doing sport to maintain a healthy body weight.
“Doing sports and eat healthy food”
“Amm, playing sports, eat and do sports to burn the food”
“Eat fruits, do sports and physical exercises”
(Student interviews, Islamic School)
Summary
It is clear that school facilities are one of the factors that may affect children’s body weight.
This sub-theme has many distinctive aspects in the private school. For example, the school
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has indoor facilities such as a swimming pool and sports area. These facilities support students to be more physically active, because the school keeps the physical activity sessions running as usual despite weather changes. In addition, the students in the private school can use these facilities after school time. Building these facilities and opening them for the students to use when school closes for the day was a good decision by the school. It helps to support students maintain a healthy body weight. However, this sub-theme also has many negative aspects in the public and the Islamic school. Both schools have poor facilities and some restrictive rules. For example, there were barriers to using the school lobby as the students could not move easily inside it. In addition, the outdoor sports facility was not prepared for use in extreme weather conditions. These poor facilities can present barriers to students’ physical activity. It is also clear that the weather is one of the factors in the schools that may affect children’s body weight. This sub-theme has many negative aspects particularly in the Islamic and the public school. The outdoor sports facility in both schools is not prepared for use in varying weather conditions. This poor facility can present a barrier to students’ physical activity. In contrast, the indoor and outdoor facilities at the private school support students in becoming more physically active, the school keeps the physical activity sessions continuing as usual despite weather changes. In addition, the students in the private school can use these facilities even after school time.
Conclusion
The previous chapter described the theme of physical environment factors that may affect children’s body weight. The chapter consisted of two sub-themes. The sub-themes were school canteens and school facilities. The data analysis shows many important points about the private, public and Islamic school physical environment. Physical environment through school canteen and school facilities can have an impact on four clusters of the
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Foresight Obesity System Map, these are the individual activity cluster and the physical activity environment cluster, as shown in the diagram below.
It is clear that the school canteen infrastructure indirectly affects children’s body weight, particularly in the Islamic and the public school, because students in both schools suffered when ordering and choosing their food from the school canteen and the food was limited in quantity and poor in quality. Moreover, there were no chairs and tables for the students to sit and have their meal. The significant issue is that one teacher mentioned the difference between what is officially written by the Ministry of Education as guidelines for school canteens and what the schools are practising. Teachers from all schools believe that changes to the canteen situation requires an integrated effort and it is not their responsibility.
The school facilities are a factor that may affect children’s body weight. This sub-theme had many distinctive aspects in the private school; for example, the school has indoor facilities such as a swimming pool and sports area. However, the public and the Islamic schools had poor sports facilities and restrictive rules were in place to control students’ movements.
Moreover, the outdoor sports facility was not prepared for use in varying weather conditions. Poor facilities can present barriers to students’ physical activity. Finally, weather
The physical activity environment cluster School facilities
The individual activity cluster
School canteen Physical environment
The food consumption cluster The food production cluster
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is one of the factors that may affect children’s body weight in the schools by restricting their physical activities both inside and outside. Therefore, schools should consider designing the school facilities in order to cope with the weather conditions of that area.
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