Schools Need Exercise to Improve Exam Grades

"If exercise came in pill form, it would be plastered across the front page, hailed as the blockbuster drug of the century". Ratey and Hagerman

Schools have often implied a link between academic performance and physical activity.  Every summer term, the debate rages as to whether playing summer sports enhances or impedes exam performance. Missing lessons for sports fixtures is one of the all-time leaders of intra colleague friction.

Given this, it is perhaps surprising that the abundant science is not leveraged to clarify the facts regarding the undisputed benefits of exercise to learning.  Schools devote a significant amount of time to both physical activity and academic learning - and oddly little to the link between the two.

So, how does exercise benefit learning?  The following are a few of those ways:

Firstly, in addition to priming the state of mind (studies show that children learn better immediately following exercise), exercise also influences learning directly (and permanently) at the cellular level.  The plasticity of the brain is at the heart of this.  Increased neurotransmitter activity improves attention and long term memory, but also causes synapses to swell and make stronger connections.  Exercise stimulates the production of Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF), the master molecule of the learning process, which increases learning by stimulating neuron growth.  Rate of leaning correlates positively with enhanced levels of BDNF.  Activity improves stem cell production in the hippocampus, which in turn enhances memory.

Studies in American and Canada show that replacing academic lessons with physical activity has positive impacts on test scores, as do higher levels of physical fitness.  California schools conclusively show that participation in the daily FitnessGram programme improved body mass and aerobic fitness, and also correlated with improved scores on standardised tests.  The PE4Life programme participants improved test scores by on average 18%.  Surely if a revision guide could be shown to have this degree of impact on exam performance, there would be a queue down the street to WH Smith to buy it

But it doesn't finish there.  At a time when mental health issues are an an increasing concern in schools, exercise reduces anxiety through Seratonin production, and controls the production of the stressor cortisol, which is at the root of depression and other forms of stress.  A cause of depression is low levels of BDNF, which allows cortisol to shrink the hippocampus - by up to an amazing 15%

So, what is the value of this science?  Firstly, it would allow schools to communicate factually with parents, teachers and pupils about the purpose of organisational commitment to physical activity.  And clarify the misconception that academic progress is not a simple correlation with time spent in the classroom.  This news is not simply that participation in games does not harm academic performance.  It is much more positive than that: it positively enhances it - and the fact has been proved conclusively in a range of studies using fMRI imagery.

With many pupils spending more time on games than Maths, a justification beyond winning Netball matches might be necessary to convince parents of the value of this time investment.  The science is there to inform a benefit-led programme - but it is curiously absent from the standard justifications that schools offer.