Encouraging young girls to Move together with Nuffield Health

We’re excited to be supporting Nuffield Health to help launch their new Move together programme - offering fun, free and inclusive exercise classes for 11-16 year olds throughout the summer holidays.

Through our work with Sport England and Women in Sport, at Hopscotch we are well versed in the barriers that prevent girls’ participation in sport and contribute to the drop off in physical activity as girls enter their teens. Whilst there are universal issues affecting teenage girls’ activity levels – simply put, breasts, periods, and body image - for some groups there are additional barriers. The cost-of-living crisis may have a significant impact on access to sport – especially among the least affluent families (who already are less likely to be active according to Sport England data) – and for many, school is the only place they can access sporting facilities.

According to Women in Sport, 37% of girls only do sport and physical activity in school PE (compared with 27% of boys)*. To help combat this, we’re thrilled to be working with Nuffield Health, the UK’s largest healthcare charity, to help launch their Move together programme - offering fun, inclusive and free exercise classes for 11-16 year olds in over 100 sites across the UK.

The programme provides the opportunity to participate in free sessions at community centres and local parks. The focus is on a fun, judgment-free approach to exercise and creating an environment where girls – alongside their family and friends – can discover new disciplines that they might not try at school.

As part of this work, we commissioned a survey for Nuffield Health of 2,000 11-16-years olds and 2,000 parents, which revealed that despite the recent splash of news coverage on women in sport following the Lionesses’ Euros win, just 12% of girls aged 11-16 plan to play sport this summer holidays and 28% of parents anticipate their daughters will stay indoors between 4-7 days every week.

As nearly half of young girls said they want to spend their summer holidays seeing their friends, the Move together initiative aims to provide a safe, confidence-boosting environment for young women to come together and be encouraged to get active.

Hopscotch has been working closely with the Nuffield Health team to bring this project to life using our insight and expertise around engaging disengaged teenage girls. From developing a brand identity, to creating training materials for Nuffield Health colleagues to encourage inclusive sessions, and of course, marketing the programme directly to young girls and their parents and carers to drive awareness and encourage sign ups.

The marketing activity includes targeted email marketing to schools near session locations and relevant community organisations such as housing associations and local authorities. There is also a paid social media campaign aiming to reach both parents and young people across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat. A PPC campaign and influencer marketing will also reach new audiences of both parents and young people in support of a full-scale national print, online and broadcast PR campaign which has already reached over 7 million people.

We can’t wait to see the impact this programme has for teenage girls through our supporting evaluation work which is currently in field. It’s been fantastic to lead another social impact programme that is committed to supporting girls and tackling the barriers they face that prevent them from engaging with physical activity.

Hosted in local parks and community hubs near Nuffield Health centres, classes will be offered in a range of disciplines including boxing, Pilates, yoga, dance, Zumba and circuits. Parents, guardians, and carers can easily book 11–16-year-olds onto a class here, or sign up at their local Nuffield Health centre.

*Women In Sport (2021) Reframing sport for teenage girls: Tackling teenage disengagement