Aibu to bring this up? - school p.e related

[hellswelshy]

My dd's are 9, and I don't know if I'm being precious about this or not, but they never seem to have P.E in school, despite being told at the beginning of every term they MUST have gym kit in school as it will be twice a week. Before Christmas their normal teacher was off for 4 weeks, and they only had sports once in this time. They were totally full of energy (Christmas excitement!)and I did think they could have done with the exercise but due to the circumstances thought maybe supply teachers wouldn't want to do this.

Now since they have been back, they have only done it once and my daughter advised me they were going to do it today but as the boys were noisy getting changed the teacher punished through whole class and cancelled the lesson!

Aibu to bring this up? And how should I go about this? I don't mind being told I am bu, but I feel P.E is important and shouldn't it be encouraged at primary age?

[OhSuckItUpDucky]

Go in and ask . It's part of the NC so they should be doing it

[hellswelshy]

Thanks. Would you approach the teacher first or headteacher? Its difficult to enquire without sounding accusatory but I think it needs clarifying. Is the fact she cancelled the lesson today due to some pupils behaviour the norm do you think?! I find it very hard to understand, surely most lessons would be 'cancelled' in that case!!

[2017frostydays]

Absolutely not bu, and before you go in check whether they are having regular Art lessons too, we had a year where that was dropped (v academically minded school that I think was pushing teachers to up the attainment). They're children for god's sake, not robots!

[2017frostydays]

And no, not a reason to cancel a lesson, that's not acceptable at all (unless the children would have been in danger which I imagine is unlikely).

[CryingShame]

At DS' school there is a seperate PE teacher, it's not their class teacher, so I'd take this to the head not to the class teacher. It's about how he / she ensures provision of this element of the curriculum within their school.

[hellswelshy]

Thank you for all the replies, really wasn't sure if I was just feeling grumpy about this. Their class teacher takes the p.e class, no separate teacher. She is fairly aloof to be honest so I need to approach it calmly as possible. Or would an email be better? Yes 2017 I kind of feel because they are already practising for tests in May, that p.e is seen as extra curriculum rather than an actual lesson. I'm sure they wouldn't cancel a maths lesson for example!

[SecondsLeft]

It always seemed weeks into term before they properly got changed for PE and did something at our primary...and then any excuse to cancel it. I bought years worth of daps and PE kit that remained pristine. It was OK in year 6 as they had a sporty teacher.

[RunWalkCrawlbutMove]

It is short sighted to ditch PE to push academia. Exercise and getting out of the classroom will benefit their bodies, minds and emotions. Many children at that age NEED to exercise to keep focused in school. My DC was one of those kids. He wasn't allowed to do lunchtime clubs inside (which annoyed me but anyway...) as he needed to move and burn off energy at break time.

I would email the teacher just to follow protocol but I doubt it is her decision. I am sure you will need to take it up with SLT

[Bumpsadaisie]

Gosh. I thought all state schools had to do 2 hrs per week?

Ours bus to the sports facilities at the local secondary once a week, bus to swimming lessons once a week and have one session of pe at school each week (all kids from yR to y6 get this asa minimum. Sometimes more on top.

[PebbleInTheMoonlight]

My daughter's school largely treats PE the same as all other subjects, they have one day a fortnight with the PE teacher (which helpfully gives the class teacher an admin day) then once a week they also have 'games' and play team sports for an hour in their houses mixed with another year.

I would definitely raise it as a concern and ask what the approach is and how they ensure it's rarely cancelled.

[hellswelshy]

Thank you,helpful responses. I will definitely raise this with their teacher in the first instance and hopefully get a positive response

[bumpertobumper]

Have you spoken to some of the other parents about it?
I totally agree that pe is important and you should raise with the teacher, but sometimes kids forget what they do in school...
Towards the end of last term ds1, who is also 9, told me they hadn't done any art all term. I obviously thought this was dreadful, was going to raise with the teacher, but shared my outrage with a parent of a classmate first, who told me that her child had told her of the many art projects they had done that term... And yes lots of nice pictures appeared at the end of term.
I talked to ds about it, he shrugged and said he forgot