To think that schools should have PE more than once a week

[ReallyTired]

My daughter's school has PE in one two hour block so that the teachers can have their non contact time in a two hour block. There is an arguement that the children spend more of their time running about and less of their time changing. However I feel that one two hour PE session a week is not enough for fitness.

Its interesting to see the chinese teachers making the children start the day with exercises. I would not want children to have chinese style PE lessons, but there is a lot to be said for regular PE. I feel that children who are struggling with PE should have a complusory after school PE lessons.

[Thatsafunnyface]

I agree, physical exercise is important for mental health and general well being and a good habit to get into.

[treaclesoda]

Compulsory after school PE lessons? For the 'crime' of not being good at catching a ball, or struggling to do the long jump? Not being good at the stuff they do in school PE doesn't have any reflection on your fitness or activity levels.

[theconstantvacuumer]

Why is it the school's job to make sure children are getting enough exercise? Surely this is up to us parents?!

[Spartans]

So PE detention?

I really disagree with this. However I do agree there should be more in schools. Our school does it at least twice a week, more in the summer.

But I also think parents should do more of their kids are not active enough as well.

[thehumanjam]

I think your case is unusual. Most schools have PE twice a week for one hour at a time.

I like the suggestion of compulsory after school sports activities. Most secondary schools are open until 5 for various activities and to enable access to use the LRC. Why not formalise it and make it compulsory to stay until that time? Twice a week they can take part in sports and on the other two days they can either do extra curricula clubs or homework club with an early finish on Friday. I don't work in a senior school so maybe this idea isn't workable.

[wankerchief]

My son's got dyspraxia should he get compulsory extra lessons?


It's up to the parents not the school, we can't keep blaming everything on the schools

[LokiBear]

What would you put PE in place of? Maths? English? Not sure that would be workable. Most schools offer at least one sports club at lunch time. My school offers three different activities every lunchtime (720 pupils). Pupils need to decide for themselves if they want to participate but the opportunity is there.

[GuybrushThreepwoodMightyPirate]

Who is going to staff all those extra after school clubs thehumanjam?

How about parents are responsible for their children's physical exercise opportunities and school PE is an additional bonus rather than the only time they break a sweat?

[Betsyblue]

I think that some parents should actually take then opportunity to parent for once and make sure their children get enough exercise, rather than pass everything off to the schools.

It astounds me that some parents think that everything should be up to the school! Why can't parents make sure their kids are doing enough exercise daily?

[MashaMisha]

Compulsory after school PE lessons!
Maybe any child struggling with any subject should have to have compulsory after school lessons. Maths, English, Science...

It's not a great idea to punish people for not being good at something - and there's no way something like that wouldn't be viewed as a punishment by students. And anyway who would pay for all the overtime for the teachers?

My daughter will never be good at PE. She's enthusiastic, she tries hard, she gets plenty of exercise, her PE teacher is brilliant at managing to include her with the rest of the class so that she actually enjoys it.

Her motor and balance skills are severely delayed, she's hugely restricted in what she can do without help, and even with the things she can do alone, she will always be the slowest. She can't help it, that's just the way her body is.

Stigmatising her with compulsory lessons would not be the way forward. We need to find ways to make people enjoy physical exercise and want to do it, not punish them for not coming up to standard.

[Pastaeater]

Who wants compulsory PE? Horrible!
This would massively put a lot of children off sports - even more than are put off at the moment by poorly run school PE lessons...

However, OP, one 2 hour session a week is unusual. At the primary school I work in children get a 1 hour PE session, then either a 1 hour swimming lesson, or cricket or tag rugby session (depending on the time of year) plus other non compulsory activities such as mountain biking, multi sports, archery etc. They also do 15 minutes skipping every morning which is very good exercise. I think schools are trying to add in some more unusual activities (such as mountain biking) to encourage the more "non-sporty" child to get involved and get fit.

[thehumanjam]

I said it might not be workable. They are already offered daily at my sons school but I'm not sure what the take up is. Ds does 2 extra sporting activities a week and so do most of his friends. Perhaps it's already happening for most kids.

[ItsAllGoingToBeFine]

Some schools now do a daily mile which is a great idea:

St Ninian’s Primary School in Stirling has a unique approach to children’s fitness and obesity that has attracted national and international praise from healthcare experts.

The school pioneered the daily mile three-and-half years ago.

The whole school, from nursery to primary seven, run or walk a mile each day around the school’s track, which is affectionately known as the Yellow Brick Road. Since then, many other areas have followed suit.

Last month head teacher Elaine Wyllie presented the initiative to medical health experts from across the world at the annual Institute of Healthcare Improvement conference, on behalf of 100 Million Healthier Lives.

In her keynote speech, she described the daily mile as an exemplary way of transforming children’s health and wellbeing. Wyllie also recently gave a presentation on the initiative at a Raising Attainment for All event.

Last year Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Aileen Keel visited the school to see the daily mile in action and said it was such a successful means of tackling obesity in youngsters that it should be happening everywhere.

Wyllie said the daily mile had been an outstanding success and was popular with children, parents and staff. She said: “The children run or walk one mile, or 15 minutes, every day, in almost all weather. There is no need for equipment or even a change of clothes, and there have been clear improvements in their fitness and focus in the classroom. They come back in from their daily mile red-cheeked and puffed-out, having exercised in the fresh air. The benefits are there to see.

“The school nurse recently reported that there are no overweight primary ones in the school. We think this could be because the children have been participating since nursery.”
www.thenational.scot/news/obesity-experts-say-scotland-should-follow-mexico-with-sugar-taxes-to-fund-child-health-projects.3735

[swimmerforlife]

YANBU. Not everyone hates P.E. I for one valued and loved P.E as we got to try different sports that I wouldn't have been able to otherwise. It's good for having a beak from the core subjects and you learn stuff like team work, not just fitness.

When I was at school we got 2x 50min lesson.

[treaclesoda]

A daily brisk walk sounds a lot more productive than compulsory after school PE for children who are already struggling at PE. It is really humiliating being the child that no one wants in their team because you can't run fast enough, or you can't catch a ball. And shitty PE teachers claiming that inability to run fast enough is down to laziness isn't exactly helpful. It is baffling to me that anyone would think that children 'struggle' with PE because they are too lazy. Everyone wants to be the child who wins, and who people want on their team. If you see a child, particularly a teenager, refusing to make an effort in PE I would bet my life that the reason is because they have been embarassed so many times that it is easier to cope with being perceived as 'lazy' than to face the humiliation of trying your best and still have people laugh at your inability to do stuff that comes naturally to others.

[AuntieStella]

Our primary offered extra sessions for handwriting, and some literacy and maths issues. Presumably the revulsion for additional PE for those needing extra input extends to those subjects as well?

Yes, I think timetabling two hour-long sessions per week is perfectly achievable, and agree with OP that it is preferable to one 2-hour session (ie neutral in terms of amount of time allocated).

[treaclesoda]

But reading and writing are important life skills. The ability to do school PE isn't.

[hstar1995]

I absolutely loathed PE in school, yet was always fit and active - I hated the competitive nature. When I was a teenager we were given the choice of normal PE or an hour spent in the gym (I went there from age 14). I loved PE lessons after that. I was rubbish at badminton, tennis, panicked in games such as netball or rugby yet give me a treadmill, step up machine and bike and I was much happier. I think physical exercise does need increasing, but competitive sports are not the way to do it. I dont know what is, a daily walk perhaps?

[Bunbaker]

"Most schools offer at least one sports club at lunch time."

Ha ha ha ha. Most secondary schools have much shorter lunch breaks these days and there is no time to get changed, do some PE, get changed again and have something to eat. DD's lunch break is 40 minutes.

[drudgetrudy]

This depends what form the PE takes. More and more competitive sport for kids who struggle with it will only put them off. It's more up to the parent's to find an physical activity the child enjoys and encourage it outside school.

[treaclesoda]

Maybe school is different now, I hope it is, but we never had a PE 'lesson' in the way that you had lessons in other subjects. We were just told to 'run the cross country' or 'do the long jump' with no advice on how to actually do that. eg pacing yourself, jumping a particular way

[balletgirlmum]

I think that is unusual. Ds has PE twice a week in primary (3 times every fortnight if you include swimming ) & it will be similar in secondary.

Dd admittedly doesn't do PE at all but she does have dance class/stretch/pilates every day.

I notice a distinct difference in ds's concentration & behaviour when he's done excercises

[Penfold007]

Compulsory after school for those 'not very good at PE' sounds awful. Personally I think it's mine and DHs responsibility to encourage physical activity not the already hard pressed teachers job.