To think David Cameron has got it completely and utterly wrong re sport in schools,a competitive ethos should come after raising levels and a love of sport?itness

[Prarieflower]

Thats it really.Fat lot of good creating a more competitive ethos will do if the maj of teenagers are unfit and loath PE. Competition actually puts many children off sport full stop.

I went to secondary school in the 80s when non sporty types were ridiculed and made to feel like failures during PE lessons and Sports Day. Competition ruled over all else,nobody did sport just for enjoyment or just to maintain fitness.As a result I and many others did all we could to avoid PE lessons and thought we hated all sport.

For years I did nothing and then I discovered I enjoyed hiking,cycling and swimming-just for me.Who knows, if any had been provided and encouraged just for fitness I may well have gone on to take part in competitive events.Having better fitness levels for a start would have made that more likely.

I think schools should be encouraged to help pupils to pick sports they enjoy,they should be expected to take part in something of their choice more frequently. There should be a wide range linked to off school sites and red tape should be cut. There should be better facilities and the selling off of school fields stopped. There should be access to tasters in the specialised stuff like the dreaded javelin and shot put(sp?) which I hated. Sports Day which only celebrates athletics should be only for those that are interested and want to take part.Those that want to go the gym or have a swim should be able to do just that.Other sports should be celebrated not just athletics.

My kids are far more positive re PE than I ever was so I think schools of today are doing something right,it just needs to be extended further.

David Cameron simply doesn't have a clue re state school provision and it's needs.

Not very knowledgeable re sport so I'll await my flaming.I'm just observing and speaking as a previous sport avoider and now as a mum.

I thought I made it clear - less able are encourage (and required) to participate in house teams.

Also don't understand this idea that everyone needs to feel like a winner, of course only the best are on the teams. Only the best academically get the best marks or to be in the top set.

Most schools have A teams and then lower levels teams.

I'm not sure I agree with only letting those interested have a go at certain things. Seems almost like saying you can decide if you're no good at something without even trying.

I used to teach outdoor education and I've encountered children who at 10/11 have already written themselves off with respect to anything vaguely sporting. Some of them would have preferred to sit out and not even try, if there hadn't been an emphasis on giving everything a go they wouldn't have discovered that actually they're quite good at archery or climbing etc. (or just not being the worst is a major boost of self confidence).

ClaireRacing talent scounts are looking at local clubs but if the parents cant be bothered to take them to the clubs then their potential is going to be missed.

You cant leave it for the teachers to do

That already happens in state schools.Requiring isn't encouraging.I thought perhaps your school was doing something to make the less able want to take part and improve.

A PE teacher can impress upon the parents how talented their child is and it would be nothing short of criminal to not nurture this talent.

If the PE teacher can't be bothered going the extra mile, that is the problem.

When i was at school i always wished that PE was divided into sets in the same way as maths etc. I was a very overweight child (and i was by no means the only one) but i was expected to keep up with the much healthier fitter children which made PE actually impossible - there was a group of about 8 of us in my year who used to be excluded because we were not fit enough and then of course there were various levels above us. The ones at the bottom couldnt take part (we were told to sit at the edge of the field). The ones at the top were bored and not pushed at all.
I really wanted to be fitter/thinner but at the age of 11 or 12 i had no idea how to go abotu that so a few lessons in healthy eating or just excersize we could do (walking or playing games without being laughed at!) would have been brilliant. The really able children could have done real sport then without being held back with a class between. There were already 3 classes so why didnt they stream them?.

my older boy is in a sen school and they do encourage all pupils to take part no matter how able. He has taken part in a number of different events and he doesn't even like sport but they always find something he is willing to do.

Yanbu, I totally agree with you OP. My favourite sports are those you can do without a team and don't have to be competitive, eg swimming, cycling, skiing, sailing etc. To me, racing in those sports takes the enjoyment out of it! Cycling is about exploring the countryside. Swimming (outdoor if poss) is about loving the sensation of sun on skin and being in the water. Sailing is about navigating somewhere you couldn't get to by road! Agree PE does not have to be about "winning" any more than any other subject, that's daft.

They do want to take part because they are part of a team.

I thought the point of the PM was in response to the fact that athletes from public school education are disproportionately represented in the medals tables for the UK. In my opinion, that fact (about 50 per cent of the medals won by Team GB in Beijing in 2008 were secured by athletes educated in the independent sector, who made up just seven per cent of the population) that state-school educated athletes are not better represented is because the state schools don't have enough budget/resources, not because they discourage competitiveness. The PM again doesn't get it.

Cameron is a twat. He's presided over the selling off of 1000 sports fields, he's removed the target that says kids should do two hours PE a week, and his govt cut funding for the schools sports partnership that had PE teachers in different schools working together to give children sporting opportunities.

The competitive business is there to distract people from his govt's record. Most schools still do competitive sport.

I thought the whole point of Dc's comments was to improve ability across the board and provide more Olympic champions. Concentrating on the same minority and carrying on with the same old,same old whilst doing nothing to raise fitness or enjoyment across the board isn't going to make either happen.

I hated PE, but if we had done something like Yoga, Martial Arts or going for rambles I would have loved it.

Why the obsession with track, hockey, football and rugby? What about kids who hate running around in muddy fields or who would like to do other forms of exercise?

Me and DS both agree that conventional PE is outmoded, inhumane, barbaric and has no place in 21st Century Britain. Our Ninjutsu and Jujutsu instructor agrees with us tbh. Martial Arts, Yoga and activities such as that set people up to become considerate, thoughtful and confident. Learning a martial art could save your life or a lovedones.

I hate the emphasis schools place on sport, whoopie fucking do, some of us genuinely don't give a toss and we object to being looked down upon because of that.

Me and DS will continue to train, throw each other around, hit each other, kick each other, wield big sticks and swords. That beats the pants off boring football, track and rugby any day!

claire you live in the ideal world where every parent is willing to put in the effort.

My son has played county football and at some matches there are no parents there at all. Some of these young lads would probably be able to trial for an acadmy if the parents were willing to put the effort in to take them to training and tryouts but they would rather have a lie in on a sunday morning.

Hack I agree totally.

I spent quite some time getting my 5 year old twins into the right mindset for their school sports day, "Pain is temporary, Failure is for ever.. Remember second is the first of the loosers .." etc etc. Imagine our collective disappointment that the was not a single competitive event when we got there...

My world is pretty real to me.

There is an "obsession" with football,rugby and cricket etc because they are the most followed sports in the country.

I'm surprised how many people report that their experiences of sport at school revolved only around team sports.

I went to a fairly bog standard comp but we did netball, hockey, rounders, athletics, dance, step aerobics, trampolining, basketball, football, tennis, badminton and occasionally swimming.

Lesley I agree.

I also think given the shocking obesity levels we should be doing more to get kids active for that at the very least let alone making champions.Getting kids to enjoy sport(of their choice)and a degree of fitness which they'll carry on into adulthood is surely more important than providing the nation with the next high jump gold medalist.

Surely part of the state v private school issue tbough is the parents ability to access sports outside of normal school hours. For those sports which are expensive to access then although I know I am generalising often the parents will have more money to allow that to happen.

There is only so much schools can do to help tackle obesity the bulk of that sort of fight has to come from home. While we have parents who are happy for their children to spend 6 weeks flitting from TV to x
Box then a couple of hours sport in school won't change anything

Same spoon my school was poor in a lot of areas but still managed to offer a range of sports.

If you can come up with a realistic plan on how 6 teachers are going to manage 150 kids doing the sport of their choice for 1hr 40, including changing time, then great. I just cannot see how its feasible.

I've said I think being competitive is good which we obviously disagree on, although I don't think its the crux of your post, you are really on about facilities and opportunities which is something I've said I agree with you on I just cannot see how it is supposed to happen.

Opportunities and facilities go across the board schooling wise, private school always tend to offer wider more varied and more regular experiences for their students, so I don't think sport is really the biggest issue.