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.

No thats fine Nit I don't agree with private schooling on a moral level so I didn't want to be pointed out as someone who does thats all.

Who is being petulant? The person who whines about wanting private school to give away their resources for free, or those who pay for those resources.

I never see calls for state schools to give away their resources to private schools. Usually private schools are excluded from any sharing.

Bit one sided, no.

I am happy to have on record that I don't want to give away for no return share. And I'm quite convicted in that opinion.

If you believe in sharing, show me what you have to offer.

Well from the increased success this olympics it would be easy to see that things are already working. I have made plenty of realistic suggestions throughout the thread which you seem to have ignored while on your one woman mission to get schools to teach every sport to every child if that is what the child wants.

Sports governing bodies need to do more to get themselves into schools, get groups set up so that they are accessible to most and they are the ones who should be getting funding to help make it accessible to those children with an interest in that sport no matter what level they are at.

I have worked with a junior rugby club who went into primary schools and did a couple of taster sessions, followed by an after school club for half a term - as a result the club saw more children wanting to come and play.

And I also think we need to encourage children to be competitive, to win with grace and to lose with grace. why is that a bad lesson to teach children? Some children don't like losing, well tough thats life and parents and teachers need to gently make children understand this.

The business about private schools sharing their facilities has been promoted by a number of governments as a way of ameliorating the embarrassment about their, ahem, charitable status. A way of giving something back.

They are very reluctant to do this.

I don't think the Charities Commission has sanctioned sharing facilities. They want free or almost free school places. Sharing facilities is purely altruistic and nothing to do with charitible status.

To me, sharing goes two ways. I'd like to see what is offered by state schools to the private school in return.

Plenty of kids are fab at losing but hate the pressure and braying peers/parents when they know they're crap.I've never been a poor loser but loathed the pressure, screaming from the sidelines and the picking of teams when you're always chosen last.None of this happens in any other subject and it does sweet fa in making Olympic champions just turns many off,those talented are already talented.

Find it amusing that this is DC's sole answer to Olympic medals.

So because some children hate it then it needs to go? Even though plenty of others thrive on it? I would say that from listening to a lot of the olympians talking then that pressure and competition is a big part of what pushes them.

Now if schools are allowing bullying and systems whereby some children are picked last all the time thats different but thats a teaching issue not a competition issue.

I didn't say the Charity Commission had made this ruling. It is an advantage enjoyed by the private schools, as is the considerable financial advantage their teachers being part of the Teachers' Superannuation Scheme, instead of having make private pension arrangements.

These continued nudges to share have come from government, not schools, so it's interesting that there's so consistent a perception that private schools need to justify their privileged status.

Well re cycling and rowing neither actually happen on state school fields soooo .......

Nobody is saying get rid of competition just that enjoyment and fitness levels need to come first.Pushing unfit kids who are crap at and don't like a particular sport into increased competition will do diddly squat to the Olympic league tables.

You make it sound like the teachers pension scheme is advantageous over others. Weren't teachers striking about how this wasn't the case?

Private schools are education 7% of students free of the public purse. Surely this is enough charity. Leave their playing fields alone!

Rowing happens in rivers. I am certain that many state schools along the terms have rowing.

Steve Redgrave went to a secondary modern school in Marlow.

Thinking of my own school here in Australia, all the students who compete regionally and nationally did so from an interest developed outside school, clubs, etc. What the school does do, though, is make sure those students can be part of every competition going.

Also I find it a bit sad that a few gold medals won by a tiny few seem to be the priority for DC rather than an increase in widespread fitness,sports for enjoyment amongst all British kids.

The Tories have even stopped the mandatory 2 hours of PE a week(alongside selling off sports fields) but hey as long as we have a few extra gold medals in the trophy cabinet for all all the ex public school boys to get excited about. Got to keep these events that only rich British spectators can actually attend exciting ay.

That may be but none of your solutions to the problem could ever work and sometimes children have to do things they dont like be that maths or playing netball for a term they can sulk and whinge all they like about it but tough.

You are entirely mistaken about the reasons for the recent strikes about the pension. Spare me the doing the state a favour argument.

As I have said twice already, it's governments who've sought to redress this inequality. A recent speech by leading HT of a private school, whose name escapes me, bemoaned the lack of leadership on the part of the private sector, citing this reluctance to share as an embarrassment.

He DID point out areas where the public sector were better than the private; innovative teaching for one.

Why do they have to if it's counter productive and they could be doing something better ie a sport they could learn for lifelong enjoyment and fitness?

I hated maths but had to do it as it's vital for life-the javelin,shot put,hockey,high jump etc aren't.Fitness itself however is vital so kids should be encouraged to do fitness activities they actually enjoy and which suit them and their lifestyle and don't put them off all sport full stop.

i haven't read the whole thread cause it got a bit shouty but i think that schools need to encourage improvement more.

at school we were never encouraged to improve you were either good or not-good instantly and we were almost led to believe that sport was 100% talent rather than hard work.

i never ever did a 'block' of skill or fitness work where we measured progress between the beginnig and the end. every child can progress in fitness or skill over a term if they are taught well, and in fact, it might be the less talented or less fit children that get the bigger % improvement.

so i say yes to 'competition' but for me that would be mainly competition with yourself.

Good point maybe

letting them do something they would enjoy is a great idea but I can't see how any can even try to argue that is practical to do in a school PE sesson. Unless you want 30 children doing 30 different sports which in itself would discount a lot of sports it can't work.

That is where parents need to step in and help find a sport or activity their child likes and encourage that.

It takes us 24 hours to fly to Australia if you think of that being the opposite side of our world. To fly around from one point to the opposite side of the largest star we know of in the same passenger jet would take us 1100 years. Not including refuelling time for you pedants out there.

And that star is just one of trillions upon trillions. So if the aliens on one of those exoplanets are intelligent enough to cover the distance they are more than intelligent enough to never get discovered by Elmer of Billy Joe Bob out fishing gators.

oops don't you hate when you post on the wrong thread

doh!!!

Claire, you can have anything you like from state schools. Absolutely anything! All you have to do is send your children to them: doesn't even cost anything. But if we had anything you wanted, you'd be doing that already, right?

Private Schooling is wrong as far as I'm concerned, but that's besides the point of this thread.

Physical fitnes isn't a walk in park. It's effort, you need to work at it, you get what you put in.

If the key priority is fitness, PE lessons would be like army fitness training, a version of the 30 day shred.

Fitness isn't the priority it's a combination of fun and fitness and practicality. Tea, games accomplish this, and so does competition. Few things drive kids more than competition, it's like a form of bribery. Perfect example, school wanted raffle tickets sold, nothing happened, HT announced a competition, they had 5x the highest ticket sales ever for the raffle. Kids won a small chocolate or something but got certificates etc. they were out in their free time doing it, they all loved it. Competition drives them which helps with fitness and also if someone is the best or the cond best why shouldn't they be told and enjoy that moment of glory.

Sirzy doesn't have to be 30 activities by any means,just a few options would have something most would enjoy more..

Not sure why you're so dead against creativity.I remember when guided reading was brought in. Everybody said it would be impossible to manage,most schools do it now daily.