To think kids should do more PE at school?

[BlingBang]

Just curious - my kids are at primary in England - they usually get one slot of PE a week though they have a period of swimming for a few months round about Y3 as well. how much PE do your young kids get? my friend in Scotland was saying how her 6yr old gets it 3 times a week. If they can do it - why can't other schools. Also when any assemblies or shows come up - PE just seems to get dropped anyway.

Gosh Nom that all sounds awful, on all sorts of levels. Must have driven your DM batty too.

Cant I do think it's possible for DCs not to like sport - I never have liked sport. But we are an active family none the less, we all cycle, I walk everywhere, we get off our bums and do stuff. I like that DS gets to try lots of different sport in PE because that's not an exposure I'd necessarily give him, but we're still fit and active people.

I think they should have a PE lesson in school but it's up to parents to make sure their children do sport - an hour a day of exercise is recommended.

Just in the interests of putting my money where my mouth is so to speak , I had a quick calculation about what my DCs, one does about 6 hours a week of sport plus whatever is done in school, plus walking 2 miles a day to and from school. The other does 5 1/2 sport a week plus whatever is done in school and playing out, plus running around at playtimes - usually playing football.

But you've just said yourself that he had to eat less to lose weight? Calorie control and portion size is something that is a massive problem. I agree that you were very lucky to not gain weight. DH was much the same (although he did develop a spare tyre at 30). Unfortunately, that generally isn't the case for most people, and I'm sure you are more likely to come across someone like me, who omits 'bad' foods to maintain a healthy weight (and I am a very active woman now) than someone who doesn't need to do this.

I fear I've hijacked this thread somewhat and I do apologise. Sirzy, I will try to find the evidence I was referring to, it's very interesting to read and certainly opened my eyes wrt what is important in tackling obesity

my trainer says its more or less 30% exercise and 70% diet.....think she might be right as ive lost 5 stone this year with her

We are lucky enough to live in a place (in Scotland) where all sorts of sport and activities are available and either free or affordable.

Agree with Wilson that not everyone enjoys sport, but there are plenty of non-sporty activities going on here - eg kayaking, mountain biking. There is a full timetable of activities at the sports centre. The primary and secondary schools have after school clubs. Parents and teachers are involved.

There are very few overweight, let alone obese kids here - it's a bit like back when I was at school, maybe one fat kid a class, who really stood out, and compared to today's standards, they tended not to be all that fat, just bigger than the norm.

Because of this, I thought the obesity epidemic was a tabloid myth until we visited a place where lots of Brits were on holiday. We were at the size of the kids we saw.

In our village, there is no mystery as to why the few overweight children are overweight - they are inevitably clutching a bag of Haribo in one hand and a can of sugary fizz in the other. These foodstuffs aren't regarded as treats - they are consumed several times a day.

No, I'm not making sweeping, unfounded statements, this is a small place, I know almost all of these children by name.

IMO bad diet is at the root of the problem. Schools can only do so much. Parents have to stop buying this crap for their children.

In theory it would be great to do more PE at school (it is my subject and I love it!). But the timetable is already overstuffed so which subjects would we drop to fit it in? Quite a few years ago we did a subject time budget, if we teach the required number of hours for each subject there are far more lesson hours than there are hours in the school day. And that is before we build reading time into the timetable! I know we can be creative and teach more than one subject at a time (e.g. teach some of the history curriculum in a literacy lesson) but even with that we feel we are chasing our tails trying to get through everything that is expected. There is just not enough time to get the class changed, teach an hour's PE, then get them all changed back again.

I mean change and teach PE on a daily basis, not at all! We still do two hours of PE a week, plus have play leaders to encourage active play at break and lunch times.

I was also one of those who was unaware of the so-called obesity crisis amongst kids - til mine moved to secondary....

DD1 -average across the board 50th centile on the charts for weight and height... DD2 - tall 98th centile, weight low 45th centile.... they both looked "normal for our primary school"

moved to a big secondary and they look tiny... height wise and weight wise... hubby kept asking "what year is she in?" to DD1 when we went to parents' evening - they were all in the same year..

don't know where the problem lies really, but it is worrying - since my average poor girl will get a complex DD1 is about 6 inches shorter and a size 6 as opposed to a size14 - there must be a massive area somewhere with a load of really short, skinny people if these averages are still valid....

In France, children are supposed to do 3 hours a week. In primary, my youngest does two two-hour slots and the odd block of swimming lessons. It seems to depend on the teacher. They don't wear uniform though so have to wear joggers/ leggings and trainers on the two days they have sport which saves time.

They don't have school on Wednesdays here so a lot of children do sports activities. Mine has a 30 minute riding lesson in the morning, then 3 hours of gymnastics in the afternoon. It doesn't come cheap but there are council run Wednesday clubs that do lots of activities with them.

1/2 hours a week seems very little. The recommended is 60mins min a day for a child.
I can't believe that some people expect it all to be done at schools though. The days are long enough to do plenty after school as well.

On a day ours attend nursery they would:

15 min walk to nusery
1hr ish roughly outside ( out of 3 hours there)- running/ trikes/ climbing
30mins each morning at nursery for 'activity' ie ballet/ football/ yoga/ ball catching/ skipping
15 mins walk home

After lunch and nap, between 3-7pm we spend approx 2 hrs either outside running through parks/ on bikes / scooters or inside swimming. Longer if really nice weather.

I have 3 at school. My child at the local comprehensive does proper sports- football and rugby in the autumn term, cricket in the summer term etc. my children at primary do 2x1 hour slots of PE which seems to be physical one day (stick in the mud type games) and "movement" on the other- balancing on benches etc. I personally only see one of these sessions counting as a session as the other ends up with a lot of waiting for your turn and little activity.

Playtime has been shown to burn off far more calls than taught PE time when half the lesson is teachers talking or demonstrating etc. If schools opened at 8~30 with supervised playtime that would make a real differance and also exercise has been shown to improve brain function so would be a fab start to the day. There was also a optimised exercise routine that helped develop gross motor skills etc developed by scientists that could be taught in 10 mins a day everyday and would have encouraged all children to have a daily minimum exercise habit- that seams to have disappeared off the gov radar p.

As schools have limited resources but lots of people, Id prefer them to focus on PE that cost money to supplement rather than

Pressed send too soon.

I think schools should maybe focus on team games like rounders, netball etc that parents can't supplement without joining a team.

YANBU - I was shocked at sports day at how little physical exertion they actually did. I get that they are developing skills and that they were trying to be inclusive but the only 'race' was a 5m relay the rest of the activities were sedantary - throwing a ball in a bucket type of thing.
My two do loads out of school dancing, swimming, trampolining etc and we walk to school but still I expected far more from the school.

but PE shouldn't be the only exercise a child gets - though I do know it is for some kids...... ours do 2 hours of karate a week alongside an hour of either table-tennis or badminton (with us) and 2 or more hours swimming a week - with us, so we keep fit too....... plus walking to and from the school bus pick up and walking the dog every day.

Plus the 2 hours of PE a week - 1 games - hockey/netball/tag rugby, the other gym - circuits, gymnastics, indoor cricket etc...

And it shows, they have stamina.

Problem is though some children hate team sports and having that as the only option makes it very hard for children who struggle with that.

I actually think that schools need to do less team sport and more focus of general activity, individual sports and finding something which everyone enjoys (as much as possible!)

Twice a week here. And I think that is fine.
Why do you want more? Fresh air? Ours occasionally study outside.
Obesity? I see that as more of a parental issue.

Obesity? I see that as more of a parental issue.

^ I agree.

Ds does 6 hours a week.

No. First because, as others have said, PE won't fix childhood obesity and tbh schools shouldn't be expected to. Second, because this whole "throw every type of exercise at children and see what sticks" approach is both wildly unaffordable and won't work in all cases. Some children are sedentary by nature rather than habit.

I'm 25 and still haven't found a form of exercise I actually enjoy. But because I'm an adult, I know that I have to exercise to be healthier, so I do it even though it's mind-numbingly boring. A child will just think "this is boring" and be resistant to doing it.
Children should be getting their exercise through playing out with their friends, not in school.

playing out is all ok for younger children....but older children?once puberty hits,what then?

secondary age,ime,is where it all tails off

That's where the family lifestyle has an impact SS, mine had out-of-school activities that they continued to take part in, we walk a lot as a family both for fun and to get from A to B.
Both of mine were ecstatic to drop the tyranny of school PE, not many Aspies enjoy organised team games and the robust attitude of many of the teachers.

I do agree with the poster further up (my money's on it being a teacher) who said something along the lines of throwing every single thing we want to 'fix' in to schools and expecting them to do it for us. PE at school is very important and I think the right place for children to learn skills and try new things but it's only one part of the picture.

In my LA DCs only actually attend school for 185 days of the year. That's half the year which is completely down to me. It's as much to do with parents as anything else.