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.

But OP you said 'children who are struggling with PE' in your first post. Then in your follow up post you said children with poor fitness. But they're not the same thing.

None of the schools in my area do things like cycling etc as has been mentioned upthread. PE here is almost exclusively hockey for girls, rugby for boys, athletics for both. We did, every once in a while, get the opportunity to do an aerobics class, but it was limited to maybe 20 girls in a year of 100, so it wasn't open to all.

Younger family members are at secondary school now and nothing much has changed since I was there in the 90s. I have never heard of a PE 'lesson' taking place. There is no fitness training, no warming up, no teaching on the importance of activity to good health. It is just 'run the cross country course'. That's it.

I am fit, I can run fairly long distances. I can plank, lift weights in the gym, box, do pushups etc. But I can't sprint - my three year was able to run faster than me by the time he was two and a half. Athletics at school was sprinting, not distance running. I couldn't do it, no matter how hard I tried, my legs just didn't go fast enough. It was nothing to do with fitness and everything to do with the fact that my body just doesn't work that way.

I struggled with PE and it was the most awful experience of my school years. If I had been forced to take extra PE lessons I would, with no exaggeration, probably have run away from home. I was sick with worry on PE days as it was. Humiliating people me further for not ticking the 'sporty' box wouldn't really help.

The school is fulfilling its obligations in terms of the PE curriculum. You mention compulsory after school PE with no indication of how you expect this to be facilitated. There is an implication that extra provision is solely the school's responsibility and no suggestion that you need to take responsibility for your child's health and wellbeing.

Well as a teacher who has taught Pe and observes lots of PE lessons, the amount of actual physical activity that takes place in them is minimal.

There is the arrival...the changing...the register and excuses....getting out equipment and setting it up.......some teaching.......... practice(usually stilted with lots of stopping and starting)......an activity(most children don't really exert themselves)......putting equipment away .......getting changed.

That does not take into account the walk out onto fields and the walk back in. Nothing happens quickly in PE lessons. Then thete is the ego of the PE teacher which usually take centre stage at some point.

Our school is a seconday school. I would be astonished if children are ever out of breath.

When I was at school lunchtime was 1 hour 45 minutes and most DC either walked home and back or spent a good hour running around the playground. Now the school day is compressed (45 minutes for lunch) and no-one goes home so there is much less time and space to run about. I think DC need less not more in the way of structured lessons.

I would run the primary school day from 8-1 (still 5 hours teaching) and then let DC go home or take part in childcare which may or may not include sport and other areas such as music and art.

I work in an infant school. We have two blocks of PE - about an hour each.
DD is at secondary and has two blocks of PE - again, both 1 hour each. Her primary was similar, though probably slightly longer sessions.

Schools would struggle to fit much more in. The curriculum is bad enough as it is!

I'd like more art, music & drama in schools and would happily reduce (vile) PE time to accommodate them. Not going to happen, so I ensure my children have access to the arts.

PE at school is a useless waste of time. I hated it, but I bet I am far slimmer and fitter than a lot of the sport girls now I am late 40s. PE in school has nothing to do with fitness. Fit people walk places and enjoy fresh air. PE is all running and competing and ball sports. Yuck.

I actually thin PE should be done everyday, get rid of music and anything religious for a start.

I think that very child should have a certain threshold of fitness and measurement of fitness should not just be linked to sprinting. Stamina, strength, flexiblity, coordination, BMI are as important as speed. Even then you need a holistic approach and some common sense to educating a child. A future olympic athelete might have a very high BMI, but it is pure muscle. BMI is not an ideal measure children. Maybe assessing a child's fitness is an area of research.

The problem with parents taking responsbilty is that many people couldn't give a shit about their childrenn's physical health. They are convinced you are either born atheletic or born fat. It is easier to help a young child than a young adult.

Withdraw from mainstream classes for SEN intervention can harm a child's education. I feel that extra excercise should be done outside school hours. I feel the govement should increase sports partnership money to help children who need to improve their fitness.

Why would extras lessons for unfit children be away from "bitchy girls"? are bitchy girls naturally fit?

I feel that PE is a waste of time. I feel that children have woeful access to the arts. We can feel things things, doesn't mean we should impose them as policy in schools.

Another Mum here who has a DC who is just slower than everyone else. She's just going into Y2 and will still be the smallest in the school when the new YR children start. This obviously effects how fast she can run compared to her peers as her legs are so much shorter.

She also has a problem with balance, she has an issue with her feet. Trying to balance in bare feet is nigh on impossible although as she grows this should improve. Because of that she's had 'extra' classes throughout year 1. She's been the only Y1 to have them and so now feels that she's 'different' in a negative way . So yes, let's make her feel worse by giving her compulsory PE lessons after school!!

At the moment she LOVES PE, even though she's never going to be the fastest or the best at it. She's just started Karate and does that twice a week and loves that too. It's not for the want of trying that she isn't the best at PE.

I'm sure if I came on and said that all obese children should be made to do extra PE lessons after school there would be an outcry!!!

Having said that DD is the most advanced reader not only in Y1 but in Y2 aswell, we can't all be good at everything!!

Just before school broke up for the holidays, DS1 12, year 7) did PE everyday so that the teachers could work out next years timetable, he absolutely loved it and is not generally a sporty type, he said he would love it to be like that all the time.

Our school does 1 1/2 hrs of PE four days a week and a match on the other. Plus PE options on Saturday morning

I had 1 2 hour pe class and another 1 hour PE class, I would have hated to have had anymore forced PE. So many kids didn't want to do it and did the bare minimum it slowed everything down for the kids that actually wanted to play sports, we had plenty of opportunities to do extra sports classes without the kids that didn't want to slowing us down.

"She also has a problem with balance, she has an issue with her feet. Trying to balance in bare feet is nigh on impossible although as she grows this should improve. Because of that she's had 'extra' classes throughout year 1. She's been the only Y1 to have them and so now feels that she's 'different' in a negative way sad. So yes, let's make her feel worse by giving her compulsory PE lessons after school!!"

Why do you see it as bad that the school has given her extra support?
I think you are being ridicolous. Plenty of children get extra help in reading, writing, hand writing or maths. My son had one to one help with his handwriting in year 1 inspite of the fact that he hated hand writing. There is no shame in having extra support. If the extra support is done either before or after school then it does not take away from lesson time.

"
Having said that DD is the most advanced reader not only in Y1 but in Y2 aswell, we can't all be good at everything!!"

That is fckg irelevent! (Even if it is true. Every mumsnet child is gifted and talented and top of the class...) A child needs a certain level of fitness enjoy a full and healthy life.

Such a long PE session does seem a bit odd, but it seems like a decent chunk of the school week. PE lessons can teach skills and help children to work in teams, support each others etc. Keeping children physically fit is the job of parents though.

What a depressing thread, and we wonder why 67% of men and 57% of women in the UK are either overweight or obese.

I think PE should be compulsory and there should be more of it.

Exercise is good for us. It shouldnt be optional. I don't want my kids being fed crap at school and I want them doing plenty of sports.

Oh god! Maybe kids should do more PE, but I just remember what torture PE lessons were for me! I'm glad I don't have to do it anymore that's for sure.

Also restricting extra PE to those who are struggling doesn't make any sense. I agree that it shouldn't be a punishment or a marker of difference - and also why should those who enjoy PE (likely not to be struggling) be denied the extra classes? It needs to be imposed on all or none IMO.

Ours have gym class three times a week, and the teachers take the children outside or into the gym everyday for daily physical activity. Unless you are in year 6, then you do Irish dance in those times, as the teacher loves Irish dance

Difficult to have single P.E. lessons, as there´s not enough time to change, set out equipment, warm up, teach the skill, practise the skill, cool down, put away the equipment, shower, change again. It´s customary in most schools to have P.E. as a double lesson.

Often P.E. is timetabled with 60 or so students at the same time so the changing rooms are quite crowded. Also it´s very annoying if students then arrive late to their next lesson (every week) after changing from P.E. I had this last year with Year 11 so out of their 4 weekly lessons one was always basically a half-lesson because of them having P.E. beforehand - during a whole school year that added up to a lot of time. When some of them had swimming, they were even later! Worse still, they arrived in dribs and drabs, with each new arrival causing disruption and needing to be explained the task. Yes, I gave them lunchtime detentions and made them catch up at home, and tried to plan lessons that suited the circumstances, but it´s not the same as having the full class present and working together for the full lesson time.

It would be nice for students to have 2 double lessons of P.E. per week but the current curriculum guidelines mean that often there is just not enough time during the school week to fit it in. Also a school may not have enough resources, such as spaces to do P.E., to give each student 2 sessions per week. However, many, if not all, schools do offer extracurricular sports, and many leisure centres etc. have reasonably priced activities for children and teenagers.

Lastly, I am deeply jealous of the teachers who get a clear 2 hour period for PPA.

PE in schools is not about fitness or health in my experience of teaching.

It is the subject in which most time is wasted and least is achieved.
Time spent arriving in changing rooms and then doors locked
Time spent changing into kit
Valuables collected in
Taking register and going through excuses, notes from parents, checking kit (PE teachers are obsessed with this), arguing with students who have not brought kit or notes.
Getting out equipment and setting it up
Walking out to fields
Getting into groups

Small amount of teaching/demo
Short actitvity - in which no sudent ever gets out of breath
Lessons stopped numerous times for skills to be focussed on

Equipment dismantled/collected in, counted and carried back to store
Walk back to changing rooms
Change back into uniform
Valuables given out
Get drinks of water
Sit ready for bell

There is also the time spent on PE teachers' egos- which are generally huge and have to play a big part in a lesson- humiliating children, shouting loudly to encourage, showing off, being pally with the students who are skilled and on teams and excluding the rest, cracking show-off jokes., showing off how good their skills are. Never met a male PE teacher not like that. One or two females who aren't but the rest have been. PE is the most socially divisive and least inclusive subject in most schools. It creates cliques and silly her- worship of boys who can play football or whatever sport the male PE staff think is the most important.

Male PE teachers are 'laddishness' personified imo. Only evet met one who is not like that.

Participation in sport has plummeted since the olympics - according to news yesterday. Yet we spent enough money on the olympics to sustain every school in England for the next century and now we are cutting education funding. What a bloody waste!

PE should not be taght as an academic subject in schools. It should be aout enjoying activity and be an afternoon a week for each year group at Secondary - opt in with the rest going to homework clubs.

My year 6 ds was recently corralled into doing a day of 'fun' PE activities at the local secondary school. He wasn't keen on the idea. I rang up to remind the school that he wasn't going to be attending this secondary school (when ds said only some of the class were taking part I'd assumed it was a transition day thing).

Teacher sheepishly said that, um, actually it wasn't that, ds had been selected as part of a group of 'children who aren't very keen on PE lessons', to try some new, exciting stuff.

Oh well great then, bring it on, I said (very aware that ds is a bit of a nerdy chubster, would love him to enjoy sport more).

I explained this to ds, putting a positive spin on it.

'Mum', said ds, wearily, 'It's for Fat Slackers. I already knew that. Fine. If I must.'

So I'm a tad sceptical about compulsary PE afterschool for the Fat Slackers, given the lack of enthusiasm for an intervention that involved a whole day out of school & a chance to use super-duper secondary facilities.

Ds likes swimming, & martial arts, & is pretty good at both. He & I have swum 1km together most days since holidays started & are both becoming more svelte.

Kids who don't like school PE are really, really unlikely to be cheerfully engaged with more of the same that impinges on their free time...nice idea OP, but crap kidology!