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.

I don't understand the comment about it being a depressing thread and no wonder X % of people are obese. I don't see the connection between forcing kids to do sport that they hate and keeping them active. And I'm sure team sports can be character building if you are taught how to do them properly, working as a team, but that doesn't seem to happen much. It's more a case of 'here are some nets, you're playing netball'.

And also, if you're not naturally sporty, the 'lesson' you get from team sports is that no one is willing to work with you. No one wants you on their team if you can't dribble the ball. You won't get chosen in the first place and when someone does end up forced to have you, no one will pass the ball to you. It's not really a lesson in teamwork.

I think the idea of compulsory pre detention is not a good one. If the existing pe at the school is unable to meet the child's needs then more of the same isn't going to meet their needs either.

It would also prevent them from taking part in other out of school sports that they might enjoy such as karate gymnastics swimming etc which is either sporadically done at school or done for a term and they then move on to something else.

At school i hated pe. I still don't like team sports. Pe was always dominated by the sporty few. I do however enjoy other things such as zumba, walking, yoga, gymnastics, trampolining. That's where my strengths lie.
Forcing me to be wing defence in a netball game and standing around while the game is dominated by others isn't going to increase my fitness.

I would have hated extra PE - the timetabled lessons were bad enough (apart from swimming, which I enjoyed). Also, how do you define struggling with PE? I was hopeless at PE but I was not unfit as I did some exercise outside school.

I have to agree that this is depressing! So I am one of those 'sadistic', 'evil' PE teachers with a massive ego - oh, hang on a moment, I'm not a bit like that and neither are any of my colleagues. So just because your personal experience may have been awful - please don't tar us all with the same brush.
I would however be interested to know what as a primary school (specialist PE) teacher, you would consider suitable to be on the PE curriculum? I am in the fortunate position of being able to pretty much decide what I teach, and so feedback would be interesting. Bear in mind budget, suitable space and activities that won't require an additional qualification from an honours degree in PE and Education.

Fitness is very important for kids.

Forcing children to stay behind and do extra because they are deemed good enough/ fit enough, Is not going to help they fall in love with being active. It's going to make them hate it even more.

My dd would prefer to sit and read a book than go outside. So we tried a few clubs for her. She took to kick boxing and so did ds. So in a normal week she does 2 Pe sessions, 2 kick boxing classes. We also go for walks and runs on a weekend. She knows improving her overall fitness improves her kick boxing. She now sees PE as an opportunity to improve her kick boxing and enjoys it a lot more.

We as parents (and avid gym goers) knew just forcing her to be active wasn't enough. That only ends up with kids doing buggar all when they leave school. It becomes something they hate.

It is not just the schools problem and introducing rules that say you must do one fitness based activity per week, isn't going to fix anything.

jo164 not all of is feel the same about PE teachers

I don't think my PE teachers were evil or sadistic. One of them was actually very nice.

But what they lacked completely was an understanding that inability to run fast or dribble a ball did not equate to being lazy, or to not trying. As sporty people themselves they just seemed to lack any understanding that it was possible to make an effort but still, for example, struggle to catch a ball.

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.

Schools are not replacement parents, some parents are shit yes. But schools can not pick up all the slack. Maybe more should be done to tackle the parents that don't get it.

School can not be all things to all people

PE or Physical Education is vital for all children. It is for the benefit of their long term health. No it isn't always fun or easy, especially when you are unfit. But Maths isn't always fun and easy for all either! If you are unable to participate in physical activity when you are in primary school, you have little hope of maintaining a healthy fitness level of activity once you are in secondary school or an adult. You only need to glance at the numbers to realise that the NHS can't continue to cope with illnesses that are directly related to lack of exercise. Yes reading and writing are important but nothing is more important than your health.

I think children should have at least 2 PE lessons a week, I don't think compulsory PE after school for the uncoordinated ones is the way to go. I was one of those uncoordinated ones and I think it would have made me suicidal, and I'm not exaggerating.

A lot of UK schools incorporate exercises of some sort into the daily routine- brain gym, activate, go noodle, yoga, brain breaks, (ok the 'science' behind some of those is dodgy, but the children do respond to a couple of minutes of dance or exercises between lessons or after sitting still for a while). As well some teachers use dance or actions during lessons to help children remember facts (eg counting songs).

As well as that there are sports clubs at lunchtime and after school, most children get 2x 15 minute outdoor play times a day, plus the PE lessons each week. Even if the school condenses into one 2 hour session there are plenty of other opportunities for fitness.

Fit children are generally created by parents not schools.

I agree in principle that they should have more PE however I don't think that would address a national fitness issue.

PE is being squeezed because of national curricular changes in particular for maths

My DS1 went to a prep school that had PE/Games every day, matches twice a week. As a mainly boarding school the day reflected the needs of boarders, exercise was an important part of that.
His siblings only had the twice weekly PE at state schools, they both did out of school activities to supplement this.
They later went indie too and the amount of PE shot up until GCSE years.
They all played outside/rode bikes as well.

They all are active adults now. As parents we encouraged it. DH is disabled but I am active and play sport although I'm in my late 40s.

If you encourage and support them many secondary aged children can do sport at school every day because of clubs.

School PE put me off all team sports, athletics, running. Permanently. I have no interest in any sport and it's b/c of school PE lessons.

I was never good at anything. Compulsory extra PE? After school? Compulsory or not, I'd have been skipping that.

Jo, as a dancer my dd would have appreciated an understanding thst sone sports went against her dance training out of school (road running for example). The importance of a proper warm up has always been drummed into her so she was apprehensive at being asked to tske oart in physical activity without one (she didn't consider run round the field to be a sufficient warm up)

A range of sports would ge good with an understanding that sine children have problems with fine motor skills, spatial awareness or in dd's case hyper mobility. What she would have liked most though is proper help with technique (eg she ran incorrectly). Ds was awful at football atvschool as all the kids who were naturally good dominated & he didn't have a clue. 12 months at An after school session & he has come on leaps & bounds.

Oh..just as an add on to my post..we were are a low income family, Indie schools were on scholarships/bursaries. The extra out of school stuff was aided by a charity for disadvantaged kids.

Parents need to take the initiative though, schools are not there to parent. If traditional sport doesn't appeal patents need to look at alternatives..eg martial arts, dance etc.

YANBU to think PE should be more than once a week (you're lucky - our school recently changed it from an hour twice a week to an hour once a week).

YABU and a bit ridiculous to talk about any compulsory lessons after school though. Children struggling with any subject should be supported during the school day. They have little enough free time as it is.

Sorry to hear that you were put off by school - like any teachers PE teachers can effect the outcome of interest in a child. However, as an adult there are so many opportunities to be healthy through fitness - it only starts with a walk, somewhere you like to be - maybe with a camera to take photos - please don't let your negative early years stop you from enjoying the outdoors and health now.

Sorry to hear that you were put off by school - like any teachers PE teachers can effect the outcome of interest in a child. However, as an adult there are so many opportunities to be healthy through fitness - it only starts with a walk, somewhere you like to be - maybe with a camera to take photos - please don't let your negative early years stop you from enjoying the outdoors and health now.

I'd have been a candidate for this and I'd have hated it. It wouldn't have got me away from the bitchy girls because they hated PE as much as I did so it would have just forced me to spend more time with them. The only thing we had in common was our devotion to finding reasons to miss PE.

I was hopeless at hockey and netball, athletics was humiliating as was gymnastics. The only times I didn't hate it were the one class each year where we did aerobics.

What the school didn't know or care about was that I represented the county in two sports (swimming and dressage) and I was a competitive Latin dancer. That was irrelevant as far as they were concerned because they didn't include swimming or dance on the curriculum (I wouldn't expect equestrianism, but I did grow up in the country so it wasn't unusual), so they were only interested in rugby, football, netball and hockey, because they could get some reflected glory from those teams' successes. Everyone was left with the feeling they were in the way and a waste of time.

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

Perhaps because they have been put off PE at school? Surely the solution then is not to force the current cohort to do more of the same, but to radically rethink the way PE is taught so vast swathes of these future obese adults aren't put off physical activity for life. I say this as someone who did well at PE at school.

LuluJakey1, that's a rather harsh portrayal of male PE teachers! Not necessarily wholly inaccurate, but still a bit harsh.

FifthColumnist : As I experience it I'm afraid. Harsh but true in my experience- we have 5 presently but have had a number over the last 12 years and all but one have been like this. They are all, but this one, obsessed with football and at one point 3 thought they were going to be professional footballers. The Head of PE is the worst. He can not see past football and footballers. If boys play for the team they are hero worshipped, treated like they are David Beckham and allowed to get away with murder. Their egos are built up by him until they become ridiculously arrogant.

There is a huge misunderstanding about PE in schools on this thread. People are equating school PE with exercise and fitness. There is no link. PE lessons are manly wasted time. Most children do very little if any exercise in a PE lesson. If you don't believe me ask to go to watch your child's PE lesson- I am talking about secondary schools. You will be shocked by how little time is active time and how many children barely move.

I had a similar experience to EasyFromNowOn. School could only equate physical fitness with how fast you could run or swim. There was no provision for other sports being considered equal. I would have been a candidate for these 'detention PE' classes, but that would have interferred with my training for the two sports I did compete at on a national and international level. Kids who were involved in the various school sports were revered as heroes, given awards for their out of school achievements. My parents had to argue with the school when they wanted to take me out for a week to travel overseas to compete in an international event (which I won) and there was not one single congratulations on my return.

As a teacher now, we have a one hour PE lesson (kids here don't change for PE so no time wasted with that). Our PE teacher is pretty good and does a variety of sports - zumba, yoga, etc, to give kids a broad overview of different activities. The kids here also spend most of their lunchbreaks running around, and there's lots of lunchtime clubs that they can choose to participate in. I think there is only one boy in my class that doesn't do soccer or football for saturday morning teams (he does martial arts instead). The only intensive and absolutely compulsory sport we do is swimming (we're a beach community, so kids learning to swim is absolutely vital), and we do a week in terms one and four where they swim everyday for about an hour and a half. We have an onsite pool so that helps. In terms one and four the kids (grades 3-6) can also choose to swim at lunchtime if they want.

I include a lot of 'movement' in my classes - so dance forms parts of the arts curriculum and the PE curriculum. We'll often be outside moving around for different subjects. PE doesn't have to be a game of dodgeball or a run around the oval. Just getting children physically moving can be important and that can be tied in to other subjects across the curriculum. Next week I'm planning a scavenger hunt which will be across literacy, numeracy and science curriculum. They'll be outside moving around for about an hour whilst they are participating.

OP why is it the school's responsibility to provide PE detention for your unfit and low achieving (in sport) child? What are you and his father doing to improve his fitness etc?