To think 'jumping' is a bit naff for a year 2 PE lesson

[orangechairs]

My DD had PE today. She's 6 and in year 2. Her PE lesson was jumping. Doing a quarter turn, half a turn and a full turn jump. Then they jumped in pairs. She said that's all they did for the full PE lesson. They did some jumping to music, but mostly the teacher telling them what jump to do. Some on their own and some in pairs.

I asked one of the other parents and her child also said the same, so I think it's correct. I also think it's pretty reflective of their general PE lessons. (My 4 year old says they just run around outside during his PE lesson, which is what they basically do most of the time in reception anyway).

Is this what a year 2 PE lesson is? It just seems a bit basic to me. I thought they'd be learning how to play a sport in year 2, or inside doing some more movement type classes. I remember at infant school we climbed up the walls, ran along benches, climbed ropes and jumped over the vault in PE lessons, like a mini obstacle course. Or we were learning actual sports.

Please help me and share what your year 2 child does in a PE lesson!

This is state school BTW. But I am interested to hear what all year 2 PE lessons are like, state and private.

YABU - jumping is a perfectly normal PE lesson for year 2

YANBU - jumping is not a good PE lesson for year 2.

I would think that controlled jumping could be a good introduction to gymnastics.

At that age, basic co-ordination skills like jumping a quarter turn are harder than they sound to adults. Being aware of your body in space and aware of those around you. Helpful stuff. I'm sure they will do other things another time.
Sounds fine for a PE lesson. If you want them to learn actual sports, there are clubs for that.

You haven't enabled voting.

But YABU. It was one lesson.

Should have added, I never asked what mine did in PE at that age, so I've no idea if it's usual.

I'm 28 and struggle to walk in a straight line, when I jump I almost fall, every time. I struggle with co ordination. I don't know why. So I imagine it's harder for them than you might think

Jumping sounds OK to me, gymnastics, long jump, triple jump and high jump all involved Jumping.
Then consider dance, diving, and swimming all include elements of jump.

Got to start somewhere.

Yabu

It’s year 2, they’re 6-7

What do you want them to do? Surely they’ve got many many years to play organised sport? These are very little children.

DD (P3 so Y2 equivalent) loves PE so I get a pretty good rundown. They do blocks of a sport eg recently they’ve done gymnastics - that did include some jumping but also somersaults, cartwheels, splits etc. They’re doing cricket at the moment. Jumping for a full lesson does sound a bit boring but maybe it is building up to something else?!

YABU. Our yr4 lesson this week could have been boiled down to that description as well, but in reality, they were doing the basics of gymnastics, with beams and without. They also did a lot of practice with their upper body which could be described by a child as 'we put our hands down and slightly jumped up', because they aren't encouraged to do real cartwheels until they've practiced putting a small amount of weight on their arms (obviously several children already do gymnastics and can do them easily).

After the initial series of jumps, they were encouraged to develop their own routines with their partners, which again would probably be described by a 6 yr old as 'we were just jumping around.'

PE at that age is not as much about keeping fit or learning a sport, but developing certain physical skills etc.

Sounds about right to me, encourages balance which is needed for all or most sports, the kids probably quite enjoyed it and it got them moving

YABU, sounds fine for one lesson.
Kids that age need to master basic movements and co-ordination before they can learn sports properly.

You’re right, at that age they should be bussed to the local Olympic sized swimming pool and coached in freestyle diving.

What you’ve described is totally fine for a six year old PE session. Is your daughter in an independent school by any chance…?

Also, are you really expecting an honest and accurate depiction of an entire school lesson from your six year old

Just before Covid hit my dd was in the winning team for the Yorkshire U11 jumping competition. She also did synchronised jumping competitively.

Bryony page has an Olympic silver in jumping.

Jumping is a fundamental movement skill useful for so many sports. Gymnastics, athletics, netball/ basketball. They have to learn control, co-ordination, balance, jumping for height, jumping for distance, how to do soft landings etc.

PE is generally crap in state primaries. There is a reason a high proportion of Olympians come from private schools. So if you're in state, sorry, that's the situation we're in. If you're paying you should definitely expect more.

My friends DD in a private prep learned to play hockey and football properly from age 5.

Ah sorry I see it is a state not private.

I think it sounds pretty normal, at that stage surely it’s about getting everyone up and moving and getting their heart rates up so they do some proper exercise.

I don’t think we learnt sports until later. Those that were interested/parents could afford did that as extra curricular.

I think it sounds great!
wild exercise until out of breath and sweaty is good for children. especially for those dc who don't run around at playtime.

not in uk and here primary dc have 3 hours of pe a week. one of which is 'mad running about on the playground' with games like capture the flag marginally less brutal than in percy jackson

FWIW our state primary school does lacrosse, hockey, rugby etc.

But yes we also have 'jumping' lessons, because it's part of gymnastics, and because not everything needs to be a competitive ball-based sport.

YABU and @Bananabrush that would have been in their games sessions not PE sessions where they too would have been jumping!

I really wish PE had included this in my day! It felt like we went from running about to to organised sport and I have no co ordination or athleticism. I'd love to learn to jump like this.

I think it's unfair to just take one PE lesson on it's own.

Controlled jumps is a good skill to have. Many kids will enjoy skipping, learning how to do jumps on stunt scooters or have a trampoline at home. Is this an outdoor or indoor lesson? There's probably only so many PE lessons that can be done indoors. Do schools even have those huge indoor apparatus rigs that we had? Considering the time of year the lesson needs to be something that can be easily tidied so that people can practice for the nativity too

@Bananabrush

PE is generally crap in state primaries. There is a reason a high proportion of Olympians come from private schools. So if you're in state, sorry, that's the situation we're in. If you're paying you should definitely expect more.

I would have thought the economic factors played a massive part in why olympians come from private schools, money to access coaches, time to get to many competitions, money to support adults full-time training rather than pushing them to education or work.

Rather than the content of a PE session for 6 year olds