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.

@Birdkin

YABU

I think you’re underestimating how much a lot of Year 2 children need to practice jumping. Your daughter may find this easy (does she do gymnastics by any chance? There’s a noticeable difference at this age in the ones that do) but a lot of 6 year olds still struggle with balance/co-ordination. Also a lot of pairwork is really just teaching them teamwork, which again a lot of them need to practice!

Yes she does do gymnastics outside of school at our local club, which i know she is very fortunate to be able to do.

Half, whole, quarter and three quarter turns are also on the maths curriculum for Y1. The teacher might also have been actively revisiting/revising/plugging gaps.

It’s also in the Y2 curriculum too, plus clockwise and anti-clockwise

I’m a p2 teacher (6-7 year olds) and this is literally the same lesson I taught last week for PE 😂

It’s part of the gymnastics topic programme outlined by our school. We have one lesson on balances, one on rolls, on on jumps. Then we move towards doing a combination of these on the floor and on equipment before finishing the topic with a lesson on sequencing everything. The children really enjoyed it. In my lesson we were looking at and discussing: core, balance, listening to instructions, partner work, different muscles.

I have some children in my class who are very delayed in fine and gross motor skills so isolated jumps like star jump and pencil jump are a struggle for them let alone tuck jump. Whereas I have more able children in my class, some of whom go to gymnastics outside of school, so I differentiate as much as I can and give them different jumps to try which are more challenging or get them to try a combination of jumps and try to teach a partner their combination.

PE these days is not about just running about and getting out of breath. They need to be structured and as well thought as lessons in other areas of the curriculum.

@AnxiousPixie

My son is in year, PE for him today, he says they played tig 🤷 so I guess organized jumping is on a par.

My y5s would come home and say similar after today's lesson. In reality we're working on tag rugby skills and whilst a lot of the games involved chasing each other to get the other persons tag I promise it was a purposeful game of tag 😅 they also learnt how to hold/pass a ball properly but I'm sure that bit will be left out when they tell their parents as was less exciting.

YANBU. Children that age in other countries are already learning ballet, skiing, figure skating etc - and any Olympian or serious competitive sportsperson will have started their respective sport at that age. I understand you may not be bothered about your child become the next Olympic gold medallist, but the point is, children of that age are capable of learning more than jumping up and down and round and round on the ground for an entire lesson.

@Coffeeschmoffe

YANBU. Children that age in other countries are already learning ballet, skiing, figure skating etc - and any Olympian or serious competitive sportsperson will have started their respective sport at that age. I understand you may not be bothered about your child become the next Olympic gold medallist, but the point is, children of that age are capable of learning more than jumping up and down and round and round on the ground for an entire lesson.

Not in my class they’re not. More than half of them struggled to achieve a tuck jump. Star jump was a struggle too. A lot of my pupils have issues with balance and fear of equipment like going on benches. I need to get mine to focus on safety and following a combination of instructions before we progress into any team sports. Additionally, gymnastics is something i have to cover with them. Ice skating sounds impressive but that’s not what I’ve been asked to teach them.

Oh my christ. Have you thought about getting a part time job or maki g so e friends like the Motherland tribe. Feel so sad that anyone would be even knowing what the kid was doing at this stage, ie babysitting and enabling mums to work

YABU I think it sounds pretty fun. Most kids enjoy jumping and it’s better than running laps the entire time.

@Draggondragon

Oh my christ. Have you thought about getting a part time job or maki g so e friends like the Motherland tribe. Feel so sad that anyone would be even knowing what the kid was doing at this stage, ie babysitting and enabling mums to work

What a strange post to link my job status to my child's school activities. I work full time and have plenty of friends.

Why does it make you sad that a parent would take an interest in their child's school day?. I find it encourages good conversation and reflection skills. Do you not care what your child does all day?

In our school in y2 they do 3 pe lessons a week - dance, gymnastics, and games - tennis/netball/hockey/football.
So tbh i do actually think jumping is a bit of a bizarre way to spend an hour for 6 year olds (unless they’re just playing with their friends outside obvs!) This is an independent school
though

@1forAll74

Jumping, was usually incorporated with other types of movements in PE lessons, it seems a lazy way to go about teaching PE.

Teaching thread bingo. Someone states the teacher is lazy for following the National curriculum...

It’s one lesson and it could be part of a wider learning curve. Not all year 2 children have fantastic gross motor and jumping is great for their core, balance and if done to music/ beat it can be really great in helping them learn to build on that movement. I really wouldn’t be concerned and could see the benefits of it. If you want your child to learn a targeted sport, sign them up to a sport club. 🤷‍♀️

@Peanutbuttercupisyum

In our school in y2 they do 3 pe lessons a week - dance, gymnastics, and games - tennis/netball/hockey/football. So tbh i do actually think jumping is a bit of a bizarre way to spend an hour for 6 year olds (unless they’re just playing with their friends outside obvs!) This is an independent school though

Jumping forms a part of all of those sports. Just because it's packaged in a different way doesn't make it less of a lesson.

@Coffeeschmoffe

YANBU. Children that age in other countries are already learning ballet, skiing, figure skating etc - and any Olympian or serious competitive sportsperson will have started their respective sport at that age. I understand you may not be bothered about your child become the next Olympic gold medallist, but the point is, children of that age are capable of learning more than jumping up and down and round and round on the ground for an entire lesson.

Do the kids travel to ski slopes etc for PE lessons in these countries ? Is everyone a similar ability? One of my kids is was struggling with a bike at that age because he was dyspraxic and I'd imagine that he'd have a lot of injuries if he did ski classes.

I believe that the private school where Cambridges send their kids has ballet on the curriculum but I'm assuming that the teacher is a specialist.

YABU - children don't usually develop mature fundamental movement skills (of which jumping is one) until they are around 7 years old. Sounds like good Key Stage 1 pedagogy to me.

look into bilateral integration. Lots of kids could benefit from a few PE lessons jumping tbh.

Good! I’m glad this is in the national curriculum. As a dance teacher I am finding that children are not as agile as they used to be but many more seem to be hypermobile with loose flexible joints and no muscle tone or core strength. Children need to run and jump more in my opinion!

YABU. They are 6, and there are 30 of them.

Try jumping for half an hour - it's pretty good exercise.

I’m not sure why you’ve been criticised for caring about your child’s PE lesson.

I think you probably are being unreasonable about the jumping as it will be incorporating more skills. I saw them doing something similar in my daughter’s gymnastics class and you could see they needed some skill to do full rotations and land cleanly.

I was quite shocked by the comments by @unknownstory about physical literacy. It was quite eye opening tbh as I’d never imagined healthy 6 year olds not being able to jump or walk a mile

If you are in England you can look on the school website and look at their PE Curriculum. You can also look at their Sport Premium report

I coach kids sports and those of you saying that their 5yr olds are doing hockey / tennis / football - you need to look at the content of lessons.
There will be a lot of very basic movement & balance games in there.. chase, leapfrog, stealing bibs etc.
You probably don't realise that.
Balancing on one leg (football/hockey)
Catching & throwing a ball (netball / basketball / cricket / goal keeping)
Hitting a large plastic ball (cricket / tennis / hockey coordination).
At age 6 these 'sports' won't look anything like they do at age 12.
ABC of physical literacy comes first

"Sport" and "pe" arent really the same.

Team sports with very young children often mean not getting that much actual exercise initially, or can be dominated by one or two very sporty children who learn outside school.

Is your child quite sporty/physical?

Lots of children don't find jumping easy and don't do it that well.

What? Are you serious
I think all I ever asked my DC at that age re school was "did you have a nice time".
They all managed to get into decent unis and one rowed at national level (before injury). Despite a state school education and a mother who didn't care that they spent time jumping 🙄

@Peanutbuttercupisyum as others have said those 'sports' will include a lot of very basic core skills wrapped up differently. It's impossible to move on otherwise. A lot of kids, private & non, do no sports or outdoor activity outside of school