To think that PE could be reconsidered in order to be a more meaningful and enjoyable experience for secondary aged pupils (and primary too!)?

[EveSix]

This week, I'm hearing so many of DC1's school friends and parents express their frustration with the experience of PE in school (secondary age in our case, across several schools, two counties / local education authorities). So many pupils seem to loath it and struggle to participate with any real sense of enthusiasm or enjoyment.

In DC1's friendship group, PE gives rise to lots of anxiety about changing bodies and comparison; nobody seems to feel better for a stint on the field. I'm an active adult now and love physical exercise on my own terms, but remember feeling very much like DC1's friends when I went to school.

Looking at the National Curriculum for PE (KS3 copied in below), I can't help but to feel as if there could be another way of teaching young people to actually enjoy physical activity and feel good and safe in their bodies. There are so many ways to be active, and some of them, if approached sensitively and creatively, would be bound to appeal to kids who don't feel there is a place for them in PE lessons at the moment.

Across the schools I know, there seems to be a big focus on competitive team sports and track, which just isn't going to be everyone's idea of fun. I'm sure many more pupils with SEN and anxiety are exempt from PE than geography or food tech because it's can be such a high stress environment. When I exercise, I'm definitely not looking for a stressy time.

Does anyone care to join me in musing on what alternative provision and activities might be enjoyed more broadly if made available?
If you didn't like PE the way it was taught at your secondary school, is there an activity you think you might have enjoyed? Or perhaps a different approach to teaching PE altogether? Contributions from DC welcome!

YABU: young people just need to crack on with it; PE is character-building

YANBU: PE could be made more enjoyable and relevant to a wider range of pupils

My suggestions would be (some might involve travel to facilities not within easy walking distance):
Yoga
Pilates
Nordic walking
Mindfulness walking
Archery
Fencing
Badminton
Table tennis
Rollerskating
Ice skating (DC1's school is in spitting distance of an ice skating rink, for instance)
Gym sessions for cardio (exercise bikes, treadmills, rowing machines etc) and free weights

I am convinced that if I'd had the experience of learning to enjoy a range of physical activities that made me feel good about myself in a relaxed environment during OR lessons, I would have been happier in general at school.

Here's the the first part if the PE Programme of Study for KS3:

Purpose of study
A high-quality physical education curriculum inspires all pupils to succeed and excel in competitive sport and other physically-demanding activities. It should provide opportunities for pupils to become physically confident in a way which supports their health and fitness.

Opportunities to compete in sport and other activities build character and help to embed values such as fairness and respect.

Aims
The national curriculum for physical education aims to ensure that all pupils:
 develop competence to excel in a broad range of physical activities
 are physically active for sustained periods of time
 engage in competitive sports and activities
 lead healthy, active lives.
Attainment targets
By the end of each key stage, pupils are expected to know, apply and understand the matters, skills and processes specified in the relevant programme of study.
Schools are not required by law to teach the example content in [square brackets].

Or is that also the teachers job too? To manage your kids health and fitness.
Anything they want to cover at school as part of the national curriculum is the teacher’s job. I’m certainly not going to cover health and fitness at home because I don’t give a shit about it and I have no knowledge on the subject.

"This is a very privileged and ableist assumption."
Ableist
LOL never heard that before - Brilliant quite Brilliant

Are you offended by everything?

I understand all of this.

Bur physical fitness is important for health.

Actual physical health and longevity.

Music, whilst a wonderful skill to have to be able to participate well in (that wasn’t me at all, although I enjoy it now) is not.

Bodies are made to move.

They can’t make it selective activities in a school with limited resources. One, maybe two teachers and 30 kids?

How?

You don’t know how to run either, so this doesn’t surprise me at all.

I agree with you but there's a lack of government funding to make them available in all schools.

I went to a private girls' secondary and we had access to a huge array of sports. There was tennis, squash, swimming, shooting, gymnastics, dance, bowling, sailing, etc and there was definitely something from everyone.

I wonder whether schools these days make any use of outside expert advice? For example Couch 2 5K - I didn't use it but I see so many people credit it for getting them into running. Why couldn't that be part of a PE lesson for less athletic types? There's so much free fitness advice out there aimed at everyone from sport nuts to couch potatoes.

You don’t give a shot about health and fitness?
You know nothing about it, can’t run, can’t catch a ball, but think anyone can do algebra?

Exactly. If you want a child to run faster you need to teach them breathing techniques, give them knowledge about diet and hydration, provide training exercises for them to practise and assess their progress. Not just yell “run faster!”

YANBU. I found PE absolute torture when I was at school, both primary and secondary. Sad to hear that not much has changed. Now I'm older I can see the value of team based competitive sports, but there needs to be balance. I would've loved more things like Pilates, aerobics, trampolining, hiking, etc.

I have 2 daughters in yr7 & yr8. They have two P.E lessons per week. One lesson is based around a team sport (netball, rugby, football) , the other a more activing whole class activity (long distance running, orienteering, gymnastics).

When I was at school at the start of every term we would, as half of our year group, sit in the sports hall with the head of P.E yelling which teacher was doing which sport this term and to sit in a line in front of whichever teacher we wanted. Easy.

People don’t need to be taught to run!! What is wrong with you?

I'd say that people don't need to be taught to put one foot in front of another quickly. That is the part that parents should be doing.
But running on the balls of your foot rather than stamping down flat footed, adjusting your breathing (I do step step/breathe step step/breathe, others do more steps) and learning how to use your arms and pace yourself are all pointers PE teachers can give you. But it is not difficult to work out this stuff.

The problem is that a one hour per week PE lesson is no help if you don't have a basic and expected for your age group* the PE lesson is going to be exceedingly boring for, i would guess, the majority of the class.

Teaching techniques in netball (how many of our class were super surprised when we learned that a pass to someone can be done by bouncing the ball? what a game-changer, literally) or hockey can be done - they used to. Has that changed?

I also agree that some things need to be offered that not all the class like: aerobic type class, trampoline if possible, dodgeball whatever, alongside the tortuous circuit training etc.

The PE teachers need to be able to teach PE not get lazy children fit.

*disclaimers about disabilities/sen aren't needed are they?

You don't give a shit about health and fitness? Seriously?

QED, people are different! I know fuck all about sport and art but I can do algebra with one hand tied behind my back. Others may have excellent art skills but be unable to spell. And others may be amazing at sport but unable to add up. The role of school is to teach all subjects and give pupils an equal opportunity - not rely on parents to teach them, since parents don’t all have the same skills and knowledge.

Does anyones DCs school still force the ridiculous netball skirts and polo shirts on girls?

It used to make me fume at secondary school that we had to dress to look a certain way for PE while the boys just got to wear plain tshirts and sports shorts.

Because exercise is deemed somewhat necessary but activities involving great expense are not. To be fair schools could have access to virtual instructors for some of these (such as yoga) at a fraction of the cost of paying a qualified teacher to be present.

It's a shame because when I was at state school in the 80s Games was for team sports / cross country and athletics and PE was for tennis / badminton / table tennis /"movement" (some kind of weird yoga hybrid) / basketball / lacrosse and trampolining - all of which I was able to do and all of which were taught by teachers on site and all of which were termly options. Now I pay to send my kids to an independent school so they can have a similar experience to the one I had for free. However, participation is expected - on sports days they now go in wearing their sports kit - this has stayed after covid.

Is it so surprising? Most people don’t give a shit about fitness, the average British person is overweight. I eat what I want. I smoke. I’m fat. My job involves sitting in front of a computer. Going for a run would be a boring waste of time to me.

Well, that would explain your attitude towards PE then. But I'd disagree that most people don't give a shit about fitness, most people want to be fit and healthy but might struggle or have other obstacles in the way towards getting fit and healthy, but would be happier if they were.

The PE teachers need to be able to teach PE not get lazy children fit.
Being unfit doesn’t mean you’re lazy. It’s not acceptable to call fat people lazy. I’m fat and unfit - I also work very hard and I’m not lazy.

62% of British people are overweight or obese. That’s a pretty significant majority of people who don’t care about fitness.

It is neglect to say you don’t give a shot about health and fitness.

Nothing less than that.

Stop comparing having algebra skills to those required to live a fit, healthy life. Nobody died or had their QOL reduced because they couldn’t do algebra.

Out of curiosity, why do you keep focussing on algebra specifically (I have a minor in maths at UG level, and this is a bizarre way to describe maths skills tbh).

Dad you are going to be spectacularly bored when your body starts to pack in and you have years of ill health and medicine in front of you.
I find running and the gym boring. I still do it. In the same way I eat well and pay into a pension. It should benefit me in 40yrs time.

So?
You’re saying this is ok then?
One of the fattest nations in Europe,
bur never mind, just focus on algebra.

And btw, most people are ow or obese because of what they eat, rather than exercise

Exercise is good for health and metabolic function in the main, and the basic level required to help you stay well, won’t results in weight loss necessarily.

She’ll only need one arm for her algebra though.
So it won’t matter.

How many arms for trigonometry, or Euclidean geometry, or calculus algebra though dad?

Of course it doesn’t.

But many school kids are lazy in PE.

Many!

I have never seen someone so offended and deliver such spectacular whataboutery on a thread as you have here today.

It’s been very entertaining to say the least.
😆

You eat what you want, you smoke, you’re fat, you can’t run and You don’t give a shit about any of this. Your words.

And you think your views on the best way to teach health and fitness should be reasonably considered?