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].

Isnt that a lot of PE anyway. We did things like that over 50 years ago, back in the day when it was vest and knickers. We still had to do running which i was usually last and seimming where i was one of the best.
Dc had the option of dance and the gym (leisure centre part of school). As i said they had a pathway and could chose 3 sports for the year in secondary. This was about 10 years ago

No, I never said that. Volunteers can supplement not replace teachers. No PE teacher can possibly be an expert on every sport, hence the often limited options in many schools. Obviously if you don't think there is any need to widen the curriculum then it doesn't matter, but lots of people do. Multiple posters have however indicated a belief that it is impossible to broaden the choices due to cost. Utilising volunteers from the community is one possible solution to that problem. Yes, it shouldn't be necessary and everything should be properly funded in schools but the reality is that it never has been, and it probably never will be.
Schools do not exist in a vacuum, they are part of their community. Or at least they should be. I have seen some excellent symbiotic relationships between schools and community groups in a number of sports and other activities.
But I guess you have to hold crazed right wing beliefs around things like collective responsibility to get involved with things like that. Bloody fascists, using their skills and time trying to broaden opportunities for other people's kids. Where will it all end?

@Quincythequince

*It’s not a bloody spa.
It’s school!
You go and source taster sessions ans take your kid along.
How on earth is this an acceptable curriculum subject?

There needs to be measurable targets which are reflected in the year end grade and progress. How the heck can you do this with your suggested PE lessons (which are no longer lessons really are they?).*

I actually think then that PE shouldn't have measurable targets in this way then if it's going to cause provision to narrow.

I think that the main goal of PE in school should be to promote lifelong health through love of exercise.

The best way to do that is to allow children to experience different types of physical activity and help them find at least one that they love.

Not everything in life needs to be about grades and progress.

Students know if they’re below average ability and will happily remove themselves from the group option if they feel they can’t perform at a certain level or if they think they might embarrass themselves or be bullied. Students who have their period would probably choose the solo option, as well as students who don’t feel 100% that day, students who struggle with their weight or fitness and those who struggle socially to interact in a group.

That's ridiculous. I like team sport! I may be terrible at it, but would rather persevere at a challenge & do something fast-faced than mindlessly throw balls in a hoop (yeah right, they won't compete on that one, and talk about making PE as pointless & dull as possible). Periods irrelevant.

That’s up to you though. If you know you’re terrible but still feel happy to play, more power to you. But for a lot of students, if they’re terrible they get bullied. Either made fun of and humiliated or bullied because they’re disadvantaging the rest of the team. There needs to be a solo activity option for students who don’t wish to compete in a team sport for whatever reason.

You can’t reasonably do every sport in school though. And that’s not really why school is there, is it. And they don’t need to be an expert in every sport do they.

It’s insane to suggest that volunteers should regularly be contributing to the PE lessons at school sand removes all responsibility for funding and managing it properly by schools.

Not to mention the sheer admin involved, including DBS checks, permission slips etc.

I never called anybody a fascist either by the way - unless you think Tories are fascists which is a bit 🤔

Collective responsibility IS the fact that we have state funded schools. To the suggest that volunteers, and a whole stream of them regularly according to you - should become a pivotal part of this is (people working for free during a school day) - to make it better, is crazy.

Parents can and should engage their kids in sport and exercise more.

And FYI I have three boys who have, over the years participated in multiple grass roots clubs, for which I have been an administrator and a volunteer, so am very familiar with the sheer bloody red tape involved in this.

Ok so teachers don’t have to be able to spot difficulties- does that extend to all learning difficulties?

Newsflash it’s our job!

You can measure progress in many ways.

Subjective measures of engagement, enthusiasm, etc.

You can be technically bad at a sport but get credit for trying and joining in. You can’t ask for more than that tbh!

Being responsible for and accurately recognising a clinical condition that may present physically, is not a teachers job at all!

Teachers are also not meant to be assessing for this eitherz

World’s gone mad.

Just teach (well if possible) the subject area/s that you are trained to teach in, and be done with it.

Just returned to the thread after a looong day (teaching, incidentally, but not PE).

Thanks for your vigorous engagement, everyone (I've RTFT) -it is really interesting to read people's takes on this and it certainly makes for a good debate. Also sad to see so many stories of suboptimal experiences, still impacting lives decades later. So many missed opportunities.

Apologies to those who have felt afronted by me suggesting activities that may incur high costs; I definitely did not intend to cause offence. Some settings may just have access to a more niche activity by sheer fluke and dint of location, and as a PP suggested, local clubs might be persuaded to coach on site in the event that they attract new participants. A whole raft of activities were suggested in relation to this possibility. I wonder whether a school that decided that they wanted to pursue a more inclusive PE offer and put out, through the PTA, for instance, that they wanted to raise funds for some specialist equipment, might be successful?

I absolutely understand that staffing levels could be an obstacle and that for this reason, in some schools, the idea of giving pupils a couple of options per term wouldn't work. I wonder whether there might be an appetite and uptake among non-PE teachers to undertake CPD in some physical activities: just saw that basic Zumba instructor training takes 9h online.

The subject of quality teaching and coaching has also been raised; I hadn't really considered this, which is stupid, as I'm also a teacher! It seems to be the experience of so many posters that skills progression and instruction isn't necessarily universal and could play a part in promoting enjoyment and a sense of accomplishment.

Choice and autonomy seem to come up a lot, as does the preservation of dignity, both in changing facilities and on the courts, fields, tracks and pitches.

Rainbow, I think you've summed it up nicely "I think that the main goal of PE in school should be to promote lifelong health through love of exercise."

And Quincy, there should be some kind of prize for dedication to a debate like yours; you've brought really interesting angles to the discussion -thank you! I don't think I hold any particular answers and didn't expect my musings to be received like "Hey, let's do this...", just want to open a conversation on a topic many posters here are bound to have experience of and opinions about.

When you're putting this all together for your appraisal, bear in mind that the law says maimtained schools can't do 'mates' rates' for premises hire these days. They have to charge the going rate or it causes issues with financial benchmarking. So asking clubs to use the site isn't feasible, especially when the site team will need to be paid.

i know i'm making assumptions here but as a disabled person with non obvious disabilities pe was always the bane of my life and i was happy in year 9 to be rid of it, pe teachers were always so pushy even when i myself and my mum and my doctors said i couldn't do certain things they'd try to force me anyway, and that's every pe teacher i've had since reception up till year 9 obviously. and they'd complain the entire time when i had to sit out of something but if i didn't i'd be out of school for sometimes weeks recovering.

Mooncup, no appraisal -what a weird thing to suggest. Apologies if it appears that I've engaged in some kind of 'ideas harvest'. I teach primary (so not a PE teacher) but have DC at secondary and just notice that the feeling in both my DCs friendship group and among my own friends' DC, there is an appetite for something different. I realise, reading responses from actual PE specialists on this thread, that some of my suggestions may not be workable in secondary schools as it currently stands. Many primaries outsource PE teaching and the companies responsible for provision employ coaches with really impressive and varied skills sets.

I was rhe most unsporting person, but i lo v ed PE lessons at school.There wasn't an unpleasant atmosphere.Mosr of the lessons was doing drills to build up skills .2 of the PE teachers were national coaches one in hockey and one in netball and I feel having a deep understanding of the sports probably helped
My dcs state school does PE 3x a week.Girls PE once being a double games lesson or in summer athletics,once swimming ( have a pool) and the third session rotates every half term through badminton,climbing ( have a wall), gymnastics, basket ball, lacrosse, dance

If it wasn’t for school PE, what else would they be doing.

In my case Ju-Jitsu and swimming.

Always a non competitive solo option where the student can do as much or as little as they feel capable of.

but we all know that there are children who need encouragement or they just sit/stand around doing nothing. How is this "activity" to be supervised when there is one teacher for the class?

It's not PE that's the problem, is it? i's some teachers and some class bullies.I'd rather see that addressed, properly.

Teachers have to do it for other subjects and manage in far harder circumstances. Some manage it in PE. If they were watched by an Ofsted inspector they’d have to pull it out of the bag.

Schools have never and will never address bullying. My proposal for solo exercise would allow bullied children to opt out of activities where they’ll be bullied. So what if they’re mostly sitting or standing around doing nothing? At least they’re safe. That’s preferable to being bullied in a group sport, which teachers cannot prevent.

As for supervision, they could put all of the solo kids together in the hall and check on them occasionally. PE teachers rarely provide constant supervision at secondary level, that’s how bullying happens in the first place.

That soinds like a teribble idea, would have thought it would open up to more bullying