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].

@Dadaya competition is pretty unavoidable. Every school subject is competitive, eg via streaming, via moderation of exam results. Getting into university (or onto almost higher education courses) is competitive. Getting a job is competitive. Getting promoted is competitive.

I fully agree with pp who say that privacy in changing rooms could go a long way to helping students feel more comfortable about PE. I don't see what the issue is with including team sports though as long as they are well taught. Teaching kids they need to work together with others who may be better or worse than them in an important life skill. As is learning to win / lose graciously.

No other subject except PE is competitive

That's not true. Kids compete for grades (exams and individual assignments). They have story writing and colouring-in contests. Easter bonnets. They have times table challenge. There's math challenges (?UKMT), there's auditions to be in the school play, speaking contests, talent shows, build an electric car tournaments. There are award ceremonies to win nothing at. Leadership selection events which may be reduced to popularity votes. And that's without the hassle of competition for the general favour of the popular kids. Singing was compulsory in my primary school thus other kids sniggered at me openly I guess my singing was that bad. There's a lot of competition and rivalry in every subject and domain.

The idea that kids wouldn't be ultra-competitive at table tennis & fencing, you're having a laugh. DS is scheming competitive (& shows off) at skating. He charged up the hill on countryside walks (school residential): that was showing off & competition, too. Archery is innately competitive. I officially under-performed when I did weight/gym stuff (formal class at American university): obviously some people must have done well. Am surprised OP didn't mention swimming: in spite of many lessons, I also failed to learn to swim properly before adulthood. But most people did succeed at learning to swim a stroke. When you're athletically declined, you can effortlessly fail at everything. You've got a real uphill battle to find something where no one is allowed to obviously excel over others.

My daughters school as streaming for PE. It's based on those bleep tests where you run back and forth.

They do have a gym so one of their block of weeks is that. She's quite happy as it's GCSE year so they have told them that there will be more choice and it will be more chilled so it's some time for them to relax among the intensity of GCSE lessons. From Easter they can opt out if it altogether.

I’ve said for a while that PE should be taught in a different way. I’d be bringing in sport “experts” such as martial art senseis, to take lessons - not necessarily affiliated to just one school, but an area. A lot of sports teachers, have their own preferences and favourite sports, with tends to get foisted onto the kids.
My sons teacher didn’t even know the rules of rugby, and was quite happy to let the local rugby team (in the class) teach for him while he sat on the side of the pitch. The problem with that, was that the “team” were used to the hard tackling on the pitch. The rest of the class not so much 🙄
Id also have a longer school day, accommodating working parents and childcare, while covering more activities that normally only “relatively well off” kids currently have access to - not just sports, but music lessons, art, dance etc.

It's a real source of frustration to me that PE lessons are still designed entirely around the needs and wants of people who are good at it and want to compete. Those who are not are left to feel anxious and a failure and often quickly form the idea that they "hate" exercise. Which is not actually the truth, they just hate being constantly ridiculed and shouted at for not being good enough.
What can we do?
My niece's school streamed PE lessons in the same way as they streamed more academic subjects.
The higher streams competed whilst the lower ones did the type of activities that you suggested. She was in the bottom set and absolutely loved it.
The other big stumbling block is that PE is taught almost exclusively by people who have been sporty all their lives and can't really comprehend what it's like to just not be good enough no matter how hard you try. Giving more training in non-competitive PE and actively trying to recruit teachers from a wider range of active backgrounds would help with this. The problem here is that ultimately most schools will prioritise a PE teacher that can coach school teams so that they win matches and look good.
In our school a football specialist is the permanent subject coordinator and PE lead. A dance teacher is very part time and features little in the decision making process. I often wonder what would happen if these two roles were switched around.

Our secondary does yoga, trampolining, has access to an on-site gym during lunch breaks, table tennis. In our last year of high school we were also able to go bowling for a term.

But I do agree I didn’t do any exercise until I was in my 30s due to the experience of PE. I still have nightmares that it is PE the next day and wake on a panic.

I would like to see older pupils being given the chance to do things like working towards refereeing qualifications for example.

I think secondary school PE is often a dismal experience with sadistic teachers making kids run round football pitches in the rain, hardly inspiring a love of exercise

This is is such a cliche! I never met a PE teacher who bullied kids and were a sadist.

In the same way we used to get reports with inappropriate comments in the 80s it may have happened then, but having a PE teacher raising their voices to get lazy kids to put a bit of effort into it when they’re dawdling on their run (yes maybe in the rain, it rains here) is. To sadistic.

Our nation of youth are very unfit and becoming very overweight and a lot of this is to do with parents mollycoddling, just like on here.

This is standard of you take PE at GCSE but also if you participate in school sports too.

State funded school in Herts.

YANBU the way it is taught has a massive impact on those that struggle. My daughter has dyspraxia, the fallout from years of shockingly poor teaching and handling of struggling students which no other subject gets away with was partly the cause of her subsequent mental health struggles and anorexia.

Pupils should be taught to embrace exercise in meaningful and enjoyable ways into their lives. The savings for the NHS as regards physical and mental health problems would be huge.

I do think that it would have greatly helped me if there was at least two options to pick from for PE. A competitive team sport and a none competitive one would sound like a sensible option.

I think another thing that would have made PE a hell of a lot easier and less gruelling for a lot of girls at my school would be if they at least separated the boys and girls for these lessons. for a lot of girls feel awkward and self conscious doing sports in the secondary school years and something as simple as on of the boys laughing while pointing in their general direction could really make the rest of the lesson less then pleasant. yes I know the boy could most likely be laughing at something else completely unrelated but to a 13 or 14 year old that would certainly not feel that way.

Also I know this might not be with every school but it certainly was my experience that separating the girls and boys also changed the atmosphere. the less sporty girls were not in a situation where they felt heckled (PE teachers certainly never reprimanded the boys who did so) and in general the more sporty were a lot more kind and helpful in these areas. It would also have meant that the sporty boys could be as rough and competitive with each other as they wanted without having to work around the fact that they had girls on the team etc.

Quincythequince

My dyspraxic, Hypermobile daughter was screamed at by her PE teacher being told she was letting her team down, not trying hard enough etc. The screaming was so aggressive spit flew in her face. She was on the SEN register and endured scaled down versions of this behaviour all through primary too. Zero differentiation.

Both state schools.

@Q2C4 difference between there being competitiveness in other school subjects is that while yes there are kids who are certainly better in some subjects then others in no other subject is the weaker student open to being heckled and ridiculed.

I hated PE with a passion when I was at school, but dd's experience - in state primary and secondary schools - has been totally different.

Her primary school had the most amazing sports coach, whose stated goal was to get every child in the school to voluntarily sign up for some sort of lunchtime or after school club involving physical activity. He knew how to make PE fun, and I believe he got pretty close to his goal!

Secondary PE was also good - they did all the traditional sports, of course, but they also did a range of other stuff, including fitness, yoga, aerobics, trampolining, orienteering etc. Sometimes they just did wii dance!! The kids were given a lot of opportunity to input into what they did, and they were also set according to ability so that the hard core sporty ones and the not so sporty ones were grouped together. They did do competitive sports, of course, but often the emphasis was on personal best. The philosophy was very much about encouraging the kids to find some kind of physical activity that they liked and enjoyed so that they would lead active lives in the future.

It seemed to me that PE had really moved on since I was at school, but perhaps we were just lucky?!

And one was an all girls school. I’d say an all girls environment is no better.

It’s the teaching and policies that are at fault. Both need to change.

Ds very run of the mill mainstream secondary does a wide variety of different activities in pe. This block he is in the fitness suite, rhey will do orienteering later in the year. There is a mix of different activities all with a different focus

My mother used to drag me to yoga, at about age 15. The teacher would often comment about how supple I was compared to the middle aged regulars. All the poses were easy for me. This was a subject of much commentary by everyone present. I didn't feel encouraged, I hated the attention.

My kids loved to show off at trampolining. I wish they had had more fortitude to persist at martial arts ( but they didn't like losing matches). At aerobics class in the 1980s, we all compared our heart rate recovery statistics, there were targets to meet or fail at (and discuss at length). But Heyho, no competition if it's yoga - aerobics - trampolining - martial arts, I must have imagined it !!

Personally I really enjoyed pe as a kid. In our older years of secondary we had a choice of what to do and mostly opted for badminton and bowling. Occasionally we got the trampoline out as an option which was always popular. We did have short stints of competitive sports like netball and hockey but I enjoyed both and it encouraged me to join the netball team which as a shy child was really good for me.
My children aren't particularly sporty but do tend to enjoy pe. They never mention anything about feeling anxious about their bodies, and they do have badminton in their curriculum plus table tennis club. A lady I know is a yoga teacher and has taught at schools, either for pe or extra curricular. Pe won't suit everyone, just like any other subject

This exactly what happened to us! And the bloody bleep test! 🤣

I was a fat, unfit teenager and all the PE ‘lessons’ seemed to focus on running. I was deeply embarrassed that I was so slow or someone might comment on my body.

We had one completely random ‘lesson’ where we went to use the gym equipment but the teacher didn’t show us how to use anything & we just stood around talking.

As an adult I developed a love of boxing, eastern martial arts, weightlifting and even ~gasp~ jogging but it sure as hell didn’t start in those useless, freezing cold PE lessons being barked orders at like some sort of mini military.

Picking teams did it for me.

I am the least sporty person and parents sent me to a sporty private school...where is the confused emoji that i love?!

I do love hiking. Swimming and weights now though.

Ok, so here is a clear example of abuse. This has witnesses to I presume? That teachers sounds awful and needs dealing with.

Your daughter has this noted on medical forms? Then this teacher is clearly an utter dick.

But anecdote is not evidence for an entire set of professionals - this is often touted on here and it’s wrong. Maybe I know particularly nice teachers and whilst they love their boys in proper completions, they enjoy seeing the lower sets become more skilful and gain confidence. It’s just not true that all of them are bullies.

And I would be in there face to face if someone did that to my kid! What are you doing about this?

*competitions

Helpful.

Says who?

A maths teacher at my son’s school is regularly pulled up for singling people out who don’t know answers!

Some teachers, indeed people, are just dicks.

I'm looking forward to when this becomes the PE curriculum and I am left with the 3 kids in the class that won't do any sport, because the rest are out on a trip to the local ice rink, and there is no point in teaching what I have to as I will just have to repeat it the next lesson.