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].

And yes, separate PE for girls and boys at secondary school, definitely! DD was very glad of this.

My DD's state school offered most of those. I did badminton, table tennis, ice skating and gym sessions over 30 years ago. Alternative sports-43 available, it's your school that is being dogmatic

My god I hated PE in high school. The teacher was always dressed in a padded coat and jogging bottoms and would shout as us for shivering in our t shirt and shorts that we were forced to wear 🤬

I find physical exercise by way of team sports or anything competitive anxiety inducing but 90% of the time that was all that was offered.

I went to a state school but we still had a school hall and indoor sport equipment like badminton nets etc. I loved badminton, just hitting the shuttlecock back and forth was fine. I didn't have to count points if I didn't want to and no one was trying to break my shins with a hockey stick.

Like someone above said, why not put an aerobics video on and let us do that? Or put people in sets for PE (though that may not always work as I was actually a really fast runner and good at long jump 🤦🏻‍♀️)

PE definitely affected the way I view exercise as an adult.

My DS and DD love PE, all throughout primary and now secondary.
It's not the same experience for all.
They are quite sporty though.
It's like any other subject, some kids are better than others at it.

I also loved PE as a kid.

Quincythequince

it’s one anecdote of thousands and. you’re giving anecdotes the other way.

Thread after thread saying the same and people in real life put off exercise for ever kind of infers it’s more than anecdotal. Look at the curriculum and planning. Zero differentiation, too much focus on team games and way too little of meaningful and enjoyable individual exercise that children would chose to take further.

Maths / spelling/ writing competitions are optional and submitted privately . If pupils want to engage in team sports crack on but don’t make it obligatory for everybody and the focus of the majority of PE lessons.

State comprehensive in the late 70s- we went horse riding and ice skating!

I think whole days should be PE days. Hiking, wild swimming, orienteering. The only cost would be transport and staffing.

A double period where getting changed is part of it, is too rushed.

There’s room for team sports too, but let’s get kids involved in stuff they might actually want to do outside school, and teach them how to do it safely.

Failing that look at the health of our nation. Not enough people engaging in exercise. I wonder why.

It’s because of a massive historic failure of PE teaching to deliver in a meaningful and enjoyable way.

I think it should be more competitive and given more qudos to be honest.
Yoga is a waste of time for that age group as the sounds created and shapes their bodies go in would be "cringe" in my dds words

It doesn't need time and money, but it does need a little imagination. When I was at school PE was dealt with incredibly badly, and games sessions for those not good enough to be in the teams tended to mean standing around on the netball pitch chatting because it was left unsupervised. I was happy to exercise, if only to get warm, but no-one bothered. If they had simply sent us off on walks or runs we would have got more exercise, and it wouldn't have been too difficult to organise exercise classes and energetic dance sessions that would have required very little by way of extra equipment or facilities.

We’re not talking about competitions. We’re talking about lessons!

And for every kid that apparently gets bullied on here, there will be more who aren’t bullied, but whose parents just aren’t posting.

Unless you are saying the professor. Of PE teachers is occupied exclusively by sadists and people who mentally abuse children.

And in classroom based, academic lessons, children less able, are often singled out by teachers or repeatedly called on to answer a question. What do you call that?

Please don’t pretend for one second that this doesn’t happen or that it’s just a problem in PE.

TBH, I think people need to just tell their kids to get on with it. And actually maybe encourage them to be fitter and do more sport.

An aerobics video in lesson, class after class? Good god! How is this considered acceptable teaching.

Why is PE given so little attention given how important it is for overall health.

Oh give over!

🙄

So now PE teachers are responsible for our atrocious health as a nation! Wow, that’s a stretch.

And I’m not saying the curriculum doesn’t need to be improved btw!

I’m sure it could with an overhaul, but I take exception to the notion that an entire group teachers are the reasons kids don’t do exercise. PE teachers are all vile bullies and responsible for our poor health as a nation. Insane jump quite frankly.

How many parents on here encourage exercise? Do you think your child would be amenable and willing in a one hour time slot?

Imagine 30 of them, in the rain. It’s a miserable task isn’t it.

I suspect this somesort of journalist , definitely not a parent or one with a chip on their shoulder about pe

PE has completely changed from when i was at school. My DC had pathways and could chose their 3 sports for the year. My DS did golf and i think my dd chose dance. This was a normal comprehensive

@Quincythequince maybe you have a point there but I do think at least in my experience the PE teachers while not bullies themselves did not do a hell of a lot in reprimanding the attitude and comments made by a group of predominantly boys and while you say PE is meant to teach teamwork and having to work with people more skilled then you or less skilled then you working as a team helping each other I do think the teachers never once encouraged the stronger PE students to help people who might be weaker or had a chat about what is helpful and unhelpful. Also especially once at secondary school it would be appreciated if the boys were taught what is acceptable and unacceptable when sharing a PE lesson with girls.

It’s not directly competitive. I never met the other people I was competing with for a university place, I don’t know who I beat or who beat me. I’ve never met the other candidates I’m competing with for a job, I don’t have to face them and they don’t jeer at me when they get the job and I don’t. Indirect competition is absolutely fine. It’s direct competition that I have a problem with and don’t want to engage in. PE is the only subject which involves direct face-to-face competition and it’s wrong and harmful.

YADBU My Ds who has ASD and ADHD was exempt from PE because of his inability to cope from year 8 to year 11 when he left. No alternative.was provided. Four years with no exercise at all. He went from a skinny massively active child in primary to a depressed lethargic overweight one in secondary school. Even at home, we couldn't get him to cycle or run or swim or go to tennis and kickboxing lessons after year 9 all things he had happily done until then.

The only thing he kept doing was trampolining in the garden so we bought several trampolines before we found one strong enough for him to still keep using as he grew into a 17 year old 6,ft 2, 90kg man size

Nowadays he uses the trampoline, and a boxing bag we put in the garden most days, does a set of exercises he chose in his room every day and goes for walks a few times week. He's has lost a lot of the weight he put on and generally is fitter than he was.

I know the lack of PE wasn't the main reason for his depression and mental health spiral in his mid teens but if the school had said he had to use their small gym ( which they have) under the supervision of his TA ( which he had) during PE lessons he probably would have done it, and the exercise could only have helped, but they never even tried . He just sat in the SEN room during PE sessions every week for 4 years

Picking teams did it for me.

I do honestly believe that picking teams is an appalling practice that should be banned. As far as I'm concerned it's teacher approved bullying.

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.
I’m autistic, you can’t teach me to work together with others. It’s not possible because of my disability. It’s virtually impossible to teach people with vastly different skills to work together and it doesn’t happen in the adult world either. You can’t teach winning or losing graciously either, because the winners and losers are always the same. I will always be the loser and someone else will always be the winner, how does that teach me anything but misery and helplessness?

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.
The kids aren’t lazy or dawdling. They’re probably physically unfit and struggling and can’t go any faster. Raising your voice at anyone in either a work or school environment is always unacceptable and abusive, as is criticising someone for physical issues with their body which are beyond their control.

I do like the basis of what you are saying. My son loves sport and is competitive but when it was summer and cricket he hated it (winter and rugby and he was as a happy as a pig in muck which is a fairly apt description of the reality of it).
My daughter is quite good at sport but hated the competitiveness, and just wanted to play netball (for example) for fun, not be stressed about it, but only the ones on the team got to play it regularly, the other girls were just let loose in the gym where they supposedly used the equipment like stationary bikes (she said they just gently peddled away and gossiped).
Also it doesn't help the limited time they have. Two hours a week is nothing - and I do recall my youngest complaining how they were given five minutes to change into games outfit which is why she hated her skirt with five buttons and her tie and tights!
My daughter is at a private sixth form now and they do offer a wide program (she has asked for either pilates or badminton- which has a few - this term). This range cannot be offered at state schools due to budget but I do think there could be vast improvements.

Exactly. I didn't feel anxious about PE at school despite being rubbish at it ( as an overweight dispraxic child 😄) . However I still remember one of my PE teachers as a really aggressive shouty woman who regularly made.me and the other non sporty kids run around the 4 tennis courts and called most of us lazy . I came in last almost every time even amongst the other lazy ones who were made to do the run or shame . I definitely found it upsetting sometimes but in the end the effect it had was to make me feel 🙄and to just do the run as slowly as possible so it would take up a lot of time . I began to feel internally proud of how slow I could do it and how far last I could come.. I behaved quite badly and has a terrible attitude. I didn't get into much trouble about it as I kept it just the right side of acceptable . I was one of the ' academic stars' in the school and impeccably behaved in class so probably had a lot of leeway

The weird thing is I liked some sports early on ( lacrosse, netball, badminton,.even a bit of tennis) but as secondary school went on and I was always the last chosen for those teams when playing, I loathed the lessons so much. I found no joy whatsoever in PE or anything improving about it and usually felt really bad about myself after so I just decided sport and exercise were not for me.

This is the way lots of children who are struggling at school feel about their lessons I suppose and that is why they behaviour often deteriorates .

I was good at the academic stuff at school but the way I behaved in PE makes me completely understand children who behaved with truculence and even aggression on lessons. I felt usually felt pretty angry throughout PE

I think there are a number of things that could be done very easily that would help make PE less awful for the non-sporty kids. But, the sporty kids should also be able to enjoy the lessons. Competitive sport can be character building and since everything is about team-work these days it can be really good at fostering good team behaviour.

For starters changing rooms need to be better organised - but I'm not sure how that would work. Staff need to be on top of bullying in this area.

Picking teams: the two weakest who are always picked last should be picking the teams. If there are lots of weaker ones, then turn by turn. The kids know who these ones are so there is no stigma. These kids need to learn how to pick a team and how to organise a team. The others need to learn how to follow instructions, but also how to suggest improvements in a way that isn't steamrollering over them.

For things where individual timings are important (races etc) there should also be focus on personal bests, or small and incremental improvements in personal performances. But not to the exclusion of having winners, and teaching them how to be gracious about winning, as well as teaching the non-winners about being a good loser.

etc etc

A love of sport - yes - despite never being picked for anything.
A decent level of fitness - no.
There should be more fitness based PE including running which is cheap and easy to do. But it should be in addition to team sports which are too valuable not to include. And no - completely impractical and a recipe for even higher levels of obesity to take it out of the school curriculum.

Agree with @Brefugee Excellent points.