Sports day shock

[Mrslarge24]

My children have recently had their sports days.
I have one very sporty child, and one that gets very anxious about anything sport-related and dreads sports day! Much like myself as a kid.
One sports day was for y3&y4, the other was for Y5 & y6.
I was amazed at the lack of general fitness in so many of the kids.
They had to do a "long-distance run" which was about 200m. A huge amount of them couldn't run it all and some didn't even make it half way before walking and panting.
My non-sporty one managed it fine, because although he doesn't enjoy much sport we do go for long walks, he plays in the garden alot and loves swimming with us so has a basic fitness level. Much like myself, I'm no fitness fanatic!
AIBU to think this is shocking to see children of this age not be able to run/jog 200m?!
i guess it's computers/iPads etc but at what point does a parent start to feel ashamed to have let their children get so unfit?!
Made me feel quite sad 😢

I don’t think any child stopped during one of our sports day races and plenty ran many times in one day. It’s an active and sporty school in general though.

Walking a mile is a diff type of exercise compared to the type sport you describe on sports day. It doesn’t mean that walking shouldn’t be encouraged, it means that they have not been practising regularly for that type of sport and that they don’t do enough sport in general.
It means that the school is not doing enough to keep them active, and you could help by getting them involved in local netball, rugby, hockey or gymnastics club /swimming or whatever they tickles their fancy. Park run is a free but fun way for the family to get active.

‘Not enough PE at school, teacher keeps cancelling, lunchtime sports club has stopped, poverty/cost of living’….

Walking, running, local park are all free and available to child and parent.

Stop blaming schools and be a parent.

Why would someone be blaming schools for wage stagnation, inflation, the curriculum?

At what point does a parent start to feel ashamed to have let their children get so unfit?!

The parents are fat as well

Regarding finances - 'in the old days' the poorest kids were probably also the fittest due to out all day playing, walking everywhere.

Noticeable about the overweight kids in my son's class is that they all bring packed lunch instead of having school dinners and most of them are in wraparound childcare most days. The overweight ones are much redder and sweatier than the others at the soft play parties.

Dropped off and picked up by car, they don't do exercise during wraparound care and only do pe once a week. PE might be dance or gymnastics so not really exercise. Their exercise is playtime and lunchtime plus weekends. At least our school still gives them a total of 1 hour 45 breaks. Many schools have reduced this. I really think primary schools need to do a daily fitness activity for all children. 20 minutes would be enough.

We need to get our children moving move, there should be more opportunities for children to play. So many playtimes have been cut. How many schools now get an afternoon break? 2 lessons of PE week aren't enough, the pressure on teachers in the curriculum mean there is no room for play. Some years ago as a teacher, Friday afternoons were for play, we spent a lot of that outside. Now with technology just playing outside doesn't happen. Imagine if play was a bigger part how much happier our children would be.

Was sad to read that 42% of year 6 children in Newcastle are overweight or obese. What are we doing to our children?

I have definitely noticed that the kids who are overweight also have very obviously overweight parents! So looks like they are all eating and living unhealthy by not exercising. Fitness is so important for mental and physical well being!

Agree that the curriculum doesn’t allow for enough playing and PE twice a week isn’t enough.

I am teaching in a primary school in Ireland. We have PE lessons once a week (60 mins in our school or can be broken up into 2x 30 min sessions as we have limited access to school hall and yard space so timetabling is tight) but our children spend both 20min breaks every day playing catch, soccer and generally moving around the yard continuously, whether they be in Junior Infants or Sixth class. Of course we have falls and collisions from time to time, but luckily, nothing too serious.

Are children allowed to run during break times in primary schools in England? That activity is far more beneficial to the children than a structured PE lesson, in my opinion, as you usually won’t have continuous movement in a PE class (children listening to instructions, taking turns, type of activity being done, etc.- e.g level of activity in a dance or gymnastics lesson won’t be the same as that in an athletics class, and so on.)

@Houseofdragonsisback

"Why would someone be blaming schools for wage stagnation, inflation, the curriculum?"

I'm no Tory voter but I wondered how long it would be before someone put the blame for overweight and unfit children on to the Government.

Firstly who are they going to blame when Labour get elected and secondly how about taking some personal responsibility for your own and your children's weight and fitness

I've seen this type of comment a couple of times here. Yes, over confidence and risk taking contribute to good swimmers drowning but non swimmers are obviously at significant risk in water if they have not learned water safety or basic swimming skills. Global drowning rates are highest in 1-4 year olds and next in 5-9 year olds.

Sure - PE twice a week isn’t enough. Which is why parents should be taking their children outside for some fucking exercise

@1dayatatime

socio economics are a thing. Google is your friend here.

I guess it's the fact they are SO unfit though. So coming last wouldn't be a problem or something to be judgy about, but not being able to do it at all is pretty poor.

The equivalent would be if a child couldn't write a sentence by age 11, or didn't know their five times table. Barring exceptional circumstances or SEN issues, parents of those children should be ashamed too, imo.

But that is diet to diet, not exercise. Those over weight and obese children are being fed garbage day in day out through poor parenting and poverty.

You can be fit without being sporty.

My year 4 daughter ran 600m for her school. There was quite a few that could run it?
she also plays netball out of school and dances and swims! So could be just all those helped when she ran the 600m.

I don't live in the UK, and have a school in the next block to me. I often see the kids running around the block a few times during PE, it seems to be a regular thing - which is good to see.

I don't think the parents of the non-sporty kids should be ashamed. Should parents whose kids are behind expectations for maths or english be ashamed?

Of course they should be ashamed!! All children should be getting some sort of exercise and be able to run 200m. It's totally different to being able to cope with academic work. I'm not at all sporty, but could run that distance as a child.

Which is why parents should be taking their children outside for some fucking exercise

I definitely don’t remember my parents taking me out for exercise once I was in primary school, I still did loads of exercise though as I did loads of dance lessons. My dc do 3 sports clubs each a week & swimming, it’s not cheap though. Lots can’t afford 100s of pounds a term on extracurriculars.

I didn't see anything like this at my children's sports day.

but then most of the children can afford to do several sports clubs a week and we have lots of lovely green spaces and decent walks everywhere

but you didn’t grow up in a time full of junk food, UPF and sedentary living with screens.

anyone born over a decade ago or more grew up with much more walking and activity in daily live, lower calorie intake and far less UPF. Therefore there wasn’t a need.

now there is a need and parents need to adapt accordingly.

The equivalent would be if a child couldn't write a sentence by age 11, or didn't know their five times table. Barring exceptional circumstances or SEN issues, parents of those children should be ashamed too, imo.

Intervention would step in for that though so very unlikely you would get an 11 yr old who is capable but can’t write a sentence.

😢 That's outrageous - sounds really very neglectful of the parents.

Saw the same thing last year at DS10s sports day. About half the class couldn’t run around their big field once, maybe 300m? I would be even say that many were overweight, just incredibly unfit.

I know quite a few of DS’s friends do activities that don’t really wear you out or build fitness (30 minute swimming lesson where you only swim for 15 at most, 60 minute cricket session which is mostly standing still). Combined with school PE sessions seeming to be 80% dodgeball, it’s not surprising fitness/endurance is suffering.