How many hours per week of PE/games in years 9 and 10?

[MrPickles73]

Our children are at a rural prep school which they love and the timetable includes 1 hour of sport per day. We and they are very happy with this.

We are looking at senior schools for Year 9. It seems the boarding schools still provide almost daily sport but the day schools drop to twice a week in Year 9 and possibly once a week in Year 10 (if you do not do Sports GCSE). The day schools have a shorter day and I assume this is part of how they achieve this.

Both of our children are quite sporty and we consider this as a part of a rounded education. Is it normal to only have 1 PE lesson / day a week in years 9 and 10? Is the expectation that parents will drive children to sports clubs after school (we are rural and I work full-time so the logistics of this is not straightforward).

DS is in year 9 and attends a "sporty school" ( only the very excellent kids are involved in extra curricular sports). With regards to lessons, they do a 2 week timetable and do 2 hours one week and 3 the following

Most indies round here have a full afternoon of sport for each year group even 6th form and and extra session too along with after school practice and Saturday matches.

My DC is Year Ten and gets one hour of PE per fortnight (his school has a two-week timetable). It doesn't seem like much. There are lots of sports clubs after school, and my DC are all fairly active, but there must be loads of kids who don't really do anything except the one hour of PE per fortnight, and that can't be good for them.

WaltzingToWalsingham yes this is what I am thinking. I spoke to a yr 10 lad yesterday who said he does 1 afternoon of PE a week (excluding clubs) and hankers after this prep school when it was daily..

There isn’t enough room in the timetable for more PE/games. There will be extra curricular sport before & after school and at lunch times - much better as less sporty children don’t have to do it plus kids tend to specialise. Depending on the school to excel you may be join a lax or hockey club out of school as well. You need to if you want to make England squad etc… Just depends on what your aiming for.

redpandaalert but then how do we tackle obesity and get more teenage girls into sport if we minimise it and make it optional? And if you read all the guff about Emma the tennis player the newspapers are claiming her parents didn't make her specialise too young. My children are not aspiring to be olympians but I do think sport is a good way of relaxing, giving kids who do not academically excel another opportunity and to learn about teamwork skills. It's not just for elite athletes..

In Y9, three periods of PE (35 minutes each). Lots on offer before and after school and during lunch break, but those are all optional. The sporty DC can do sport every day, if they want, sometimes multiple times.

Our school's day/boarding (DS is day). In Year 9/10, they have two afternoons of games a week, plus 1 hour of PE per week and 1 hour of swimming per fortnight. Lots of opportunities for extra sport before and after school, and at lunchtimes. DS isn't particularly sporty, but that's why I like the amount of curricular sport, so he hasn't got the choice not to do it. I might feel differently if he hated it though - he's quite happy to do it, he's just not that good at it!

Y10 - one afternoon of PE a fortnight.

Day/boarding school here (with majority day students). We have 1 x afternoon of games, 1 x PE session, and required to do at least one sporty extracurricular activity per week.

Grammar school - 8 hours sports a week.

Yes sadly our school dropped it to one two hour session a week. Plenty of options for after school sports though, but my daughter was non competitive and while she enjoyed the practice sessions dreaded the matches so stopped doing any.
My son is very sporty so he did rugby training at the school with matches most weekends and also with the local club, so another evening training session and a match or training on a Sunday.
So same school but one has minimal sport, the other plenty.

Day school here. Timetabled sport is 2 hours of games and 1 hour of PE per week. In year 9 the proscribed sport is compulsory (though there is touch rugby), but in year 10 they can opt for something where they can try out lots of different sports.

On top of that children can do 90 minutes of (team game) squad after school and a 1hour supervised session in the gym. Fixtures take place most weekends.

The seriously sporty/dancers are allowed out of school during lessons for coaching and competition offsite. I think this takes a fair amount of negotiation to be allowed. Presumably they have a more formal arrangement with their teachers to catch up than musicians, who just miss part of a lesson or two each week.

Most children do their sport with external clubs by this age TBH. Pathway programmes kiosk in at about 11 or 12.

Day school here. 1 lesson of timetabled PE a week in years 10&11 but Friday afternoons are whole school sport.

Fairly typical at day schools due to the demands of the curriculum and shorter school day. Sport is REALLY important to my DD (A teams in some sports, B teams in others but not county material) and we actively looked for a school where it was truly inclusive for all and formed a large part of school life.

She has three timetabled sessions of sport a week until Y9, plus extra curricular clubs at every lunch and after school (the school day finishes at 6pm for day girls to facilitate this). Most girls participate in extra curricular sport at least a couple of times a week - the school focuses on how important staying fit and healthy is. If not taking PE GCSE then the girls have to do a “half course” and sports leaders.

The school is half boarding, half day, and I honestly think it’s the boarding aspect of the school that creates the extra time and atmosphere where sport is enjoyed by all.

They have numerous sports scholars too - several of whom are participating at national level. They are also supported extensively and given time off as needed. Some even have a reduced timetable to support their training demands outside school.

So many people look only to academics when choosing schools. I’m glad you are looking carefully at what is important for your children’s needs as well.

My year 9 has 2 hours a week of PE lessons. She does sport outside of school too though so it doesn't bother me. There are plenty of sports clubs etc around if school doesn't offer what you want.

At our comp my year 10 DC does two sports sessions a week during timetable (rotating hockey/netball/tennis/cricket/athletics) and then two school sports clubs which are free, with specialist teachers and go on until 5pm. Dc also does hockey out of school and at least one match a week usually two (one for school one for club.)

Boarding school here. As much sport on offer as dc wants to avail themselves of. At least two sessions a day on offer Monday to Friday and matches every Saturday plus fun sport/outdoor activities every Sunday. Probably the main reason my dc chose to board was all the sport they can do (if they wish). They won’t ever be professionals but they love it and that’s what motivates them so they are happy (so as parents, we are happy).
As a minimum every child has to do three afternoons of sport a week but they don’t have to choose the main school sport (eg rugby or hockey - they can choose between three or four other offerings eg rowing, gym, swimming, badminton etc)
Many sports scholars get one to one lessons on their chosen sport one lunchtime each week and if doing academy sport outside of school, gets taken to that training by the school as part of the scholarship support).

@DocAutumn

Grammar school - 8 hours sports a week.

How do they fit this into the curriculum? Are the days longer?

Grammar school - 2 hours in yr9, dropped to 1 in yr10 to make room for other subjects. Good access to certain sports club at lunch/after school. But only netball/rugby/football, maybe a couple of others but not a lot of choices

My son gets a double lesson a week which is one term of football, and one term of rugby the same for every year group. The children have to walk a mile to the school field and so therefore, they don't get the full allocated time. I think what's on offer is very poor and my son hates it now. Extra curricular again only offers football or rugby.

DD goes to a state seconday, Y7-9 had one week 2hr dance, 1hr PE, the second week 2hr PE.

Y10 and dance dropped unless you choose it for GCSE and PE dropped to 2hr every second week unless PE is your GCSE subject.

They still offer sport clubs open to all up to Y11 but in general the take up is done by those who do it on team/club level.

I am glad that DD has to walk 30 minutes twice a day and has 2 sporty hobbies to compensate. But the timetable for the GCSE subjects have been increased so much, their is just no time for anything which isn't exam subject.

My DD is year 9 at a comprehensive school and has 2 hours of PE a week. But OP, as well as outside school clubs, aren't there any school clubs? So no driving involved? My DD does netball and hockey 4-5pm after school.

I hated sports and was delighted in year 9 as I didn't choose sports science I didn't have to do sport if I chose another option instead so did subjects I enjoyed

It's not for everyone

@TumtumTree

My DD is year 9 at a comprehensive school and has 2 hours of PE a week. But OP, as well as outside school clubs, aren't there any school clubs? So no driving involved? My DD does netball and hockey 4-5pm after school.

There were sports clubs at DD's school, but with it being in a rural market town, and all the school buses leaving at 3, the only pupils who took part were those living near enough to walk or those whose parents could pick them up after the clubs finished. The public transport buses were few and far between and didn't cover all the areas the school buses did.