5 hrs a week

[daz h]

okay i have not really listened to this topic to much this week but i assume the goverment has decided to try and go back to implementing more sports each week for our children , im sure the figures of up from 2hrs to 5 hrs was banded about.

id love to know from any teachers what they think about this and how it will be done
ive said it for years that when they stopped school football teams at our school it was a sad day indeed.

a couple of things id like to ask
1, will the existing teachers have to FIT the lessons in there current schedule
2, will there be lots more p.e teachers being employed
3, where will the sports pitches come from
4/ and will the kids be asked to be a bit competitive at school sports or is that not politically correct nowadays

the sight of victoria beckham strutting down LA galaxy goal mouth is not real life sport i was telling my lad and his mates last night that we have to get back to school sports and competitive sports days, footie teams, cricket teams etc etc

[fishbulb]

Saw it on the news last night. Looks like it's largely b*llsh*t anyway.

1. It's not compulsory
2. It's for 16 to 19 yr olds.

So, basically most schools aren't going to bother and by the time the kids are old enough to do this they won't be interested anyway. My missus helps out at the local primary school PE dept and she says it's just pathetic the way the majority of kids have absolutely zero fitness. As soon as they're asked to do anything energetic they're whingeing and moaning and claiming to have asthma.

To my mind we (or, at least, the government we elected) have failed this generation.

[Roadrunner]

School PE is a funny subject. Kids either love it or hate it. I work in a school and the teams this year have won loads of great trophies and won more things than any other year. You might even have seen the year 7 Ruby team in the papers. They lost in the English Schools Semi Final and therefore just missed out on the chance to play at Wembley. Just imagine the determination they were putting in to be able to be one of the first games ever played at the new Wembley stadium.

School PE to me seems to be to focused on trying out to many things. Four weeks for XC, four weeks for athletics, four weeks of bench ball and so on. In my view, the only way you will get children doing more sport is by letting them choose the sport they want to do and therefore allowing more time to concentrate on it. If it is tennis, then support them, if it is running, then support them. Pushing children to do events and sports they don't like will not encourage then to bring the PE kit to school or encourage then to try their best at it. Allowing them to opt for the sport wil be better. Who knows, instead of making children do all sports and allowing them to focus in, we might just unearth the next champion of that sport!

[XRunner]

I would classify sport with drama, music, art and crafts.
i.e. a recreational subject without the stress of exams.

In my youth I enjoyed six periods per week (forty minutes per period) for PE, art and music and one afternoon for recreation.

Competitive sport and specialist training is best left with the Clubs and Societies, either as after-school activities (if teachers are prepared to assist) or evening activities with voluntary people. The Clubs and Societies can be part of the school or, more usually, part of the community.

[emmilou]

My childrens primary school is still one of the ones having competative sports - so I guess we must be lucky

they enter various team events football etc (although my son prefers chess )

Sports day has PROPER races and the juniors have inter class tournaments.

PE is varied, play time is structured so that different years use one area of the play area on different days for football so it's a rota system basically and when I turned up at school last week my son was strapped up and at the top of a chuffing huge mobile climbing wall

He absolutlely loved it!

[bestathlete]

He absolutlely loved it!

Well he would, 'cos climbing walls are great.

At shcool we did all the usual stuff. I never excelled at anything and would be surprised if any of the PE teachers remembered me. If they do though, I imagine they would be shocked at what Ive achieved in the last 20 odd years.

Tackling this lack of enthusiasm for sport and obesity etc is certainly a tricky problem to address but I dont really see how aiming this latest initiative at 16-19yr olds will help much. Get some competition going between the youngsters - I remember seeing how far we could chuck stones across the river/timing how quick we could run round the garden/bike round the block etc when we were kids. Although i can also see that lots of competitive sports may serve to turn off some of those kids who are genuinely non sporty types.

Who'd be in charge of the country eh?

[IanDarkpeak]

when I turned up at school last week my son was strapped up and at the top of a chuffing huge mobile climbing wall

He absolutlely loved it!

It wasn't me was it? I visit about 10 schools a month with a mobile climbing wall as part of Activity Sheffield

Well he would, 'cos climbing walls are great.

Tackling this lack of enthusiasm for sport and obesity etc is certainly a tricky problem to address but I dont really see how aiming this latest initiative at 16-19yr olds will help much. Get some competition going between the youngsters

Totally agree by 16 it's about 8 years too late for most kids, We run orienteering, sailing, climbing, kayaking etc for various schools and colleges, My daughters school also does Ice skating and dance and basketball on top of the usuall ball games (although not rugby )
I also run D of E groups that go walking in the hills.

When i was a lad of 14 (Here we go ) i used to think nothing of cycling 20 miles with a pair of rock boots in my pack to go climbing before cycling home. I am constantly amazed by the apathetic nature of some kids and wonder what will be come of them.

[OneHillWonder]

It's a funny old subject - clearly there is general trend that kids aren not being as active as they should be, but as RR points out it is not as easy as saying well just make them do more sport at school then, and bring in more competitive sports etc because it only works for some kids.

Personally I HATED PE at school - I hated having to wear skimpy pe kit at a time of life when everyone is overly consious about their bodies, I hated the fact I am just not very good at sport, yet I still had to go out and humilliate myself by being crap at sport in front of everyone - most uncool at a time of your life when you are desperate to fit in, I hated the fact that PE was prime time for bullies to bully. I was good at maths - not cool, and bad a sport - not cool. I would not go back to those days if you paid me to - I used to bunk off PE and my dad didn't even shout at me because he felt the same when he was at school!

HOWEVER! Later on in my school we did more stuff like what you describe emmi - don't think we ever did climbing, but we did ice skating and random things like that and there was a lot more participation, I suppose because they were non competitive activities and although I'm sure it's cool to be good at that stuff, you don't 'lose' or be a 'loser' if you aren't very good. And stuff like that is far more fun than maths!

I can see the importance of sport in school, and I think there should be a good choice of activities, but agree with some of the other comments on here that the proper competitive stuff should be kept as extras, either school teams or community teams etc and encourage kids to do stuff like that but don't force it upon them, because it may scare them away from sport for good.

[Scurry]

I would classify sport with drama, music, art and crafts.
i.e. a recreational subject without the stress of exams.

In my youth I enjoyed six periods per week (forty minutes per period) for PE, art and music and one afternoon for recreation.

Competitive sport and specialist training is best left with the Clubs and Societies, either as after-school activities (if teachers are prepared to assist) or evening activities with voluntary people. The Clubs and Societies can be part of the school or, more usually, part of the community.

On a slight tangent here, but I'm going to have to disagree with this. I think competitiveness is a key quality in young people, and should be encouraged. Too bad if someone loses, if they can't handle it at that age I would be worried for them when they join the real world. It is a valuable lesson to learn when you are most impressionable, and should make you into a better person because of it. I find it hard to believe that losing in a sporting activity as a kid has any negative long lasting damage.

Granted every single activity shouldn't be a competition in case people find themselves losing often, but the wide variety of activities offers the additional bonus of people being able to find their niche.

[scaniagirl]

well, my 8yr old step-daughter's school has just banned football in the playground before school (new headmaster ). They were doing really well too - swimming and judo as well as ordinary PE. They do however have a new sign with the rules of football on the wall! Bet the teachers love the kids now they don't blow off steam before school.
Scanigirl