Are we bringing up a nation of couch potatoes?

ARE our children doing enough

physical activity in primary schools?

A survey commissioned by Sport England has some disturbing findings. It reveals a marked decline in the amount of time children spend doing physical activity in primary school PE lessons in the past five years.

As a parent of an 11 year-old it was one of the concerns I raised at a recent parent interview and the teacher quite rightly put the blame for the lack of PE on the demands of the National Curriculum and the time involved with preparing for SATS tests.

Even an hour two evenings a week out of school hours was allotted for special SATS revision while PE was put on hold. Granted there were out of school activities offered such as netball, run by parents, but these are only taken up by the enthusiasts. What happens to the physical fitness and health of a child not willing or unable to stay after school for these sporting activities?

The general lack of fitness among children is becoming a concern. With the recent changes in lifestyle, with so many children being taken to school by car and then not having the freedom to roam the local fields, hills and riverbanks as their parents did, it is becoming a grave concern.

The state of our children's health and fitness hit home when one Otley mother said to me this week: "I went out for a jog with my 11 year-old child and found much to my surprise that I was the fitter of the two and I don't do any sporting activities. It really took me aback and got me thinking about the health of our children".

The survey, Young People and Sport in England 1999, was conducted by MORI to measure trends in young people's participation in PE and sport over the past five years.

The most disturbing findings highlight the lack of time spent on PE in the school curriculum. Sport England recommends that at least two hours a week should be provided within the curriculum yet the survey shows that only 11 per cent of children aged 6-8 years spent two hours or more per week on PE lessons. This figure has gone down from 32 per cent in 1994 - a decrease of almost two thirds.

For children aged 9-11 years the 1994 figure of 46 per cent had more than halved to 21 per cent in 1999. The survey also showed a decline in primary school swimming lessons from 47 per cent to 43 per cent.

Sport England has however stepped in and moves are afoot with Government backing to address the situation. Sport England chairman Trevor Brooking, the former England soccer player and latter day TV pundit, said: "Sport England recommends two hours as only the minimum time youngsters should be spending on PE. Yet the survey shows that hardly any schools can cover this because of other curriculum pressures. The average time spent on PE in both primary and secondary schools seems to be between 30 and 59 minutes. It simply is not enough."

The majority of primary schools surveyed had no full-time or part-time specialist PE teaching staff while a quarter of all teachers surveyed felt that sports facilities at their schools were inadequate.

Brooking said: "This survey provides evidence that backs up what Sport England has been saying for a while. Youngsters need to be taught skills at five, six, seven or eight years old. If children are not shown how to kick a ball, catch or hold a racquet at this age it is difficult for them to pick up later in life.

"Primary school teachers try their best but if they don't get sufficient PE guidance within their initial teacher training, they don't feel confident that they are teaching children the right skills and techniques.".

"Secondary school PE specialists now have to focus on basic techniques that are not being covered in primary schools, instead of tactical and fitness work as they used to.

"I cannot stress strongly enough how important it is to teach children the benefits of physical activity from a young age. Their long term health is important but the value of sport has to be recognised in that it teaches a range of social skills, from team work and discipline through to communication."

Ray Beadle, a teacher steeped in sporting traditions, feels that children in this area are quite lucky as there are many teachers such as John Coates at Rawdon and Peter Blackwell at Addingham - and he is too modest to name himself- who devote many hours out of school hours to giving youngsters a sporting chance.

Ray teaches at Tranmere Park Primary School in Guiseley where he says pupils get an average of one-and-a-half hours a week of PE. He feels that this is not enough but admits there is a lot of pressure to get rid of PE altogether with the amount of paperwork teachers are now involved in and the extra work to do with SATS.

"It is the children who do not join soccer clubs, cricket clubs or tennis clubs out of school who do not get enough, or indeed in some cases, any physical activity. Until the teachers strike in the 80s, I was doing school sport every Saturday morning. I think once the schools lost it that is when the downward spiral came and once children get out of the habit of doing physical activity the problems start.

Sue Rushfirth, Head of St Mary's RC School, Horsforth, says that at her school they try and make sure that they get a balance in the curriculum.

"Our pupils at St Mary's all get between one-and-a-half and two hours of PE a week. The children go swimming and extra curricular activities include running, football and netball. We have teams for a whole variety of sports," she said.

Mrs Rushfirth, mother of two sons, said: "A lack of fitness amongst children has a lot to do with the society we live in. Everyone is so busy they just whizz their children around in the car. Living in Otley, the children have a lot more freedom than those elsewhere but I am more worried about traffic than strange people approaching them."

She added: "The curriculum is so overcrowded and so much pressure is on to teach literacy and numeracy that other aspects can be pushed aside, not only PE but creative activities such as art and music. It is something teachers are very concerned about."

Anne Springer has been Acting Head at St Joseph's RC Primary School in Otley over the past few months and she feels that PE in primary schools has suffered, much to the detriment of children's health.

"Time within the school curriculum is very limited and perhaps at St Joseph's children do not get the recommended minimum of two hours PE a week, although some classes get more than others. We do have a number of out of school sports groups for football, netball etc and we are currently looking at bringing in people for dance so that the children who do not particularly like sport may find an outlet for physical activity," she said.

David Geldart is a member of Sport England and in his role as Head of PE at St Mary's Comprehensive School, Menston, he feels that children in local primary schools do not suffer too much from a lack of PE. David runs sports courses for youngsters in the school holidays.

He said: "I think our feeder primary schools in this area basically do a good job but how indicative of other secondary schools in the area that is I do not know. Generally the time spent in primary schools on literacy and numeracy for SATS exams had reduced the time for PE. I would not think the picture we have locally is the picture nationwide though, we are lucky in this area."

He added: "Since Key Stage 1 and 2 came in things have slipped dramatically sportswise but I now feel that Government, and particularly Sports Minister Kate Hoey, have recognised the importance of physical activity for children. There are a number of schemes now to encourage better sports provision, SportsMark for secondary schools , ActiveMark has been implemented for primary schools and there is also the New Opportunity Funding which allocates money for sport out of school hours. There is a project called Activate which puts money into schools for coaching, the Awards For All scheme and what surprises me is that many schools just don't seem to have heard of half these schemes." said Geldart.

"Primary schools have been pulled in all directions and are under pressure to produce results for SATS and league tables and as a consequence PE has suffered. Schools and teachers need help to get things back on track. The new National Curriculum starts in September and for the first time it mentions two hours a week as being the aspiration for PE time. One thing primary schools have got to do though is get more in service training for teaching sport. You cant just blame teachers, they need more time and more equipment but at last it appears that the Government is listening," he said.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.