Olympic Legacy, curriculum,

As a fond follower of all sports I am starting to believe that if structured right the venues and spirit coming from this years Olympics could actually boost British sport remarkably, mainly through more and more children/people wanting to take up the sports. In my opinion of sport to be taken seriously enough in this country in regards to others the curriculum should be looked at. I am quite young myself and in fact used to have just two physical education lessons of 1 hour a week! I think this needs to be daily to be honest. Also although I love and play football I believe the mainstream sports should not be focused on so much because there are so many opportunities to do these outside of school now more than ever. 

So would like to know your views on this.

Thanks

When I was a kid most of our exercise didn't come from PE.    We played football or other games at break and dinner - most schools now have scrapped the afternoon break and the dinner hour is much shorter than it was - that takes out a huge amount of play time from kids lives.    Add in that far fewer kids walk or cycle to school and the local parks seem to have far fewer  kids playing football on an evening on them and an extra hour of PE in the curriculum looks like an irrelevance.   

Well I was a child in the 80's my school looked like a cross between Grange Hill ( look it up) and a 70's council estate. we even had a part we called the tower block but we did all the track and field sports bar I think pole vault. We had a 25 metre pool a gym with a full sized basket ball court with vanished wooden flooring and all the gear, valting horse, rings.An all weather pitch, tennis courts a sports hall you could fit all 1600 kids in and still have room round the edges! The actual sports fields where enormous.Sports days where like something out of a boys own book from the 1930's  I have no idea how this was possible. None what so ever. This was a comperhensive  buildt in the 70's not private, not grammar.

Where did the money come from and where has it all gone?

Really where has all the money gone? We are a much richer nation now and we seem to be squandering that wealth.

My brother still lives where we grew up and he says that as far as he can see all the old grounds are still there. So hopefully some one is still trying to break my long jump record.

Kidding kidding!

Good point there popsider, my school that I attended for example has fields, tennis courts astroturf facilities and you are only allowed to have your break in the "playground" which is all tarmac. Plus you get a 45 minute break including eating to have that freedom

Its a sad sad reality stephen I spoke to my old PE teacher who I keep in contact with and even though he is head of pe the school will rarely listen to his ideas of improving sport within the school and what facilities could be placed in massive fields that we have available being squandered!

Sussex Runner you hit the nail on the head right there! My school tended to have a massive sports day with all the athletic events and only then did that equipment really come out! In fact I only saw the high jump equipment once a year and the sand pit for triple and long jump was always bypassed!

Mewes they really are preparing you for the world of work. Tarmac so you get use to some horrendous commute by car, and only 45 minutes to call your own.

I work and know some people in their early 30's and younger who seem quite content to have barely 30 minutes for lunch, and always eat at their desks!

What exactly are they doing to kids?

In a country with rising obesity levels especially in children you would think its a no brainer! I recently had placement from university and did some work in my old school and some children will even just sit PE out and not do it!? When I was at school which was not long ago at all everyone in my class wanted to do PE and it was something to look forward to! Even if they had forgot their kit they would raid the school football team or rugby team for some kit. Converting grounds into housing sickens me, some persons gain in funds is another generations lost in life.

Christ this is sad. So where is this sporting legacy meant to come from if you have thousands of the young who have never even held a discus or a javelin?

I remember there was one kid who was not the best behaved or academic but he was brilliant at discus and when we did it in sports lessons you could see this was his moment to shine. Dont even talk to me about the kid who could do all the swimming strokes even butterfly. I was spitting with jealously. I was nifty at the back stroke though

Oh all these misty memories

Ha dont relive them i say! An exactly another problem is the specialities of the staff these days, for example mys chool employed a pe teacher with a rugby background and instantly my school started doing more on rugby and participation became huge! Then he left for pastures new and guess what happened? No rugby team anymore. It saddened me also that when I went back the children said to me that apart from a few pe staff, no one coaches certain year groups, so one day I went to the astro after hours and coached a set of year 8s, the next day it was as though I was an idol to the kids. Thats all it takes sometimes, but even that effort seems to much for some.

Dont you worry Mewes there is always somewhere a little kid going along with her mum to an aerobics class seeing the big kids boxing and thinking "oh thats interesting"

I taught PE, sport, Dance and O.Ed for years. We need a change in curriculum, we also need more specialist PE teaching in Primary schools, Primary PE is pretty shit in many places.

My initial caveat is that I AGREE totally with all of the above!

But none of this will happen because PE is not considered important. English, Maths and the rest of the E Bacc subjects are allperceived more valuable. As a country we lag behind others in the developed world academically. (according to global testing).

I also think it is acceptable to never bring your kit and to have your parents write a note for you every week with a myriad of excuses.  Which of course spirals further upwards childhood obesity.

I went to a secondary with enormous playing fields and pool but it had the effect of turning me off sport.  I think it was the PE staff as I'd loved it all at primary school!

Schools are not there to fix all of society.  Students are in school for 5 hours a day. A change in national ethos - free provision/ clubs maybe but ultimately it will always come back to those with the dedicated parents/ money and the will to support such things. Interesting were the statistics on medal winning and attendance of a private school.

Ronnie Mewes wrote (see)

... I recently had placement from university and did some work in my old school and some children will even just sit PE out and not do it!? When I was at school which was not long ago at all everyone in my class wanted to do PE and it was something to look forward to! Even if they had forgot their kit they would raid the school football team or rugby team for some kit. ...

I have rather different memories of sport at school.  It was OK in the summer, but I hated having to go out and play hockey in the winter.  Fortunately we didn't do cross-country (living in a large town), I'm sure it would have put me off running for ever.

PE was compulsory, no sitting it out allowed, so once I got to about 14 my friends and I would bunk off PE.

You can only encourage kids to try sport.  If they like it, they'll want to carry on, but if you force them they will often hate it on principle!

I think there will be a short period of huge enthusiasm, followed by a tailing off.  Schools which have sold their playing fields can't get them back, and there is little money to put into equipment.

Not just improving PE in schools, it would be great if more money was spent on local sports clubs for outside school hours. Somewhere that kids can go to learn new sports from dedicated coaches (not just a jack-of-all-trades PE teacher), and where they can maybe get away from the label of being 'bad at sports' that they might have been pegged with in their school peer group.

Is anyone part of the Sport Makers volunteer program? Looks like a good way to get more community involvement in encouraging kids into sports http://www.sportmakers.co.uk/