Vocal Voices

The headline certainly made me sit up and take notice.

It comes from the British Journal of Sports Medicine report looking at the health and fitness of primary school children.

Some of its findings are shocking:
One in three children leaving primary education is obese
There is no statutory minimum requirement for schools to devote a specific amount of time to physical education
The amount of school time children spend in physical education is neither monitored nor known by any educational or regulatory authority

At least the report is not playing the blame-game of hitting parents, fast food, TV and computers. It is simply reporting the facts and offering a way round part of the problem by reintroducing some activity time into the primary school curriculum.

I read the other day that one child had been removed into care because at the age of five it weighed in at 10st 5lbs. That is obviously an extreme case, but we need to do something to avoid more children becoming overweight.

I honestly agree that the lack of exercise is to blame. I read somewhere that in the past people actually ate more calories than they do now but moved around an awful lot more!

The local primary school is only a few streets away and you can always tell when it is break time or lunch by the noise. Well you can in spring and summer, but not at this time of year, and I have a theory. Today was dry and dull, with broken cloud at times, and not much more than a stiff breeze, but the temperature was only about 7C. There was not a sound to be heard from the school. In my day such a day would be an excuse to run around like mad to get warm, but not now.

My theory is that so many pupils now go to school by car that they are not dressed for today's sort of weather - no gloves, no scarves, no bobble hats or even jumpers. The school has no choice but to keep them in in case any of them get a cold or flu so they sit watching CBBC or CITV or DVDs.

When I visited my now deceased son in America prior to my late husbands death, I was literally shocked to see the number of obese adults and children, I stated at that time to "watch this space" the problem of obesity in adults and children will extend to the UK. with the fast foods, hamburgers, chips, soft drinks full of sugar, and little exercise..
It has come to pass and the younger as well as the older generations are paying the price

Kaz wrote:I honestly agree that the lack of exercise is to blame. I read somewhere that in the past people actually ate more calories than they do now but moved around an awful lot more!

It is true, Kaz, that food intake and insufficient exercise are the two main factors that cause obesity.

When I was young we walked to school, had daily exercise sessions and a half-day at the schools' playing field.
In the evenings we played games outside. Weekend usually included long country walks with the family.

We never saw an obese person except at the circus, and that was a laughing matter.

The main causes of obesity are family cars, computers, smart phones, electronic games and the like. plus too
much money being spent on unnecessary addition to one's diet.

Obesity is now the norm.

Drastic action is necessary to tackle the problem, but in a democratic country I doubt whether such action is possible.

Kate and Aggers, what the report is saying is that a lot of the obesity problems could be mitigated if we simply reintroduced 'activity' into the primary curriculum. It does not have to be 'sport' or 'competitive' just running about and being active - bean bags or tag. It does not need specialist PE teachers, just getting the children to run about and have fun.

How bloody difficult would it be to drop some of the rubbish in the current curriculum for a period of exercise, or even extend the school day by 30 mins to fit an exercise period in?

Exactly Frank! We had activity every day at school when I was in Primary - if not PE then some kind of Music & Movement (remember that?) and we ran ourselves silly in every playtime, rain or shine! We ate plenty of stodge if I remember, but were fit.

Workingman wrote:
How bloody difficult would it be to drop some of the rubbish in the current curriculum for a period of exercise, or even extend the school day by 30 mins to fit an exercise period in?

Oh definitely!
Shall we talk about 'Enrichment'? One wasted lesson each week doing nothing in particular. They have to choose something from a booklet, either one enrichment for the whole year or one for each term. Things like listening to opera with the headteacher...working on the school yearbook (which never saw the light of day the last two years)...learing to knit...crochet...but there was one which I read, re-read and re-re-read because I thought my eyes were deceiving me. Cake with Friends. Yes, the pupils who select that enrichment sit around eating cake whilst watching episodes of Friends. Seriously.

Activity class every day - every year had one period of mayhem, the only 'kit' needed was a pair of pumps (daps, plimmys) depending on where you lived.

Where and why has that gone?

Jo, your post frightens me, it really does. It explains my "where and why" question but leaves me despairing about where primary education is headed.

I think it would be a good idea to abolish parental choice of school for their children, and make them
attend the nearest school, as it used to be years ago. Children would then have to walk to school and
it could be made an offence to take your child to school by car, unless there was a medical reason.

Further more, parents whose children are obese should be prosecuted for cruelty.

Now you see why I say that the problem cannot be solved in a democratic society.