The State Of School PE

Results from a comprehensive survey on young people and sport commissioned by Sport England have revealed the latest state of primary and secondary school PE.

The survey shows that only 11% of children aged 6-8 spent two hours or more per week in PE lessons. This figure has gone down from 32% in 1994 - a decrease of almost two-thirds. For children aged 9-11, the 1994 figure of 46% had more than halved to 21% in 1999. The survey also showed a decline in primary school swimming lessons from 47% in 1994 to 43% in 1999, despite it ranking first as the most popular sport.

These facts were uncovered by a comprehensive survey on children and PE - Young People and Sport in England 1999 - conducted independently by MORI on behalf of Sport England. This survey follows a similar one conducted in 1994 and has allowed Sport England to measure trends in young people's participation in PE and sport over the last five years.

The majority of primary schools surveyed had no full time staff or part time specialist teaching staff for PE lessons (95% no full time and 86% no part time). All secondary schools surveyed had at least one member of staff with a specialist PE qualification.

A quarter of all teachers surveyed feel that sports facilities at their schools are inadequate. One in five (22%) of primary school teachers and a third (33%) of secondary school teachers felt that given their school's overall teaching requirements and the number of pupils in the school, the sports facilities were inadequate.

But it's not all bad news. There has been an increase in the amount of cricket played frequently from 13% of children to 16% whilst the amount of basketball played frequently in schools remained much the same (14% in 1994 to 15% in 1999). Rounders was first on the top five 'games' played frequently in school lessons in the last year - up from 24% in 1994 to 31% in 1999.

Football has experienced the biggest growth in any sports participation out of school lessons from 37% of all children participating 'frequently' in 1994 to 43% in 1999. Football is also the most popular extra curricular sport and it had the greatest increase in participation from 31% of children in 1994 to 35% in 1999, with 53% of boys and 12% of girls taking part.

In a wider leisure context, children had spent 7.5 hours on sport/exercise in the last week. This is less than the time spent watching TV or video (11.4 hours), but more than playing computer games (4.4 hours).

When asked about role models, 70% of children named one sporting figure that they particularly admire or look up to. Michael Owen and David Beckham are most frequently mentioned (10%), followed by Tim Henman (5%), Linford Christie and Alan Shearer (both 3%) and Sally Gunnell (2%).

Sport England Chair Trevor Brooking, said: "This survey provides evidence that backs up what we've been saying for a while. Any skills that youngsters learn have to be taught while they are five, six, seven or eight years-old. If children aren't shown how to kick a ball, catch or hold a racquet at this age, it's very difficult for them to pick up skills at a later stage."

"Primary school teachers I have met all give their best, but if they don't get sufficient PE guidance within their initial teacher training, they tell me don't feel confident that they're teaching young children the right skills and techniques. More time needs to be spent training the teachers, and more time for PE needs to be built into the curriculum."

"Headteachers and teachers are under pressure from competing priorities, but I really cannot stress strongly enough just how important it is to teach children the benefits of physical activity from a young age. Their long-term health is important, and schools play a large part in this early education."

Technical details

These findings are taken from a large-scale survey of children and PE teachers in England, conducted by MORI on behalf of Sport England. This research follows the first Young People and Sport in England survey which was conducted in 1994. MORI interviewed 3,319 children in curriculum years 2-11 in schools in England. Children in curriculum years 2-6 and year 11 were surveyed using a postal methodology, while self-completion sessions in class were conducted with children in curriculum years 7-10. The fieldwork was conducted between June-October 1999.

At the analysis stage, pupil data were weighted to the profile of the school population by primary and secondary education in England as a whole, to ensure representativeness of the sample.

A postal survey of Heads of Physical Education/Physical Education Curriculum Co-ordinators in participating schools was conducted at the same time. 151 responses were received from teachers. Care should be taken in interpreting the teachers data because of the small numbers of interviews conducted, particularly when analysing by sub-group. The teachers data is reported separately for primary and secondary schools in all cases. As such the bias in terms of the higher number of participating secondary schools does not affect the results and a decision not to weight was taken.