Good point, Siobhan. PE can very beneficial in many ways. As well as the popular sports being played there is scope to introduce other activities like you suggest. PE can incorporate healthy eating, team work, conflict resolution, relaxation, stress management, self expression, morale and confidence building through all sorts of sports and activities. It’s a no brainer really.

Agreed. In secondary school the one PE class a week was intimidating because it was dominated by the sports stars & the PE teacher played to their strengths & it was usually team sports. Stories from fellow students who went on student exchanges of 2 hour PE classes 3 times a week of fun activities like circus skills, swimming or yoga made us wide eyed and envious!

one sure fire way to help the kids out of course and its very simple…..UNPLUG THE X-BOX……
kids sitting in a classroom most of the day…and what do they do when they come home…drop the school bag at the front door…straight into their rooms and thumb twigling for the rest of the evening…. they need to hear “get out and play”!!

lots of sport and for those who don’t like sport a good gym work out.
Mostly its the parents fault, fat parents = fat children, there is enough info out there now for every one to know how to stay healthy .
and food should now be given as a reward.

There’s also now I believe a religion test as part of the leaving cert, I think they’d be better off having a PE Test

If I remember correctly in my secondary school as well as PE class if you were involved in a school sport u were let out to train during Religion class.

It’s a subject choice, you learn about all the main religions and there main beliefs, how they were started etc. it’s basically a history exam with religion. Not forced down your throat.

Yes I’ve thought for a long time now some form of nutrition class should be brought into schools. If kids understood it properly think of the money that could be saved to the health service in the long run.

Kids don’t do the shopping, pay for it or cook the food. Nutritional class would be better served on the parents of fat kids.

And then repeat the cycle? Have to start somewhere. Maybe if the parents had been thought about nutrition when they were young they would be less careless with the diets.

True!

A lot of parents are failing their kids. School would be the perfect time.

More PE and less Irish classes, your health will always be important to you, but Irish may not be.

Parents would want to cop on a little and take some ownership. If the school is not facilitating then clubs or even bringing the kids out trekking instead of fuelling them with sugar rich foods while they grow outwards on a couch could be a clear and blindingly obvious option. The schools are not the parents of these kids.

So for the thumbs down, you think your health is not as important as Irish? Strange…

@Rob I gave you a red thumb for belittling the irish language. As an adult my big regret is not being able to speak my native tongue fluently. Plus there’s all this outside school time that could be used for additional exercise. It’s called parenting.

Surely exercise and healthy eating is one thing that can be done outside of school. God knows there’s plenty of sports clubs around the place. It seems like every week people are looking for schools to increase the time the spend on some subject or another.

By the way even if there were more PE classes timetabled, there is no guarantee that the kids will even take part. Plenty of my friends seemed to “forget” their gear or something most weeks!

Rob, I gave you a thumbs down, only reason why is why should one subject for another, learning as many languages as possible when younger makes it easier to get to grasp with other languages when your older, schools are there to teach subjects that parents haven’t the ability to. If PARENTS can’t explain that eatting healthy and fitness are important then why should teachers be over burdened they are employed to teach not be their parents.

How is saying your health is more important than learning Irish belittling it? Is your health insignificant? I can speak Irish, but it’s useless unless I present the nuacht, teach it or live in a Gaeltacht. It’s not necessary for working for multinationals, or in the case where people are flowing out of this country to seek work abroad they won’t need it either. It’s a nice to have, but that’s really it. And it’s taught very badly for a native language.

Fair point.

Well whatever about Irish, the amount of time we wasted in school doing religion, all religion periods should be replaced by PE.

Ní múinim, Ní úsáidim an Ghaelinn do mo phost (agus TÁ postanna eile go bhfuil an teanga riachtanach), níl conaí orm sa Ghaeltacht ach tá sí fós tábbachtach dom

In that case, should we stop teaching all English literature and maths beyond adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing, foreign languages, history and science and just focus on what we need? Think not…

Health paramount but why not make room for both?

Takeaways and freezer foods aren’t “cheap”. A meat and veg main course for four people should never cost more than €12.

So much scaremongering about the dangers of playing outside, eg abduction, injuries, means parents don’t allow their children outside very often.

As Smiley has commented the parents fear their kids been taken, I hear it all the time.

Of course statistics prove that at least in the UK there are no more abductions now then there was in the 1970’s, the only difference is the media reports them 24/7 when they happen so the fear of it happening is at a all time high!

There’s a park near us, it is almost always devoid of kids. The local kids hang around near their homes.

No self respecting child abducter would go near these kids, they’re quite safe.

If parents have residents association, why can’t they organise a parent or two? To be present in play areas, who’re minding them after school?

Some of the parents could use some exercise too.

The sad fact is, apart from the very occasional random, most child abusers are related to, or known by, their victims. Playing at the park needn’t be feared.

Walking to school could help.

Smiley depends on the distance.

True. But children don’t need to be dropped at the gate. A block or two away would help.

Alot of people have no opinion,so clicking “i don’t know”affords them the opportunity to see the poll results.

I clicked I don’t know because I don’t know.

On the one hand kids need exercise. On the other hand they spend a lot of time when not at school doing bugger all. Should it be an obligation for schools to provide this?

I don’t know.

Maybe Damocles an “undecided option” would be more fitting?

If I’m undecided then clearly … I don’t know.

“I don’t know” is that not an expression of lack of knowledge of a subject?

Mmm… lot of “ofs” in that reply sorry.

Not necessarily.

The question asks for opinions. Given my knowledge of the subject I do not know what that opinion should be.

Whatever options they put for any poll someone goes “Ooh, I don’t agree with those options.”, we’d end up with 50 or 60 options for every poll.

i volunteer with a local athletics club, ?20 membership for a year, busses to races vary on distance but that’s?10-?20, don’t have to compete but it gives something to aim for

Ye there is some that are good my liitle one will be starting GAA in march on saturday mornings and its 20 for membership can’t complain about that, but its the things she really wants to do like dancing and swimming that are expensive.. But sure she runs round the garden like a lunatic with her sister and we walk to and from school every day so not worried bout them getting excersise :)

In the rain, parents are paying more then enough taxes to get their gets educated and a child sitting down all day at a desk is not good for them!

This shouldn’t be about keeping kids slim, but about keeping them stimulated. My secondary school certainly failed miserably at it. I think physical activity will a) Contribute to the childs overall wellbeing, and b) Actually aid their academia, by not burning them out on info retention.

Parents should raise their kids properly. Just because you “pay taxes” doesn’t mean you can abdicate your responsibility for your own progeny to the state. Why did you have kids if you’re not even bothered to raise them properly?

Yes parents play a massive role but a child spends most of their day in school and then most of their evening doing homework – especially once you reach secondary school – I loved sport but I had to cut it out completely during the week when I was busy with exams and they cut are lousy half an hour of PE during our LC year..I started walking to and from school then just to squeeze some exercise in (6 miles a day) –

Sports needs to be a part of a child’s education – it’s as, if not more important than the core subjects –

physical activity = good health and mental wellbeing = higher academic performance.

The two go hand in hand! Parents and teachers both have a role to play in a child’s education, the same should go for physical activity – without focusing in on waist measurements and BMI which all create a more image based focus rather than a fitness one (e.g. you can have a low BMI be viewed as healthy, yet smoke 40 a day – not the best guide to health)

Give children exercise – let them learn to love their bodies. If a child loves exercise, which in turn gives them higher self-esteem and more confidence then the knock on effect is that they’l also start to care about what they use to fuel their bodies – Physical fitness has to be made compulsory is schools, but it should be varied and should have a focus on fitness, health and participation rather than being competitive!

Exactly. When I was in school we just played Soccer. Occasionally we’d play Basketball, Hurling or Football. But it was mainly soccer to be honest, which I didn’t like and was no good at. Branching out to other sports like Boxing, Athletics, Rugby, Dodgeball, circuit training against the clock etc. would have made it more interesting. I thought I didn’t like participating in sports until I started doing Kick Boxing & Boxing in college, which I loved. Throwing a few kids a soccer ball in a hall once a week isn’t really PE in my opinion.

PE nowadays covers a wide variety of sports while all the time developing the student in many ways….communication, social skills! Teachers adapt content so to challenge everybody and to ensure everyone enjoys taking part. Or at least with teachers qualified within the last 15 years or so!

Sorry that should say “parents are the people who can make the biggest difference”.

Ispini. Parents are working a hell o a lot longer hours than teachers with most not getting home till late in the evening in order to pay the bills. Also parents are the result of bad education in this regard and were not taught the emphasis of exercise in school so how can they pass this to their kids. Teachers should be made do a full day 9-5:30 with kids to accommodate their health and exercise classes. This would go a long way towards getting value for money from teachers, after school care reducing financial burden on parents
and giving kids the life skills to lead a healthy life

Paddy, I get to school at 8am and I leave at 5pm. For the hour before the kids arrive and the two hours after they leave I am correcting their work, putting up their work, creating posters and displays to reinforce their learning, making props and resources to teach with. Then after I get home I spend about another hour or two every night doing more correcting and other jobs. I’m not moaning about it, it’s part of my job, I’m paid reasonably well for it and I love it. I’m just trying to show you that teachers don’t work 9 to 3, most do an 8 to 10 hour day (not counting the preparation at the weekend). Besides, my point was that there ARE after hours sports and exercise programmes run by schools but we can’t force parents to send their kids and we can’t do anything about parents allowing their kids to spend the weekend glued to an XBox! I love my job but I’m not going to go around 28 houses at the weekend making them all salads and taking them out for a game of football!

They should be taken on Walks also, Nature walks even?

The PE system is currently failing those who have no interest in certain team sports. PE should be a practical and academic subject. It should happen once a day to reflect how you should exercise in daily life. It should teach about nutrition and health such as the importance of stretching etc. it should include cardio, muscle, adventure sport, Yoga, and team sport. This craic of playing 45mins of soccer once a week is an absolute disgrace!! The best way to work it is keep kids after school to do their exercise, that way teachers actually get closer to their a full day of work (for no extra pay), kids get exercise and parents aren’t stuck trying to organise someone to mind them. Win win win situation.

I understand the Irish & Religion thing, but you can use that argument for any subject in secondary school. I did geography, and german for 6 years, but i went to Berlin and everyone spoke english and I let sat nav give me directions to places so I don’t need/use maps or care about coastal erosion etc. I don’t use any of the Maths I learned in secondary school, and I use a calculator for anything even vaguely tricky so why did I need to send 6 years learning that. I learned biology for leaving cert but don’t use anything I learned in it ever and google anything I need info on so again why not get rid of that too. If you continue on with that argument then what’s the point of history or art or music or woodwork or technology or any subject really????

The ” healthy nutrition information” is taught in SPHE class in both primary and secondary schools, as well as in the P.E. curriculum.

Yea but with no link. You should learn about the exercise, why its useful and then go do it!

What a silly comment. How do you know those who voted no don’t already take responsibility for their children’s health instead of expecting the (nanny) state to do it for them?

Exercise, health, nutrition & body image are all thought in both P.E. and the SPHE (in every year of secondary school) curriculum currently.

With no link

Stephen, you say earlier to give the kids a broader activity experience by bringing them on nature walks and then say how they shouldn’t be taken out in the rain? Too easy to use bad weather as an excuse – just wear appropriate clothing…..we do live in Ireland after all. Do you think Scandinavians don’t bother going outdoors cos it might be a bit chilly?

Danielle, it sounds like in your case, you didn’t need more P.E., but that your school needed to actually DO the P.E. classes which were actually on your timetable? As in were the P.E. actually timetabled as P.E. but you all just did study instead, or did you just have two timetabled classes of study?

They are kids Eric and result of a bad education system that has filtered down through their parents. They need to be educated as to the benefits of exercise. This crap of soccer every week is the reason people hate it. It needs to be made enjoyable for everyone

Half days on a Wednesday in many secondary schools are march days. Girls and boys play hockey, rugby, soccer, basketball, hurling and football matches as well as orienteering.

*match…. Not march! Sausage fingers….

You got a half day on Wednesdays?! Lucky you!

Half days on Wednesday is a Dublin thing mostly. Particularly wealthy schools.

Actually it isn’t, many cork schools have a half day weds. Also in limerick. Community school, VECs, comprehensive alike

Busy man Bruce !

Of course there should be. PE tends to get very easily squeezed to make way for other things despite the fact that it is important for kids to get moving. I’d also say that girls need to be encouraged to participate more, there tends to be a lot of forged notes to get out of it at PE time in secondary school, and I think I was one of the few who genuinely enjoyed it.

Thanks for putting it so delicately Bruce. That’s been changed now.

@Bruce: “thejournal”
You missed a space there, Bruce!
Glass houses etc.

Bruce bit early in the day to prove oneself to be pratt.

“a pratt” even.