Sport For All - especially children.

Well, for our two grandchildren who have just started at their respective schools the term has started well. With talk of squirrels, bears, spiders and silly soup! To painting, recognising numbers and stories they have settled in well. Outside of school, like their respective siblings, they love swimming, running, walking, splashing in puddles, music, play acting etc. It is my understanding that within their week at school two lessons are also dedicated to sport, of some kind, PE in the hall, dance, drama and outside ball games….well they are both only four so things are catered for their age group.

Already at this early age letters have come home about the clubs that their schools run, some during the school lunch break and some after school. These clubs could not run without the co-operation of teachers who willingly give their time for their pupils. Whoever said teachers work from 9.00am to 3.30pm, an average school day are joking. From my time spent when my children went through school, to the times I work and still work in schools the 9 to 3.30 day is a figment of the imagination.

These days with more parents driving their children to school, even though they do live within walking distance, and then, when the children get home many either sit and watch their favourite cartoons on the television or play their video games do they get enough exercise?

Well yes I think we could say some do, and some don’t. I know my grandchildren do get the opportunity to not only expand their minds but to expand their liking of exercise. If we start and introduce things, be it healthy foods, healthy exercise, the love of books, the love of art, music … so much to explore … if it’s done in a way that children do not immediately ‘turn off’ we are at least trying, and doing our best, to give them a good foundation to what could and should be a balanced and healthy lifestyle.

School sport in the UK has suffered these past few years. Playing fields have been sold off, some schools do not have sports halls and gyms, they make do with their school hall or, whatever space can be found, to fit in with other timetabled lessons. Even the specialist primary sport development leaders who visited primary and junior schools and introduced a range of different sports had their funding cut. Nothing is perfect, but should we put up with second best?

Should I be grateful that my immediate family members have made a good start at their schools and are offered, and receive, a wide range of subjects in the curriculum and a hall and a small play area for their sports? Well looking at this recent article, perhaps I should, and indeed I am. At least my grandchildren are not having to do their running and sports activities on the open motorway.

All the best Jan


Link to article here