PE at school. Have they got the methods wrong?

Desperado99

we used to run (well, walk) past my house on cross country.......... very annoying as it was the last lesson on a wednesday afternoon, and I used to think if only I could just pop in.

My sixth form PE teacher didn't even know I existed, she had to take a geography lession in my last year and actually asked if I was new because she'd never seen me...........

Lunar_Eclipse

Person_one wrote: »

Why does single sex make a difference?

It's not the single gender that makes the difference, but the culture of the schools we looked at.

Unfortunately, team sports are a minority activity at our local mixed secondary school (eg 2 netball teams for c150 girls) compared to a majority activity at the single sex school we chose (8 netball teams for 96 girls, with a significant number of pupils representing the school in at least 4 different sports at any given time.)

Pupils who don't participate in team sports at the single sex school are also targeted by the PE department as part of a wider healthy lifestyle initiative, with parental support for non-competitive fitness activities only open to girls who are not on any school sports team. (This is a great initiative, objectively speaking, in the long run. Not everyone enjoys team sports, but knowing how to become healthy adults is an important component of a good education.)

Lunar_Eclipse

andygb wrote: »

If it was that easy to lose weight without exercising, then there wouldn't be so many obese people in this country.

My personal trainer says it's typically 80% diet and 20% exercise to achieve weight loss goals, for most women. (I think it's often the other way round for men!)

I had to push her hard for her professional opinion, for some reason.

photogeek

PE lessons are not everybody's cup of tea. IMHO it would help if children walked or cycled to school (rain or shine) instead of being chaufered everywhere. It would help to fight obesity and make "Britain's future fitter".

euronorris

I loved PE! It was my favourite subject, and as my school used to be all boys, I had to fight hard to get the PE teacher to allow me to study it at GCSE level (he only agreed once the headmistress got involved, and even then tried to convince me I shouldn't bother). And then, in order to actually complete the GCSE, I had to attend Netball sessions outside of school hours, at another school (as we didn't have a team at my school - not enough girls), and swimming also outside of school hours.

The teacher was great.....with the boys. Couldn't care less about the girls. Most of the girls would hand a note in every week, saying they were on their period, it was really painful blah blah blah. It was two years before he asked me if I thought it wasn't true, to which I responded 'Do you really think that they are all permanently on their period?' and the penny dropped 'Oh. Right, mmmmm.'. But he never did anything about it because he couldn't give a monkeys.

I do think some PE teachers are simply better than others, as with all subjects.

LadyMorticia

When I was at school we had to do P.E in the freezing snow in just shorts and a sweatshirt.:(

I bunked off P.E alot of the time because the teachers were only interested in those who were sporty. The rest of us got a hard time even when we were trying our best.

In the end, I got to have extra Science tuition instead of P.E, which suited me just fine. There were other reasons why I couldn't do P.E but I was glad to be able to have extra tuition for something I wanted to get better at.

Person_one

balletshoes wrote: »

yes, mostly it was single-sex classes for us, but we always had swimming and ballroom dance as mixed classes, and I vividly remember doing mixed hockey when we were in 4th year - wow that was brutal!

You did ballroom dance in PE? Oh my word I can't imagine a much more embarrassing and stressful thing to put young teenagers through! Who picked the partners? Did you all dance at once or were you ever watched by the rest of the group?

Only snogging lessons would have been more mortifying!

Person_one

Dunroamin wrote: »

I loved PE, whether games, gym or dance. We had one day a week when we didn't have anything and I found that really depressing. I can't see what all the fuss is about when it comes to doing things in bad weather - you don't put your life on hold just because it's raining!

I actually like the rain, as long as its not absolutely freezing, but most adults do limit their time outside when its raining heavily so clearly. Unless you work outdoors or are a serious athlete who needs to train there generally isn't much need to be getting soaked and freezing unless you're going from A to B.

PE in the rain always annoyed me because there was no way to get your hair properly dry so you'd be uncomfortable for the rest of the day.

Person_one

aliasojo wrote: »

Fast forward a few years and she had to be made to pick a book up, the school required reading material had turned her off so much.

I don't really agree with this. If you read a lot at home as well then the school books are just one of many and I don't see why that would damage a love of reading.

I hated reading Austen for GCSE with a passion, I couldn't stand Hardy at A-Level, but it doesn't make any sense that a few bad books would put you off completely. That's like being put off films by Transformers 2, or put off TV by Wild at Heart.

To Kill a Mockingbird is loved by most people who read it, its not categorically a bad or boring book.


(Oh, and I got to listen to the Beatles, the Kinks and Duke Ellington for my music A-level, sorry about the dirges!)

Person_one

andygb wrote: »

The only problem I have with children doing PE in the pouring rain, is that if they stand around doing nothing they will catch a cold like anyone else.

Colds are caused by viruses, not cold weather. I'm surprised someone so well versed i human biology didn't know that.