The Importance of Sport in Primary Schools

The importance of Physical Education and sport within schools has been a hot topic of conversation within education for years. As a former PE subject lead and current PE specialist, I have far too often seen examples of PE’s importance being downplayed. The current legal PE requirement for primary school children is ‘at least two hours of good curricular PE each week’. From a school’s perspective, there are guidelines and legislation that need to be met regarding exercise and more and more often schools are receiving a PE ‘deep dive’ when OFSTED come calling. Therefore, it is important for a school’s reputation to continue providing excellent levels of PE, inter and intra school competitions, fixtures and sports experiences that motivate and inspire their pupils. From personal experience, this is something that some school’s struggle to facilitate. Perhaps understandably, teachers push creative subjects like PE to the wayside to prioritise giving time to the subjects that drive school data such as Literacy and Maths. This prioritisation is not only concerning but also not necessarily conducive to better academic results or improvement of school data. In almost all studies, a direct correlation between sports participation and educational attainment can be found, in layman’s terms, more exercise means better learning. 

Since COVID, there has been a noticeable and concerning drop in children’s physical, psychological and social wellbeing. PE is an excellent vehicle for developing children in a holistic manner and plugging the gaps created by the pandemic. Sport provides children a platform upon which they can express themselves, progress physically and develop understanding of their capabilities whist also encouraging mental strength and self-esteem. It helps to teach them about a healthy lifestyle, developing passions and interests that can lead to lifelong exercise and healthy habits. Teamwork, communication, resilience, problem solving and winning and losing graciously are all life skills that we want our children to possess that are taught by participating in sports. Values and morals can also be taught through the medium of sport. Fine and gross motor skills are integral parts of day to day life. In a classroom, children are expected to write legibly, form numbers accurately, cut and stick neatly, all of which require motor skills that would be strengthened through engagement in PE. Many children considered ‘low ability’ academically thrive in sporting contexts and can use exercise as a way of escaping parts of the school day that they struggle to access or achieve in. For those children, it is important that their skillset is recognised, praised and valued in the same way that more academic children receive plaudits. Sport can also be used to make learning memorable and subjects such as maths, literacy or science can also be taught through games that involve exercise, creating memorable learning moments and linking in a cross-curricular way.