High Level Summary of Statistics Trend Last update: Saturday, May 17, 2008
Physical Education
The previous sport strategy (Sport 21 2003-2007) includes a target: 'To make progress towards all school children taking part in at least two hours of high quality physical education classes a week'.
In order to provide a baseline assessment of the starting position from which progress towards this target can be measured, a survey of taught physical education provision in the 2004/05 school year was undertaken. The key messages are that:
Primary Schools:
- On average, primary schools allocate 1 hour and 10 minutes of the weekly curriculum to physical education.
- The vast majority of primary school pupils (93%) have provision within their curriculum for at least 45 minutes of taught physical education.
- Just over two thirds (69%) of primary school pupils have provision for 1 hour of taught physical education within their curriculum.
- Just under a third (30%) of primary school pupils have provision for 90 minutes of taught physical education, with one in twenty (5%) primary school pupils currently receiving the 2 hour aspiration.
It should be noted that ad hoc activities within primary schools such as health week, sports days and cycling proficiency are not included in these figures as these do not currently form part of the standard (curriculum) school week. These activities, although not strictly physical education, are seen by many schools as an important part of a child's overall physical activity at school.
Secondary Schools (S1 - S4):
- On average, secondary schools allocate 1 hour and 40 minutes of the weekly curriculum to physical education.
- Almost all (99.5% ) S1 to S4 pupils have provision in their curriculum for at least 45 minutes of taught physical education. 87% are provided 1 hour per week.
- Almost three quarters (72%) of S1 to S4 pupils have provision in their curriculum for at least 90 minutes of taught physical education.
- 7% of secondary school pupils are currently provided the 2 hour aspiration.
Secondary Schools (S5 - S6):
- Non National Qualification physical education drops off significantly for S5 and S6.
- Just under a third (30%) of S5 pupils are provided 45 minutes or more of taught physical education in their curriculum, falling to around 1 in 8 (12%) in S6.
Note - although closely related to Sport, lead responsibiltiy for policies on Physical Education rests with the Schools Group in the Scottish Government Education Department.
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