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Should School kids be required to pass a fitness test as part of their qualification?


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Old 01-01-2017, 14:19
vintage_girl
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Erm, no. How about making PE more fun and teaching kids that exercise isn't always about losing weight (there is a misconception that thin people don't need to exercise), but that it's important for overall health, both physical and mental, and it doesn't have to involve misery like going to a stuffy gym or running outside in the rain, or throwing javelins.
There are so many different sports and even if schools don't have the facilities or time to do them all, they should at least teach kids about them. Also kids should be shown that they can enjoy sport and exercise without the need to compete, if that's not their thing.
And btw, I'm fit as a fiddle but I can't do even one press-up and I'm rubbish at sprinting so I'd definitely fail your "test"
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Old 01-01-2017, 14:24
muggins14
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Absolutely not.

But schools should be required to make improvements to PE and the curriculum should be changed. I'm not entirely sure how. But more of a focus on health, fitness, and exercising (for the right reasons, the health benefits of exercise, the psychological benefits), rather than the types of school sports that tend to put a lot of young people off sport/exercise for a good while. Not just the responsibility of schools, of course, but school PE has a massive impact. I hated PE so much I stopped it in Year 11 because they didn't think I should put myself through the distress every week. I figured I was just 'not sporty', 'unfit', lazy' or whatever. Found a sport I love, actually got my MSc in Sport & Exercise Psychology in 2015, and love exercise ridiculously much, love learning about the psychological aspects of it. If they encompassed any of that in PE it could be hugely positive.

Swimming, though. That maybe needs more focus in schools.
I agree with you on modernising the sports - many schools still play hockey and netball and very little else!

Swimming is a difficult one - it's a terrific way of keeping fit but access to pools is the problem.
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Old 01-01-2017, 14:27
James Frederick
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Our secondary school stopped swimming after the 1st year (year 7 now I think its called) dispite us having it's own private swimming pool in the premises.
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Old 01-01-2017, 14:46
BinaryDad
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There were plenty of kids in my year at school who were far from being fat, but still had very poor physical fitness.

Weight really isn't the issue - teenagers being generally lazy and not wanting to do physical exercise sort of is, but it's pretty much the norm for most kids.

Regardless, it's a poor way to enforce physical fitness on teenager. Forcing them into doing something will just make them resent it even more and resist taking part in physical activities after leaving.
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Old 01-01-2017, 14:49
Pitman
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ban all playstations, in the good old days we played real actual football from morning to night, and we were as fit as fiddles until we left school and starting drinking and taking recreational drugs
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Old 01-01-2017, 15:14
zx50
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It would be interesting to find out what the percentage of very noticeably overweight school kids is in Britain.
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Old 01-01-2017, 15:31
James Frederick
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There were plenty of kids in my year at school who were far from being fat, but still had very poor physical fitness.

Weight really isn't the issue - teenagers being generally lazy and not wanting to do physical exercise sort of is, but it's pretty much the norm for most kids.

Regardless, it's a poor way to enforce physical fitness on teenager. Forcing them into doing something will just make them resent it even more and resist taking part in physical activities after leaving.
When I was at school most either wagged PE/Games or "forgot" their kit I swear sometimes about 90% of the class either wasn't there or didn't take part.
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Old 01-01-2017, 16:17
netcurtains
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My son is slim and healthy but he couldn't do any of the above as he doesn't have the coordination or desire to be able to, he's all brain and no brawn.
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Old 01-01-2017, 16:29
Whedonite
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I try to workout every day and the list the OP made is making my body hurt.

Schools should focus on making PE more fun. What kid has the concentration or will to do a serious workout? Let them play football or netball, or whatever sports kids like playing these days.
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Old 01-01-2017, 16:44
Tiger Rag
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One way to make people hate PE.

I really did not enjoy PE. I've got balance problems. I've got poor upper body strengths and things like planks, press ups, etc. are awful for me.

As mentioned, you need to make PE fun. When I was at school, we just did netball, rounders, cross country and hockey. Rarely got a chance to do football. Wouldn't have minded doing cricket. Only had a chance to do that in primary school and did represent my primary school for the second team at one of the county tournaments.
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Old 01-01-2017, 16:47
SULLA
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Like an army PT tests that they must pass in order to get a necessary grade for an exam?

For example:

50 press ups in 2 mins.
40 sit-up/crunches in 3 mins.
full plank hold for 90 seconds

1600 meter long distance run (timed)
400 meter medium sprint (timed)
200 meter full sprint (timed)

Said student will be given 3 attempts at passing this exam. Failure will result in an low grading on their personal records.

Would this sort of thing be useful in getting overweight kids to focus on their health?
Sounds good for GCSE PE
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