Over the last decade, the issue of children’s well-being has been discussed a lot among educators and governments all over the world. In the UK, legislation such as Every Child Matters (DfES, 2004) and The Children’s Plan (DCSF, 2007) have aimed to improve outcomes for children’s well-being and to make this country become the best place for children and young people to grow up. Well-being is a complex concept and somehow hard to define (Morton, 2014). However, there is a broad agreement that well-being refers to the quality of people’s lives (Deiner, 2009; Statham and Chase, 2010). It is about how well we are, and how our lives are going.
In a rapidly changing world, people are neglecting their health, their communication skills, their capacity to concentrate, their commitments and their general apathy towards global issues. Therefore, promoting children’s well-being is a core concern, not only for parents and practitioners but also for everyone. According to Young Minds (2017), there is 1 in 10 children have a diagnosable mental health disorder – that’s roughly 3 children in every classroom; 1 in 5 young adults have a diagnosable mental health disorder; Half of all mental health problems manifest by the age of 14, with 75% by age 24; Almost 1 in 4 children and young people show some evidence of mental ill health (including anxiety and depression); Suicide is the most common cause of death for boys aged between 5-19 years, and the second most common for girls of this age; 1 in 12 young people self-harm at some point in their lives, though there is evidence that this could be a lot higher. Girls are more likely to self-harm than boys.
In order to promote well-being in children, especially children from primary school sector, it is necessary to pay attention to Physical Education (PE). There are several reasons explaining why quality primary PE is critical (UKEdChat, 2015). Firstly, PE provides children with opportunities to improve fitness and be active to counter societal trends towards obesity and increased sedentary behaviours. Secondly, PE impacts positively on learning and behaviour in the classroom. Thirdly, PE helps children to improve social skills and allows some children an opportunity to experience success in a unique learning environment. The teachers in a study (Morgan and Hansen, 2008) believed their programmes were only somewhat successful in achieving outcomes relating to physical activity, self-esteem, motor skills and fitness.
Although PE has a lot of benefits, especially for children’s well-being, PE seem still treated as an optional subject (The Guardian, 2018). For example, in one London borough, primary schools reeling from the effects of savage cuts and under pressure to achieve exam results cut PE lessons for two whole terms so that pupils could focus on preparing for their SATs. In 2013, Ofsted publishes 'Beyond 2012 – outstanding physical education for all' report, showing that one fifth of primary schools did not ensure that all pupils could swim before they left school; only a minority of schools play competitive sport to a high level; outstanding PE was found in twice as many secondary schools as primary; many primary school teachers lacked specialist knowledge of the teaching of PE; and most schools provided at least two hours of PE each week for pupils between the ages of 5 to 14. Also, the report suggested some steps in order to use PE in a better effective way. Firstly, The Department for Education should build on the improvements made to PE and harness the interest and momentum generated by the 2012 London Games by devising and implementing a new national strategy for PE and school sport. Secondly, the Department for Education should ensure that those responsible for the initial training of primary teachers should provide them with sufficient subject knowledge to enable them to teach PE well. Thirdly, teachers should improve pupils’ fitness by keeping them physically active throughout all lessons and engaging them in regular, high-intensity vigorous activity or sustained periods of time. Finally, teachers should raise their expectations of where more able pupils are capable of achieving and provide them with challenging, competitive activities that lead to high standards of performance.
In this film researchers from the University of Southern Denmark discussed how to help school children who are insecure about sports and their own body. Researchers emphasised the importance of PE in children’s development as well as their well-being. They figured out that there were a small group of children who did not do much exercise and tried to find out how to make them exercise more, helping them to be not insecure about physical activities as well as anything in the world.
Evans and Rich (2011, p. 375) stated “How school-based body pedagogies mediate, categorise and select on the basis of health discourse which has its referent a normative vision of the ideal body (its shape, acceptable physical activity and healthy eating) should, therefore, become more than just our passing concern”. It is believed that PE and schools, in general, are responsible for the selection and transmission of health messages. Also, Donaldson (2015) suggested in his report that Health and Well-being should be one of the six areas of learning. This Area of Learning and Experience draws on subjects and themes from PE, mental, physical and emotional well-being, sex and relationships, parenting, healthy eating and cooking, substance misuse, work-related learning and experience, and learning for life. It is also concerned with how the school environment supports children and young people’s social, emotional, spiritual and physical health and well-being through, for example, its climate and relationships, the food it provides, its joint working with other relevant services such as health and social work, and the access it provides to physical activity (Donaldson, 2015, p. 45). It is believed that by 2021, PE in the future will be paid more attention and. Students will be given more opportunities to take part in competitive sports. Children and young people will engage in moderate to vigorous physical activity 60 minutes per day and 5 times a week instead of 2 hours a week as current curriculum.
Children should be as active as possible, and, adults should encourage them to become more involved in sport and PE classes (interview, cited in Green and Thurston, 2002). Early childhood practice needs to understand and acknowledge the primacy of movement and physical activity for children’s well-being and to consider that there are very real risks to children’s emotional, social and cognitive development if PE classes are disregarded.
References
Diener, E. (2009) Subjective well-being. The Science of Well-being, 11-58.
Statham, J. and Chase, E. (2010) Childhood Wellbeing: A Brief Overview. Briefing Paper One. Childhood Wellbeing Research Centre
UKEdChat (2015) 5 Reasons why PE is so important within primary schools by @Trainingtoteach. Available at: https://ukedchat.com/2015/11/29/5-reasons-why-pe-is-so-important-within-primary-schools-by-trainingtoteach/ (Accessed: 17/04/2018)
The Guardian (2018) Cutting PE lessons to boost exam results is madness – especially as we now know physical activity aids academic performance. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/22/exercise-schools-pe-lessons-exams (Accessed: 17/04/2018)
Morgan, P. J. and Hansen, V. (2008) Physical education in primary schools: Classroom teachers' perceptions of benefits and outcomes. Available at: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0017896908094637 (Accessed: 17/04/2018)
Ofsted (2013) Not enough physical in physical education. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/not-enough-physical-in-physical-education (Accessed: 17/04/2018)
Evans, J. and Rich, E. (2011) Body policies and body pedagogies: every child matters in totally pedagogies schools? Journal of Education Policy, 26(3), 361-379.
Green, K. and Thurston, M. (2002) Physical Education and Health Promotion: A Quantitative Study of Teacher’s Perceptions, Health Education, 102(3), 113-123.
Donaldson, G. (2015) Successful Futures: Independent review of curriculum and assessment
arrangements in Wales, retrieved:http://gov.wales/docs/dcells/publications/150225-successful-Futures-en.pdf
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