7 out of 10 school children drop out of sport by 16

You haven't addressed half the points I've made. You just keep telling me I can't generalise, when...


...the statistic suggests it, the people posting here suggest it, and my experience talking to people in my school and other schools suggests it.

This is boring me now.

Ask every student in the country what they would rather do out of Maths and PE. I think I know what the answer would be.

Yup maths ... or at least that is what my answer would have been if I was still in school

Me not addressing your points? You can blummin' well talk! You havent addressed half the stuff I've posted and have just waffled on.

You are so dense for a supposedly straight A* candidate. Did anyone ever tell you that statistics can be very misleading? Well it certainly doesn't appear so! The statistics show the percentage of students dropping out but they don't state the reasons why. They certainly do not indicate that most people 'hate PE', which is what you suggested.

Now, going going back to my secondary point derived from the primary point (that physical fitness is an important element for an individual's overall developent and well-being). The government could launch initiatives to curb feelings of insecurity for people who find PE daunting, and encourage them to participate in such sporting events and activities.

Ask every student in the country what they would rather do out of Maths and PE. I think I know what the answer would be.

There really is no need to resort to insulting me. I made three or four posts earlier in this thread to which you replied "I am viewing this from a broader perspective", "You can't generalise like that", and so on. I don't think you addressed those at all. You said that people don't go on to do PE at A-level which I ignored on purpose, because PE at A-level is an academic subject, and the thread title states "sport". I doubt it's too difficult for 7 out of 10 children to kick a ball around in school if they want to, regardless of money, domestic situations, and so on. And I doubt anywhere near 7 out of 10 are actually physically unable to play sport. So either they're unfit - and therefore wouldn't enjoy it - or they don't like sport, both of which I said.


The government could do many things. It hasn't and won't. So we're stuck with the current situation.


I think you know what my answer would be... but then again, I'm obviously just an exception.

You cannot generalise from such limited data, especially not from your minority view! "Most people hate PE" is a hideous comment and no truth lies within this statement.

You then went off at a tangent in a previous post and completely misinterpreted the point and replied with: "No, I understood what you meant, I was just taking the piss" You then started talking nonsense about Maths ability being proportional to Physical Fitness - totally out of control and irrelevant, but it made me smile

More Physical Fitness should be introduced into schools. It is definitely something that the government needs to consider in order to curb rising trends in obesity. It is also vital for an individuals overall development.

Well, I was taking the piss. I wasn't prepared for you to turn completely serious and annoying over it. It was a light-hearted topic till you bounded into it and started insulting me.


Personally, I'd say they should cut down the number of fast food restaurants on every street corner. I live near Birkenhead, which is a fairly large town, with a fairly small town centre. There's a McDonald's, a Burger King, three Sayers, two Greggs, a Waterfields (edit: a bakery situated in the north-west, but all it ever sells round here is the same sort of stuff as Sayers: sausage rolls, cakes, custard slices...), a Subway, several people selling ice cream, and so on. And you know, I don't have a clue where the nearest sports centre is. And whereas I used to go for walks in the park, it's now a construction site. Trends in obesity are caused by the introduction of fast food and microwave food and the huge consequential drop in motivation to do anything (not helped by the fact that a lot of these foods don't give you much in terms of sugars or carbohydrates for energy - trust me, I used to eat a lot of the stuff, and I've never felt as sluggish since).

PE doesn't need to be introduced into schools, because schools can only do so much - my school has huge amounts of facilities, but it doesn't have enough staff or space to let us all do what we wanted in PE. And this is the same in any school. So PE for me ended up as cross-country or athletics, something we could do outside while various cricket or hockey teams practised in the sports hall or rugby people did weight training. What does need to happen is the introduction of free choice into PE, and/or free/cheap access to sports and fitness facilities outside schools for everyone, with appropriate advertising. And less crap food. I'd be glad of a decent place to buy a cheese sandwich and a drink of water round here (rather than a cheeseburger and a milkshake), and a park I could walk in without tripping over the rocks. 40 minutes of PE a week can do nothing about this, and at the current rate, doubling that will just make those who love PE more enthusiastic and those who hate it less enthusiastic.

So really, your 'solution' does nothing.

I never said PE needed to be introduced in schools (it already is). I said that more emphasis should be placed on the physical fitness and physiological state of the average student currently undertaking compulsory education. This could be achieved by allocating an increased time for such timetabled activities.

My solution doesn't work? That's your opinion.

You're coming across as one of the kids who used to make up every excuse under the sun to try to avoid enduring in a PE lesson. And that's not a problem! There were a few (approx. 10%) of students in my PE class who tried to bunk off.

That's bloody *******s mate LOL

Yeah, I missed a word out - that doesn't negate my actual argument. If it keeps being taught the competitive way it is, the people who are bad at it will get less enthusiastic for it. Heightened by junk food, the lack of sports facilities, and the lack of peaceful places to be able to have a quiet stroll without being pushed into and out of shops by frantic shoppers and/or tourists, it's lack of enthusiasm that stops PE working properly, not the amount of time it's taught for. Since you want to compare it to academic subjects... if a maths teacher thought his entire class was bored, they'd try to make it more interesting for them somehow... not force them to do more of the boring stuff. The opposite is true in PE.


This is what I mean by not addressing my point. I just explained in a post the size of yours why your solution doesn't work, and you've just refuted it in three words. The rest of your post is taken up by "Most people hate PE lolol!".


I don't make excuses at all, I just don't turn up. I think the teaching is poor and the amount they care about badminton players like me compared to rugby players is minimal. And if they ever once miss me from a badminton game, I'll tell them that. But they won't notice because they're not arsed.


Thank you, I feel sufficiently reprimanded for having an opinion backed up by every single piece of evidence I've ever seen.

Now please stop replying, you're not saying anything useful, you're just repeating yourself.

Most people hate PE

You're on the wrong slant with little focus and keep side stepping my points. I spoke about more physical fitness being incorporated into the current system, not how unhappy and disastrous your PE lessons were. Or how lazy you are. Or how much ice cream you consume. I am not interested in your life stories.

Let me educate you with a little lesson in statistics. If the hypothesis was amended and the title was "7 out of 10 children express their distaste for PE" then it would deem a more appropriate source to provide a justification in this context. Unfortunately in this instance it isn't.

I will reply as much as I like, and you won't be able to do anything about it.

I'm not lazy, and don't eat ice cream, because I've seen through it. I still don't want to do PE. I wouldn't do it if there was physical fitness incorporated more into it. I'd do it if they allowed me to play badminton, especially given that my school has the facilities to accommodate all sports at once, just the games staff don't trust us (even if we're all nearly 18 and the rest of the staff do), so they don't. I haven't dropped out of sport - I play it in school at badminton club. I just don't attend PE lessons.


7 out of 10 children drop out of sport. Given that in all public schools sport has to be made available to all pupils, what possible reason could there be (apart from 7/10 of the population being disabled and/or not in a public school) for not doing sport, unless you didn't like it?


I could stop giving you stuff to reply to, and will do so if you keep insulting me.

Ask every student in the country what they would rather do out of Maths and PE. I think I know what the answer would be.

Apart from the rare occasions when we did a sport I enjoy like tennis or badminton, I would say that "hate" is a suitable verb for my opinion towards the subject. I spent most of the lessons wandering around trying to make it look like I was paying attention. I agree pretty much with generalebriety's points.



Haha, I would definitely choose maths. Towards the end of Year 11, we were told (a couple of days before), that the whole year was going to do a cross-country, even though we didn't have a P.E. lesson then. It was ridiculous making us miss most of the afternoon and, consequently, two proper subjects, just weeks before our GCSEs. I was considering hiding somewhere and doing work for some proper subjects (yes, probably maths ) until I found out that they were keeping a record of who did it, and those who didn't would be forced to do it during a lunchtime (*******s). Though, of course, I ran faster to the remaining Physics lesson than I did through any of the cross-country. I also wrote a highly pretentious letter to the P.E. staff about it, although it remained undelivered - it contained some rather offensive suggestions.

And, from my experience, most people do, at least, dislike P.E.

But if there was more flexibility within the structure to allow for such preferences, you may be more inclined to participate, which the government seems to have over looked. They should re-consider an alternative solution that meets the needs of the students' desires, so that targets are met and general health improves. Today's technological society tends to focus more on academia and standards, rather than health. Yet health is one of the most important aspects in life today.

I will stick to my primary and secondary points, and we can end this in a truce, if you are willing.

Haha, I would definitely choose maths. Towards the end of Year 11, we were told (a couple of days before), that the whole year was going to do a cross-country, even though we didn't have a P.E. lesson then. It was ridiculous making us miss most of the afternoon and, consequently, two proper subjects, just weeks before our GCSEs. I was considering hiding somewhere and doing work for some proper subjects (yes, probably maths ) until I found out that they were keeping a record of who did it, and those who didn't would be forced to do it during a lunchtime (*******s). Though, of course, I ran faster to the remaining Physics lesson than I did through any of the cross-country. I also wrote a highly pretentious letter to the P.E. staff about it, although it remained undelivered - it contained some rather offensive suggestions.

And, from my experience, most people do, at least, dislike P.E.

Yes but you arn't the whole population are you?

Anyway, my main point was this.

I don't want to get dragged into this, but...


I don't believe I ever claimed that I was the whole population. The assertion being made is that 'most people hate P.E.'; I was stating that, from my experience, this is probably true. Certainly, the evidence so far - numerous accounts from people on here - supports that far more than you constantly saying how ridiculous it is. But whatever, I don't really care, and we're all entitled to think what we like.

As for your main point, I don't think that would work either. I know how to be fit; I do not want to be patronised every single week with rubbish about suitable exercise or healthy food. You simply can't force people to be healthy.

You didn't, I did. It seems that those who have been belittled by their PE experience have jumped up and posted, seeing as it has affected them negatively, and those who enjoyed it probably don't care. Ask every 12 to 16 year old in the country what they would rather do out of Maths and PE.

As for my main point: I do.

Now shut up.

That was unnecessary.

Besides, maths outnumbers PE 3:1 so far, as far as this thread shows.

I don't want to get dragged into this, but...


I don't believe I ever claimed that I was the whole population. The assertion being made is that 'most people hate P.E.'; I was stating that, from my experience, this is probably true. Certainly, the evidence so far - numerous accounts from people on here - supports that far more than you constantly saying how ridiculous it is. But whatever, I don't really care, and we're all entitled to think what we like.

As for your main point, I don't think that would work either. I know how to be fit; I do not want to be patronised every single week with rubbish about suitable exercise or healthy food. You simply can't force people to be healthy.