CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Cycling News

"Children need more exercise - especially girls, study says"

(19 posts)

No tags yet.


  1. chdot
    Admin

    "

    "This study highlights that there is still much to do to keep children and young people active as they grow older, especially girls. The new school year is the perfect time to make healthy changes, swapping short car or bus journeys with walking or scooting to school."

    "

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-23778945

    So nothing new there then.

    Doesn't mention cycling - obviously too dangerous...

    Scooting is a good idea and often overlooked by some people wanting more children to 'cycle to school'.

    Don't suppose scooterers are demonised as much children who cycle on pavements - though for primary age it's generally not illegal.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  2. SRD
    Moderator

    Radio 4 discussion just before 7 did mention cycling

    Scooters tend to make more noise, so perhaps less worrying to the elderly? and kids often seem in better control of them than they do of bikes.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  3. gembo
    Member

    Yes cycling first mentioned then walking then girls don't play football in the playground time to bring back peever again

    Posted 11 years ago #

  4. chdot
    Admin

    "girls don't play football in the playground time"

    I'm sure girls will still (want to) run around (some do play football). In some schools playgrounds are deemed too small for football, but I suspect there will be others where football takes a large proportion of the available space.

    Some schools have hoops and skipping ropes for playtime.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  5. sallyhinch
    Member

    That Radio 4 slot reminded me of my primary school days when the boys (and one girl) played football on the tarmac part of the playground while the girls hung around the edges (although we did do a lot of french skipping which must be fantastically aerobic).

    Posted 11 years ago #

  6. Edinburgh Cycle Training
    Member

    Last term I had a school cancel Bikeability class because it was their 'Health Week'

    When School Head's are the ones who need educating we are starting from a pretty low point.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  7. tarmac jockey
    Member

    Rant Alert! The jockey is on his hobby-horse.

    How about stop teaching sport in schools but teaching physical activity? Sport should be the domain of 'clubs' and not schools. Move the PE teachers from secondary schools to primary schools. The evidence suggests that a vast number of pupils have switched off before they reach secondary school. Is this the due to the poor quality of PE teaching in primary schools? PE teachers are the most skilled and experienced in physical activity so why wait to secondary school before they get proper curriculum time with pupils - this is also when most pupils opt out of PE - possibly because of the poor/negative experience they have had with PE in primary school.

    Proper funding and resources for an extensive network of sports and physical activities clubs throughout the city is the way to go. And don't try and make a profit from them, the health and welfare of our young people is too important to be penny pinching with

    Posted 11 years ago #

  8. PS
    Member

    @tj Right to start them off early, but if I think back to my time at secondary school I played rugby because I was made to. I definitely wouldn't have joined a club to play it at that age.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  9. Edinburgh Cycle Training
    Member

    As sports clubs are not always local/accessible and very rarely free, I'd say school is the ideal place for sport to be encouraged and participated in.

    Why not scrap RE for extra PE? *dons tin hat*

    Posted 11 years ago #

  10. Charterhall
    Member

    I blame the parents.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  11. Edinburgh Cycle Training
    Member

    So you should, its their fault ;-)

    Posted 11 years ago #

  12. tarmac jockey
    Member

    @PS Likewise with rugby - why are we playing rugby at all in our schools is it not dangerous. An argument I often hear against cycling in Edinburgh. I wouldn't join a club to play golf or a range of other sports that I don't like even though I was forced to participate in them at school.

    @Bikeability Edinburgh

    As sports clubs are not always local/accessible and very rarely free, I'd say school is the ideal place for sport to be encouraged and participated in.

    School isn't free. Local facilities are plentiful and fully accessible, they're called schools. Sports and other clubs are charged for there use, some would argue way too much. Schools and everyone in education should be advocates of physical activity for all at a minimum/no cost. Everyone should be encouraged to participate in all forms of physical activity, if that is a recognised sport so be it, throughout there life.

    Cycling should be taught as a lifeskill in all schools, whether or not the young people decide to cycle out with school or not. Much more useful than learning to pack down in a scrum......

    Posted 11 years ago #

  13. PS
    Member

    I eventually enjoyed playing rugby, and I'm glad I did because that, and other school sports, taught me a lot about training and keeping fit (and, I suppose, teamwork, responsibility and all those other things we witter on about in job interviews) but I would never have started playing it had I not been made to do so by school.

    I suppose the point I'm making is that you need to invest a lot of time in many pursuits before you start to harvest the enjoyment. Given no formal structure and no pressure to take part in them (unless their parents push them into it), the natural position of most children will be to not bother taking part, especially if society is as instant-gratification inclined as we are led to believe. Schools are probably the one place where the formal structure can be applied.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  14. Instography
    Member

    My kids' PE is regularly cancelled or replaced by practising all manner of school shows and plays, the worst part being that I also eventually have to endure those.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  15. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    I'd have loved to play rugby (or cricket). We got given the choice from about 3rd year on of what we wanted to play, and the consensus was always football int he summer, and basketball in the winter (which wasn't too bad, I enjoyed football, and being one of the tallest kids in the school I was actually one of the first picked at basketball).

    But I'd have loved the chance to find out if I was any good at some other sports (and we never developed 'athletics' - so my primary school ability at the High Jump was never nurtured in secondary, and I developed discoverd I could run really quickly only after school).

    It's only recently in the recent decade of getting properly into cycling (always rode before then, but it was just something I happened to do) that I've got anywhere near being fit. I definitely needed more exercise, but was one of those irritating natural beanpoles, so never really showed I had a lack of it.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  16. cc
    Member

    We got made to do all sorts of different sports, and I liked the variety. I'd never otherwise have discovered what a star I could be at serving in volleyball, or how dangerous at discus throwing (nearly broke the PE teacher, oops). Hated football though, still do.

    Posted 11 years ago #

  17. chdot
    Admin

    http://www.edinburghgreens.org.uk/site/blog/sport-girls

    Posted 11 years ago #

  18. custard
    Member

    yup the scooters great
    my little boy 'scoots' every day
    also it is something to remove if he isnt behaving ;)
    though I will admit we are in easy walking distance from the school

    must admit. I dont get fat kids at the likes of 5
    my boy never stops

    Posted 11 years ago #

  19. cc
    Member

    Going south on Lauder Rd this morning (instead of the usual north) I passed quite a few groups of parents and children cycling together to school. I hadn't realised that there were quite so many of them! Heart-warming and encouraging.

    Posted 11 years ago #

RSS feed for this topic

Reply

You must log in to post.


Video embedded using Easy Video Embed plugin