Edinburgh schools fail to fit in PE

JUST three out of Edinburgh's 100 primary schools are meeting Government targets of giving each pupil at least two hours of PE a week.

New figures also reveal that one in five youngsters receive just an hour or less exercise during school hours, with some children receiving as little as 45 minutes.

• Click here to see how the primaries measure up

The statistics, released by the city council, come at a time of growing concern about the health of children in Scotland, with figures showing 9.1 per cent of primary one schoolchildren are officially obese and 4.4 per cent severely obese.

Calls were today made for action to be taken as quickly as possible to drive up the amount of PE Edinburgh's children are doing in school.

The city's education leader, Councillor Marilyne MacLaren, says the council is "actively addressing" the problem.

Craigour Park, Currie and Lismore primaries are the only three meeting the two-hour weekly target, with Lismore's children doing an incredible 186 minutes each week – just over three hours.

The worst schools for giving children PE during school hours are St John's in Portobello, Stenhouse and Clovenstone, with just 45 minutes allocated to physical activity per week.

The figures – which include the time it takes for children to get changed for sports classes – show that youngsters in 19 primaries across the city get one hour or less per week.

The city council says it is aware of the issues and is still striving to meet the two-hour target.

Cllr MacLaren said: "One of the department's key priorities is to increase the number of children and young people who live healthy and active lifestyles and participate in physical activity.

"We are aware that our target for two hours per week of physical education in schools is still not being met and this is a not a new issue, but we are actively addressing it."

"We have made improvements since we were last surveyed."

The Scottish Government is set to announce next month that it is ditching the two-hour target in favour of "outcome-based" ways of making children fitter.

Independent Lothians MSP Margo MacDonald, a former PE teacher, said the target had never been realistic.

She said: "The fact is that this government or any other couldn't guarantee two hours of quality PE per week. Instead, they should set a target of giving a period of time over to physical activity for each child every day.

"That could be 15 minutes of power walking or something like that, where you don't need to spend time going to the changing rooms. The idea is to get them as used to physical activity as brushing their teeth, in that it's just a part of everyday life."

Jeremy Balfour, the Tory's education spokesman, described the city's provision of sport during school time as "disappointing" and called for action to be taken. He added: "We need to put more resources into this area."

Dr David Haslam, clinical director of the National Obesity Forum, said: "The figures are pretty depressing, especially when you bear in mind they include the time they take to get changed."

Activity level high but weak on the three Rs
THE figures reveal Lismore Primary School is the Capital's best for PE provision.

But recent statistics showed it was one of the worst for academic attainment, with poor figures for reading, writing and maths. However, Gail Ross, of Lismore Parent Action Group, said she did not believe that was down to the amount of PE the children did.

She said: "The school has a lot of specialist sports activities. There's an excellent basketball club, they have specialist trainers coming in to do cricket and they do football as well.

"The Lismore children are known for being a boisterous lot, and maybe that's reflected in the amount of sports and PE they are taking part in."

• See tomorrow's Evening News for city's secondary school results