How can physical education be used to promote well-being in primary education?

Hello Bloggers! In today’s post I will be discussing how physical education can be used to promote well-being in education. 

To start off my blog, I’m going to talk about what well-being actually is. According to the Mental Health Foundation (2015), well-being is “the state of being comfortable, healthy, or happy”. Physical activity can be described as “anything we do, that involves our bodies” (Mind, 2015).

Oliver (no date), discussed the report from 2020 Health and Nuffield Health, who stated that Secondary School children find making most of their education difficult because they are now, “bombarded by social media, destabilised by family breakdown, and stressed by academic targets”. Even though these were issues addressed by Secondary School pupils, most of the issues (especially social media), relate to the Primary School pupils also. All of these issues result in weight problems, poor diet, and children not wanting to take part in physical activity. Educators should be majorly concerned in finding a solution to support these pupils.

There are many benefits of PE in schools other than actually improving your physique and keeping you fit. School sport has been proven to boost your mental wellbeing, builds resilience, lifts academic achievement and creates active habits for life (Oliver, no date). For children in Primary Schools, as well as improving all of these aspects, it also “instils the core values of creativity, aspirations, resilience, and empathy which in turn, contribute to wellbeing and achievement” (Oliver, no date).

According to Mind (2015), the mental health benefits of physical activity are:

·         Reduced anxiety and happier moods

·         Reduced feelings of stress

·         Clearer thinking

·         Increased self-esteem

·         Reduced risk of depression

I know, you’re probably reading that and thinking “depression in children? really?” Depression can actually affect children as young as 3 years old! However, it is a lot more than just feeling, sad, blue or low. It is a serious illness within children and can affect them physically, mentally, and will definitely affect the way they learn (Raising Children Network, 2018).

Sibley & Etnier (2003), have evidently proven that physical activity is linked to better cognitive functioning. Physical Education provides a holistic approach to human development. They state that the ‘whole child’ comes to school to be educated both mentally and physically. School administrators believe that “non-academic” subjects should be cut, so that more time can be spent in the classroom to focus on the academic ones. However, there are many educators who believe that physical education has a great impact on the child’s concentration, learning, and academic success. Four-large scale studies were carried out to examine the effects of increased physical education had on academic achievement. There was no significant difference between the performances, and this is so important because it helps educators to identify that cutting PE hours, does not have an effect on the child’s academic achievement at all. If anything, there were either improvements or no change in their academic performance. However, Dollman et al (2006), carried out a study and found that physical activity has no impact on attainment. This is argued by Ericsson (2008), who supports Sibley & Etnier (2003), by stating that an increase in physical activity has a significant effect on primary pupils’ academic achievement in Maths, reading, and writing.

In addition to this; Piaget (1968), strongly believes that skills and relationships learned during physical activity, have a large impact on the “learning of other relationships and concepts”, suggesting that the movement taken place within physical activity is more important than the actual physical exertion.

Wechsler et al (2000), discusses how break time (otherwise known as Play Time), has an influence on the amount of physical activity that children undertake within the school day, and how much of an impact it actually has on their well-being. They mention how Pellegrini & Smith [32] describe recess as “practise for adult life”, and then further go on to discuss how it is an opportunity for the children to interact, and develop social skills with their peers. Such as; negotiating, and cooperating, involving problem solving, and turn-taking, all whilst learning important resolution skills.

All of these skills were demonstrated within one of our AOLE sessions, where we attended a physical education activity involving Dance. We were put into small groups where we had to come up with a dance to then later perform in front of the rest of our peers. We negotiated, and cooperated which song we would like to use, and how many sets/bars would be used alongside the timing of the song. We then took it in turns to show off our dance moves to choose which ones should be put into our routine. Some of our peers didn’t want to perform in front of the whole group, and so we needed to problem solve as a team. We re-organised the dance so that would be performed with 3 peers rather than 4. Overall, we had a lot of fun, it boosted our energy, and for a moment I think we forgot we were 19/20 years of age, and not actually primary school children!  

Reference List

Dollman. J, Boshoff. K, and Dodd. G, (2006) ‘The relationship between curriculum time for physical education and literacy and numeracy standards in South Australian primary schools’. European Physical Education Review 12(2) pp: 151–163.

Ericsson I. (2008). ‘Motor skills, attention and academic achievements: an intervention study in school years 1-3’. British Educational Research Journal 34(3) pp: 301–313

Mental Health Foundation (2015) ‘What is wellbeing, how can we measure it and how can we support people to improve it?’ Available at: https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/blog/what-wellbeing-how-can-we-measure-it-and-how-can-we-support-people-improve-it (Accessed: 10^th April 2018).

Mind (2015) ‘How to improve your wellbeing through physical activity and sport’ Available at: https://www.mind.org.uk/media/2976123/how-to-improve-your-wellbeing-through-physical-activity-and-sport.pdf (Accessed on: 10^th April 2018).

Oliver. A, (no date) ‘PE and school sport should be a core part of the solution to wellbeing in our schools’ Available at: https://www.youthsporttrust.org/pe-and-school-sport-should-be-core-part-solution-wellbeing-our-schools (Accessed on: 10^th April).

Piaget. J, (1968) The Psychology of Intelligence. Totowa, NJ: Littlefield Adams.

Raising Children Network (2018) ‘Depression: children 3-8 years’ Available at: http://raisingchildren.net.au/articles/depression_children.html (Accessed on: 10^th April 2018).

Sibley. B.A, and Etnier. J, (2003) ‘The relationship between physical activity and cognition in children: a meta-analysis’ Paediatric Exercise Science 15, pp: 243-256.

Wechsler et al (2000) ‘Using the School Environment to Promote Physical Activity and Healthy Eating’ Preventive Medicine, 31(2), pp: 121-137, DOI:10.1006/pmed.2000.0649