Exercise in Education: Leaps in the right direction

Charles Clarke, the new Education Secretary, wants schools to continue to strive towards higher targets, while cracking down on bad behaviour. What he probably doesn't realise is that there is a simple way to do both things at once. What's more, it's cheap, easy, logical – and most schools could start on it tomorrow if they so chose.

What's the big secret? PE.

Schools that set out to improve their pupils' diet of games and exercise, including helping them to make the most of lunchtimes in the playground, discover that this brings quite astonishing results. Attendance goes up, bad behaviour drops, pupils become healthier and happier, confidence, motivation and concentration improve, teachers feel less stressed, and results start to climb.

And the evidence is not simply anecdotal. The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, which has been running a three-year project looking at how schools can deliver the national-curriculum target of two hours of quality PE and sport a week, declares itself knocked out by the hard evidence of improvements.

"We worked with almost 40 schools of all kinds – primary, secondary, special – and every single one has had significant changes in behaviour, attendance and attitudes," says Crichton Casbon, principal subject officer for PE and dance for the QCA. "It's like dropping a pebble into a pond. The ripples spread out. And any school can do it, without doubt. You don't need a lot of money. It's the willingness that counts."

Springfield First School, in a less-than-genteel part of Worthing, was among the first to sign up. "And this is the fourth year running that we've improved in reading, writing and maths," says the head Wendy Harkness. "Children who don't shine in class now get opportunities to shine in other things, and this improves their self-confidence, and then they improve in all sorts of ways, and this feeds back into the classroom, and so it goes on."

Behaviour incidents at the school have fallen by 95 per cent since it started its PE programme, making the lunchtime tail of naughty boys outside the head's office a thing of the past. Playground first-aid incidents have halved, while attendance at after-school sports and dance clubs has gone up to the point where 85 per cent of pupils do some sort of activity. Teachers say that children remain alert and engaged in the afternoons, and parents say that their children can't stop talking about the activities they now do at school.

All the schools in the project revamped their PE lessons, and looked at ways to encourage children to be active in their free time. Many, especially primary schools, came to realise that although pupils spend up to 25 per cent of the school day in the playground, it wasn't enough just to turn them out to play. Today's children need help to do that. Cramped homes, dangerous streets, poor diet, and a screen culture of computers and television, mean that many don' t have basic skills such as skipping and balancing, and also need to be taught the social give and take of group games.

At Springfield, they divided their small playground into different play zones, and set out a constantly changing rota of lunch-time activities, using paid and trained adult helpers to teach children new games, and encourage them to have a go. On any day, the games might range from cricket to tossing bean bags into hoops, but are always designed to offer a range of activities that back up the PE programme, and give children the opportunity to improve their basic skills and achieve simple goals. The result is a mosaic of busy, focused children, with no oddballs left out, or skulking gangs looking for trouble. And even the most slothful children have benefited. The school monitored its less-active pupils and found that their lunchtime activity time had gone up from 40 per cent to 80 per cent.

Schools in the project all report startling individual success stories – shy children coming out of their shells, disabled ones gaining new confidence, tubby ones starting to slim down. And many have been astonished at what a profound effect a physically active day has had on aggressive and troublesome boys.

For girls, too, there have been benefits. One secondary school discovered that reorienting its PE programme around popular activities such as dance motivated many more girls to stay active, while an infants school with a high proportion of Asian children found its girls swopping their sparkly, high-heeled mules for trainers that allowed them to run, jump and climb.

Schools made their changes by arranging for teachers to get training in PE, investing in extra equipment, and hiring and training play assistants. Many also turned to outside coaches to give pupils the chance to swim, dance and to do gymnastics, developed after-school programmes, and fostered school teams and other programmes of excellence to cultivate a sense of achievement and pride among their pupils.

At Fair Furlong primary school, in a deprived part of south Bristol, all these elements have been brought together into a carefully thought-out programme that is now embedded into the school day and doing much to boost children's achievements and curb bad behaviour. It also, says the head, Peter Overton, gives children a very good reason to want to come to school in the morning.

"Learning should be fun, and should include things like how to share, take responsibility, and get on with others. For some of our children, school is the only place they encounter them."

Lunchtime – the most significant part of the school day – certainly looks like fun at his school, with children running, throwing, balancing, playing football, and dancing on a stage built in the corner of the playground.

The school has recently acquired a vividly zoned playground, designed to encourage sport and games, courtesy of the scheme run by Nike and the Youth Sports Trust, but it embarked on its programme with just a few home-made marks on the ground. "Anyone with a can of spray paint can do what we have done," says Peter Overton.

'I WANTED GAMES TO BE ENJOYED, NOT ENDURED'

Lunchtimes at Brettenham primary school, in Edmonton, north London, used to be a black hole in the middle of the day. "We never used to do nothing," says Annabella Cyril, 11. "We only had a few balls. There used to be fights. People would be arguing over small, silly things and then they'd get bigger. Some children kicked and punched the teachers."

Fast forward three years and everything has changed. The school has invested in simple playground equipment and markings, and trained play leaders to help pupils play games at lunchtime. There's football and cricket, skipping, and circle games for those who want to play quietly. PE lessons are purposeful. A dance teacher comes three times a week, and teaches each year group, while pupils from a local secondary school do sports with individual pupils. Then there are after-school sports clubs open to all, and élite teams that compete in borough-wide competitions. Pupils burst with pride as they recount successes in netball, football and cross-country running.

All this has been masterminded by the deputy head Deborah Hall, who knows that poorer children often live in flats and can be starved of the chance for physical activity. "Children are children. They need to play. But often they don't play because they don' t know how."

She introduced the changes slowly to carry people with her. Classroom assistants are now actively involved in PE lessons and lunchtimes, and the effects are clear. Lunchtimes are looked forward to, not dreaded, and the children feel better for it. "I'm more fit," says Yeliz Osman, 10. "I didn't used to be able to run fast but now I can."

The change has had an impact on learning, too. Classrooms are calmer, pupils stay alert after lunch, and many have made big leaps as a result of confidence gained from exploring their physical talents. And the Key Stage 2 test scores have improved significantly. The school is now almost up to the national average in English, maths and science; four years ago, it was way below.

The changes have been inexpensive. To any school wondering about doing the same thing, Deborah Hall says, "Come and see us". To schools that don't let pupils play, she says, "They're not caring about their children, just their results."

education@independent.co.uk