Children Should Be Tested For Fitness At Primary School, Says Campaign Group Chaired By Tanni Grey Thompson
Readers, Dame Tanni Grey Thompson has said something I find very surprising, coming from a disabled person, recently.
A campaign group called ukactive are calling for primary school children to be tested for fitness in the same way that they are tested for Maths and English.
Lady Grey-Thompson, ukactive’s chairwoman and paralympian, said: “The current national ambition focused solely around PE lessons is simply not bold enough. We should aim higher and demand more.”
Readers, what I said to Dame Tanni Grey Thompson when she called for PE to be made a core subject two years ago still stands. I admire her a great deal and agree with many of her opinions, but this is not one of them!
I think making PE a compulsory subject would spell the end of inclusive education. If I was at school at a time when PE was compulsory, my worst nightmare would have come true.
‘Demanding more’ physical activity from children than PE lessons, particularly something like what is done at the Montpelier school in Ealing, where
For example, in English lessons, children use “Kung Fu-style hand movements” to explain to the teacher where an exclamation or full stop should go, rather than putting up their hands or shouting out,
would be a very bad idea, in my personal opinion. It would almost certainly make inclusive education more of a challenge than it has to be for physically disabled children.
I fear it would discourage mainstream schools to take physically disabled pupils- pupils who are very intelligent in other areas of the National Curriculum.
As I have said too many times before, I think that would be a great shame.
Same Difference 
Reblogged this on sdbast.
LikeLike