ABSTRACT
The promotion of healthy, active lifestyles among children and young people is a longstanding and frequently stated aim of PE programmes in schools. All teachers of PE would like to think that they have helped motivate pupils to adopt an active lifestyle that benefits their health and enhances their quality of life. However, active lifestyles are not as prevalent among children and young people as we would like to think. Indeed, up to a third of children lead sedentary lifestyles and choose to avoid physical activity in their free time. Clearly, there are many reasons for this trend towards sedentary living (such as increased access to transportation and energy-saving gadgets, and concerns about children being safe playing outside). However, we need to face up to the fact that it may also be partly because PE in schools is not sufficiently engaging for a minority (but still a large number) of children. This may be due to narrow curricula dominated, for example, by traditional games activities and/or a limited range of didactic teaching styles in which pupils predominantly follow teachers’ instructions. It is important, therefore, that schools reflect on the effectiveness of their current programmes in terms of turning children ‘on’ to activity and helping them to integrate it into their everyday lives.
