Baroness Tanni-Grey Thompson DBE, celebrated as one of our nation’s greatest ever sportswomen, heralded for lobbying against the inequalities surrounding disability, gender and sport and recently the leader of a radical proposal which propelled Physical Education into the spotlight as an antidote to the future health of Wales.
Following a centre-stage question and answer session at the 2014 Sport Wales Conference, Baroness Grey -Thompson gave us an insight into why she is so passionate about our children gaining the opportunities to be physically active throughout life….
I would count myself as a lucky one. I was given the opportunity to try lots of sports and practice basic physical skills from a very young age. I loved sport, it had always been a positive and fun experience for me and I wanted to do more and more of it. I was not always the best at first, but I was keen and had the confidence to understand that it was ok not be good overnight. I was physically literate.
This obviously went on to play a significant role in my future, but it’s something that would still be making a hugely positive contribution to my life now, had I of followed any other career route. That’s because regardless of my day job I’d still be physically active, enjoying the many benefits, health included, that this brings.
I know this because the fact that I was given the opportunity to develop and practice skills such as throwing and catching a ball when I was a child, means that I have the confidence to go and try new things and not only that, I really want to, it’s part of my DNA.
And this is what we want for all of our children. In basic terms we want them to have the skills, confidence and motivation to be taking part in sport and physical activity now and then for the rest of their lives. We want them all to be physically literate.
I could go on about the many social benefits that sport and being physically active can bring but perhaps most simply; because we are facing a ticking obesity time-bomb, due in part to inactive lifestyles.
Many children in Wales are saying that they dislike sport because they do not feel they are good enough to participate, if this is not dealt with these children will struggle to regularly take part in sport for the rest of their lives.
It’s a bit like basic maths, if children don’t think they can make simple additions and subtractions, they will shy away from using these skills throughout life. We’d all agree that this would be detrimental to their futures – yet we still cannot all see that, not having the right skills and confidence to be active will be detrimental to their future health.
This is why we are recommending that Physical Education (PE) is made a core subject within Wales. PE plays such a significant role in shaping our children’s views and attitudes towards sport. And although some are getting great experiences and we are seeing improvements, it is still hit and miss - and that’s not good enough.
Giving the subject core status will mean that teachers get the strong training required to be delivering lessons that are fun and enjoyable for all children, not just those who are excelling in the area, but also that provide our youngsters with the fundamental skills to take part in all kinds of sports, now and in their futures.
We are very much hoping that Professor Donaldson, who is leading the review of our groups proposal, will see the vast potential impact to our nation’s future and make a positive recommendation. It’s time that we started to take bold actions in these areas, the consequences of not doing so are devastating. It’s time we stood together, sport, education and health to tackle a problem that simply will not just fade away.
Gathering evidence and writing strategies is no longer enough. In fact, if writing strategies and consultations was an Olympic sport we’d be Gold medallists. But in this circumstance we are not after Gold medals, we are trying to make a tremendous step change in the habits and lifestyles of our nation, for the future health of our children, and that takes brave and radical actions.
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