Why is PE in crisis when we know of its value & impact on the development of every child?
In response to the BBC article by Dan Roan on 8 June 2025
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/articles/cz634pyz51po
I live in a town house with limited floor space on the ground floor. Stay with me. We were going to build an extension onto our kitchen but decided to bring most of the garage footprint into the house. Who uses their garage for anything other than bikes & storage? We were going to buy a smart sofa for this new family area but decided to bring down one of our two sofas from the upstairs living room.
‘Perfection is not achieved when there is nothing more to add but when there is nothing left to take away’ Antoine de Saint-Exupery.
Why is PE in crisis when we know of its value & impact on the development of every child?
We could throw a few political hand grenades out there, or we could draw attention to the enormous size & remit of this subject area.
PE incorporates Physical Literacy, Physical Activities, Play, Games and Sports. PE is responsible for developing just about every life skill. PE is personal, social, emotional, creative, cognitive and physical. PE is thinking, feeling, connecting and moving.
Might this rich complexity make it harder for us to evidence & take accountability for the actual development of every child? Where do we start? What do we measure? Since 2016, my work through Gymrun has always served to provide a solution for one component of an extensive subject area, based on what I consider matters most (many will disagree).
What makes PE unique is its capacity to stretch & challenge every child in the physical & cognitive domains. When we distil the physical to its most basic form, we expose the different areas of fitness. We can still address multiple development areas here, through innovative teaching methodologies & as collateral outcomes.
We monitor the fitness & physical development of every child. We support children’s ongoing development with a movement curriculum. We engage & motivate children using a badge award system. We enable all stakeholders to take accountability with progress data on every child, class & year group
School leaders using Gymrun protect PE time & PE teachers because they see, hear, feel & evidence this subject’s value & impact on every child.
Low fitness restricts life chances. We build fitness & physical development (& more) in every child. We recognise this work focuses on one component of an extensive subject area, but it provides a central foundation & an anchor for monitoring the development of every child. And this surely matters.
