Page 1257 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 3 April 2019

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That this Assembly:

(1) notes that:

(a) every child should have access to good physical education and sport at school;

(b) regular physical activity is an important contributor to good overall health, including promoting healthy weight and reducing chronic disease risk;

(d) the Australian Department of Health suggests, children aged 5-12 years/young people aged 13-17 years should undertake at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous-intensity physical activity every day;

(e) the ACT Education Directorate’s Physical Education and Sports policy specifies that from Kindergarten to Year 6, students must have 25 minutes a day of moderate to vigorous physical activity as part of a planned physical education program;

(f) research has shown that children who spend the recommended amount of time per week in physical activity show improved NAPLAN scores from Years 3-6 compared with less active peers; and

(g) teachers and parents have expressed concern that many schools may not be delivering on the Government’s physical education policies; and

(2) calls on the ACT Government to:

(a) engage appropriate staffing cohorts to ensure the necessary skill sets within schools to deliver on the physical education policy;

(b) partner with Sport Australia and their Sporting Schools program that is funded to deliver a range of sporting programs through partnerships with over 30 key national sporting organisations;

(c) fund more ACT sports associations and clubs to deliver programs to assist local schools to meet their physical education policy goals; and

(d) report back to the Assembly by the end of the last sitting week in August 2019 on how it has achieved these outcomes.

Keeping active is important for everyone at every stage of life. But good habits are often formed and embedded from a young age. Playing sport and keeping healthy are two such habits. The ACT Education Directorate knows this. That is why it has a policy that supports physical education and sport in all ACT government schools. The policy is quite prescriptive. It states, inter alia:

Students in kindergarten to year 6 will be provided with a minimum of 25 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per day as part of planned physical education and sport programs.

It further states:

Students from year 7 to 10 will be provided with a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week as part of planned physical education and sport programs.

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