Page 1260 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 3 April 2019
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can be very stressful. Stressed students are not able to concentrate and focus on their academic performance if they are not allowed time to de-stress. Physical activities give them an environment to breathe out their stress. By exercising and breathing deeply, extra air to our lungs provides more oxygen to the brain, making the brain feel relaxed and stress free.
Physical education in schools helps to create happier and healthier children. In turn, it creates happier and healthier students. Many schools have made physical education an essential component of the school curriculum and students are prompted to maintain a healthy balance between their education and exercise.
Students who take part in physical activities have proved to be happier and healthier than those students who spend all their time doing school education work only. Such activities help develop the blood circulation in a child’s body. This helps in providing more oxygen to the heart and brain and allows the body to maintain a balance between physical and mental health. The Education Directorate presumably knows these things too and has prescribed a policy to deliver all of these benefits.
My motion today calls on the government to ensure that schools are sufficiently resourced with equipment and the appropriate and qualified staff to deliver on the policy. It calls on the government to partner with Sport Australia and their sporting schools program. It calls on the government to fund more ACT sports associations and clubs to deliver programs to assist local schools to meet the policy. And it calls on the government to report to the Assembly on how the Education Directorate is meeting its physical education policy objectives by the end of the sitting week in August.
My colleague Mr Milligan will talk more on the current sports programs available. He has worked with a number of sporting organisations and is passionate about greater participation in sport, both in and out of school, for all Canberrans. Sport in any and all forms is important and we need to ensure that, if we have a policy that values physical education in our schools, our schools, our school leaders and our teachers are supported to deliver on this important part of the school curriculum throughout all schools in the ACT.
We know that physical education in schools delivers improved academic performance. We know that it delivers better health outcomes that can last throughout a child’s life. We know that it can minimise mental health stresses in young people. I encourage our schools to look for opportunities to work with sporting clubs and associations to deliver on the Education Directorate’s physical education policy. It is one that should be supported, but it should be ensured that it is being delivered in a meaningful way to and for all Canberra schoolchildren. I commend my motion to the Assembly.
MS BERRY (Ginninderra—Deputy Chief Minister, Minister for Education and Early Childhood Development, Minister for Housing and Suburban Development, Minister for the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence, Minister for Sport and Recreation and Minister for Women) (11.33): I thank Ms Lee for bringing forward this important motion on physical education and activity for children and young people in ACT schools.
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