Page 1267 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 3 April 2019
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question before us is: what can we do and what are we already doing to get more sports and recreational activities into our schools?
I want to emphasise that point for a moment as well. Often the focus is on sport. I think the notion of recreational activities is an important part of the story—and I do not think anyone has disputed that today—but it is worth elaborating that not everybody wants to play a competitive sport or be in a team. There are lots of activities out there that can deliver the sorts of health benefits we are talking about in this discussion today without necessarily needing to be competitive or having to turn up regularly on a Saturday morning. They can be a diverse range of activities. We should not lose sight of that in the discussion today.
The healthy weight initiative 2016-17 progress report noted the ACT government’s partnership with the Physical Activity Foundation to run the PE pulse program. The program provided support to primary schools in the ACT such as resources, services and professional development opportunities related to physical education, sport and recreation.
In 2016, when I was the education minister, I released the Action research report on building teacher capability to deliver physical education in ACT public primary schools. It was not the catchiest title ever known, but it was a good resource that outlined a range of resources to support teachers to deliver structured, developmentally appropriate physical education programs in our schools. I think the real strength of it was that it gave teachers a whole lot of stuff, essentially on a platter, so that as part of their busy jobs they were given the sorts of support materials they would need when they may not necessarily have the expertise or background. It gave them lots of easy pathways to bring more physical activity into their curriculum in an easy way.
At that time we also saw the implementation of the Australian curriculum based health and physical education in all ACT schools, to give resources and advice to teachers on how to embed physical education into the curriculum. The curriculum also gives advice on how to assess student learning through their involvement in health and physical education activities. Since then some of the programs have changed, but ACT schools are continuing to deliver a broad range of programs and activities to meet the physical activity guidelines: a minimum of 25 minutes a day for students in kindergarten to year 6, and 150 minutes a week for students in years 7 to 10.
In addition to the funding that ACT schools and sporting organisations receive through the sporting schools program, there are a range of programs funded across the ACT government in this space. I note that Ms Berry’s remarks, and also her amendment, go to spelling out a range of those programs.
The ride or walk to school program provides infrastructure to encourage active travel and creates safe and accessible routes for getting to school without needing to be driven. This is an example of where I think we can bring better physical activity into people’s lives almost by stealth. They do not necessarily need to go to the gym. Simply the action of getting to work or getting to the many activities that people are involved in can be a really effective way of meeting these national guidelines without
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