Sports Participation

1
Nike Girls - Survey Results

• Sports Participation

• Frequency of lessons missed

• If P.E. kit is liked

• Preference for indoor or outdoor lessons

• The importance of exercise for health

• The importance of exercise for staying fit

• The importance of exercise for feeling good

• Lunchtime activities

• Membership of school teams

• Competitive activities at club or county level

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Sports Participation

• Many girls only take part in P.E. during school
  lessons.

• Around half the girls in each school surveyed
  said they took part in recreational activities in
  their own time these activities were quite
  diverse ranging from swimming to horse riding
  very few admitted to taking Part in team games.

• By comparison to the boys few girls take part in
  competitive team sports
  out of school.

3
Lessons Missed

• Frequency of lessons missed was very encouraging
  with most pupils both girls and boys suggesting
  that they rarely missed their games lessons.
• Reasons for missing were largely due to injury
  or a cold.

4
P.E. Kit

• The overall majority of pupils said they liked
  their P.E. kit, though a number of comments were
  made with reference to skirts they were not
  well liked!

5
Indoor / Outdoor Lessons

• The majority of pupils definitely preferred
  indoor lessons to outdoor lessons there were a
  couple of exceptions, but the pupils at the all
  boys school claimed to prefer indoor lessons.
  Which indoor activities were preferred was not a
  survey question but it would be interesting to
  know.

• Pupils were asked to indicate dislike for any
  lessons and dance was mentioned for a number of
  reasons dirty floor and definitely thumbs down
  from the boys. Is this because of male attitudes
  to dance generally? One to ponder.

6
The Importance of exercise for health

• Most pupils recognised the importance of
  exercise for health scoring it as 4 or 5.

The importance of exercise for staying fit

• Again the majority of pupils scored this with a
  4 or 5 in importance.

The importance of exercise for feeling good

• This provided a much wider set of opinions with
  a significant number of pupils rating it as 1 or
  2. Further investigation by teachers might be of
  use here considering the results of the previous
  two questions.

7
Lunchtime Activities

• This was to find out what the level of
  participation is at sporting activities during
  lunchtimes. There was no clear cut findings for
  this participation varied form school to
  school. What was interesting were the reasons why
  pupils did not participate and it centred around
  preferring to socialise and chat rather than to
  exert themselves.

8
Membership of school teams

• Comparatively few of the pupils surveyed were
  members of school teams. However, unless a school
  analysed a whole year group it would be difficult
  to draw firm conclusions from this. But if
  getting pupils involved in activities is an
  issue, P.E. teachers maybe should look to
  offering activities which will attract more
  pupils e.g Sports aerobics, aerobics, dance,
  fitness circuits.

9
Competitive activities at club / county level

• The results show that fewer girls take part in
  competitive activities outside of school that
  boys. The activities taken part in by girls were
  swimming, equestrian and dance events and not
  traditional team games.

• More boys belong to clubs involving traditional
  team games mainly football and rugby than
  girls.

Why?
This is an area that school need to look at if we
are to encourage girls to take up, continue and
enjoy sport into their adult life. Schools
perhaps need to forge stronger links with local
sports clubs if this is to happen successfully.
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Summary of key points

• Many pupils take part in P.E activities during
  school lessons.

• Around half the girls surveyed took part in some
  recreational activity in their own time.

• More boys than girls belong to clubs outside
  school.

• Of the pupils surveyed there was a preference
  for indoor lessons.

• Pupils recognise the importance of exercise for
  fitness and health, but this is not matched by
  their participation levels.

• Fewer girls belong to out of school sports teams
  than boys.

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Issues

• Are schools offering the the right sort of
  activities to encourage pupils to get active?

• Should schools create better school / club links
  for pupils to carry on their interest in team
  sport?

• Can clubs do more?

• Should we consider pupils preferences i.e indoor
  activities, when devising P.E. programmes?

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Nike Girls' in sport training pack
Anyone interested in pursuing the issue of girls
participation need to contact their LEA who
should be able to offer the training programme.
The pack provides some simple practical ideas
for short, medium and long-term planning.
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"Do some things differently Do some different
things."
Cale 99