I agree, but when exactly?

My DGS1 too. He says it’s dead boring because you don’t move much. He’s only 5 and probably does a couple of miles just running round the front room before setting off for school.

Yes, our DGC have yoga sessions at school too.

Jalima completely agree

My grandsons primary school use yoga as well PE.
The children really enjoy it.

Parents recently suggested that the school should take up the ‘daily mile’. Only 15 minutes a day, that shouldn’t be too difficult.

Are they talking about primary or secondary school children? A daily mile pounding on tarmac if the school doesn't have a playing field is not good for younger children; it can damage developing bones.
A mile every day could be very tedious and boring - they need variety and there are lots of other athletic exercise, PE exercises that could be encouraged. Having time set aside in a curriculum for sport should be essential and not too difficult - but variety is the answer, not a 'daily mile'.

Quite Agree Nemo's Mum

They could drop RE and do a mile walk/run instead. It would do them far more good!

Everyday I see obese parents at the school gate. (Primary)
However only the occasional child probably one child from each year , I would categorise as obese.
The school has yoga and PE days.
Also after school scooter club.

As most of the parents are over weight.
It is the eating habits that I would query.

Thankfully up until 7yrs old school meals are free.
My grandson has milk with school dinner and there is a selection of fruit for break time.
After 7 yrs the school makes a small charge 20p for milk and fruit.

Can I also add that a number of the boys and girls from our local secondary school spend a lot time in the gym (next door to the school).
I very rarely seen an over weight teenager.

My DGD does this at her primary school. They keep their trainers under their desks and after the first few days were all proficient at changing into them within a minute. They then all go outside at 9.30am for a 10 minute run, some run a mile, some don't but they all run for the whole time. The teacher has used the session for extra maths learning, they work out their running statistics, chart their progress on graphs etc. They love it and come back into the classroom energised and ready to continue with their learning. No obese children at her school and they win a lot of running competitions too! Children, parents, grandparents and teachers all think it's a great thing to do.

Occasionally I see one but he/she usually has a very overweight mother, so might well be hereditary

I suspect this is more likely to be the result of an unhealthy family lifestyle...

My small DGC (8,6,6,4) all do many after school activities too; golf, swimming, dance, football plus rainbows and cubs which are also pretty active. This week the schools have introduced a compulsory sports week with pre school runs and exercise throughout the day! All the tinies are now exhausted and very bad tempered! It’s another example of one size fits all solutions! Not all children are obese (ours aren’t!) we all eat a healthy (vegetarian) diet and lots of fresh veg and very little screen time so these compulsorary exercise regimes are not needed here?

I believe the daily mile started in Scotland. My great nephews in Glasgow really enjoy doing it - they've never had a weight problem; both parents are thin as rakes!

Both my DGC's Primary Schools do the Daily Mile during morning break (weather permitting) so no need to change clothes. In inclement weather they do their mile up and down the main corridor at one school and in the gym at the other. This is facilitated by staggering break times by year groups.

Having done years of school pick-ups, I have observed that there are one or two obese children in each class. I have also noted that these 'fat' children are daily collected by their Grandmothers who greet them with sweets and fizzy drinks. - Just saying

^ .....count their steps and compete to see who has done the most over the day.^

I heard this about teachers in the staff rom: one teacher who seemed to get the most steps in every time, didn't admit she had strapped the gadget to her dog....

I am wondering if all these obese children that arecongregated in certain areas, are skewing the figures, and that these areas need to be targeted? Also, they are using Bmi, which has been discredited. My own grandson is like 'a rasher of wind' as my gran would have said. Very skinny. He wasn't overweight, but he would have been with just a couple of extra pounds. Ridiculous.

Doctors and nutritionists will tell you that the average kid or adult day does not leave enough time for enough exercise to work off a full fledged Coca Coca habit.

Three cans of soft drink has the same effect on insulin resistance as downing six Mars bars.

More exercise is great for fitness, but actually losing weight is not possible without significant diet change resulting in a calorie deficit.

Ginger/sodapop/etc is bloody awful stuff for weight control and dental health, and a taste for it once acquired is damnably hard to lose.

(Incidentally, diet soda is even harder on the teeth because of the phosphates in it.)

The reason public health bang on about fizzy drinks so much is that consumption of those is believed to be the single biggest driver of weight problems in kids.

School memories of PE were team games, where if you weren't in one of the school teams, you were left to get on by yourself. The best players were allowed to choose the people they wanted in the teams for the lesson and the rest . . . The advent of athletics and cross country running was a real benefit as it was mainly an individual sport.

I’m all for schools allocating some time to PE/Games, but I do believe that ultimately it is the responsibility of parents to do what they can to ensure that their children are healthy in every respect. If parents were to spend a wee bit of time walking/playing/ exploring with their children, all would benefit from the physical activity, the time spent in each other’s company and the time away from screens and social media. It takes effort to be a parent!

There don't seem to be too many overweight children at the GS's school. But there are quite a lot of very overweight mothers which suggests that their children will succumb in the end.

Overweight children are also often targeted by the school bullies. This can make their lives miserable.

Apart from diet, the biggest difference over time must be the fact that few children are actually walking to school or anywhere else.

Nearly all of us either walked to school or took public transport, and that also involved quite a bit of walking. This has been replaced by the school run, which is, on the whole, bad for children and for the environment.

I live in a very mixed, inner city area and have to say that there are a lot of overweight children attending both primary and secondary schools. Most of these children live in tenement or high-rise flats and I do understand the difficulty parents have as many have nowhere to play outside. That does not mean they "have" to be fat - the diet and lifestyle at home is clearly crucial.

The daily mile could maybe be instead of a PE lesson, or incorporated into maths, or english with a bit of imagination. You can walk a daily mile while reciting your times tables, or learning french.

But it should not be a school responsibility to ensure the health and wellbeing of a child - that belongs to the parent.
However, a poorly nourished, overweight child is unlikely to excel at school - and so the teachers are left with the dilemma.

Perhaps parents should be responsible for what their child eats and how much exercise they get

Just a thought.

Hear hear, sodapop
Those wretched machines at stations and even in hospitals, spilling over with fizz and fattening foods are too easy to use. Remove them for starters - what the eye doesn't see.........

Once again parents are abdicating responsibility. Why should it be up to schools to deal with this. I agree they could play a bigger part but parents should be more responsible in areas of diet and exercise. Families should ditch some screen time in favour of exercise.

DH and I were talking about the same thing yesterday, knickas63. We did the school run for one grandson yesterday and for another the day before, both in Reception. Different primary schools in completely different settings. One has massive playing fields, one more urban with hardly any outdoor space. The children were all running round like mad things, seemingly fit and well. Many riding bikes or scooters to school. No sign of any obesity, and barely any that we'd think were overweight.

Yet NHS Digital says that the prevalence of obesity has risen for the second successive year from 9.3 per cent in 2015-16 to 9.6 per cent in 2016-17 for children in reception.

digital.nhs.uk/news-and-events/news-archive/2017-news-archive/obesity-prevalence-increases-in-reception-age-primary-school-children

The report does state that the figures are much higher in areas of deprivation.

My main recollection of school sports is being whacked on the ankles by a hockey stick on a very cold day, trying to climb a rope (why??), exercising on a very itchy mat and trying to jump over a piece of equipment whose name I have deleted from my memory (something horse?).

Looking at the children in my local area I can't say any of them are obese.