Lack of strategy from government means PE is being squeezed for time and investment is badly targeted
Forget Santa. If you really, really want something for Christmas this year, be it better social care or lower energy bills, the correct procedure is to write to Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss. Last month Lotte Wubben-Moy inspired England’s European Championship-winning football team to post an open letter to the two Conservative leadership candidates, asking for football to be made available for all schoolgirls. After the women’s gold and men’s bronze in the Commonwealth Games the England hockey teams followed up with their own wishlist.
Both letters requested a guaranteed minimum of two hours a week of PE; England Hockey has also asked for team sports to be placed at the heart of PE lessons, with improved facilities and more PE teachers for primary and secondary schools. They were not the first. A joint letter from the chief executives of the Football Association, the Lawn Tennis Association, the England and Wales Cricket Board and England’s rugby union and league chief executives also asked the next prime minister to prioritise PE.
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