Physical education at school: This is what your child learns

In times of general lack of exercise, physical education in schools is becoming increasingly important. Through physical education classes, the students should first of all be able to enjoy sports and exercise and encourage an active life in the students. Anyone who is already sporty will also do sport in their free time, but those who are not active will also be given impulses to do more physical activity.

Physical Education: That is taught

Depending on the level of instruction and the type of school, there are two to four hours of physical education per week, which are conducted by trained physical education teachers. Teachers must design physical education classes so that all students can participate in the exercises. In addition, they have to take individual differences in the students into account in their assessment, because not all children are equally talented in sports. In order for every child to be able to demonstrate their skills, physical education today is no longer exclusively geared towards individual types of sport, but rather towards the following overarching “fields of movement”:

• Running, Jumping, Throwing (Athletics)
• moving in water (swimming)
• Moving on and with equipment (gymnastics on equipment, acrobatics)
• Design movement gymnastically, rhythmically and in dance (gymnastics, dance, movement arts)
• Driving, rolling, gliding (inline skating, cycling, roller boarding, rowing, skiing, etc.)
• Sports games (football, handball, basketball, hockey, badminton, volleyball, etc.)
• Fight with or against partners (wrestling, judo, fencing etc.)
• Train your body and improve your fitness (gymnastics, strength, coordination and endurance training, relaxation techniques)

Your child learns this in physical education

On the one hand, physical education classes should promote the development of the students and, on the other hand, bring them closer to the culture of games and sports. By moving, playing and playing together and against each other in sports, your child not only develops motor skills, but also mentally and socially. In soccer, for example, it learns how to control the ball with its feet, how to set up sensible tactics for a shot on goal, and how to cooperate with its own team. In addition, your child will also deal with the world through movement in physical education classes and, for example, will get an idea of ​​the length of distances, time and speed during (race) running.

Because physical education classes are geared towards the various fields of movement, your child learns in a particularly versatile way. It learns…

• … to try yourself and to dare something. For example, when climbing or balancing, your child recognizes its limits – what it can and what it can’t do.
• …comply with the ability to work in a team and with rules. In sports games, your child not only gets to know the different rules and techniques, but also acquires the ability to communicate with others and to follow the rules .
• … self-assertion and ambition. In athletics, for example, your child can compete with other students and assert themselves. Small and larger challenges in physical education, for example jumping over a buck or throwing a basket with a basketball, support your child’s personality development and encourage their ambition.
• … sense of rhythm and memory. With dance, gymnastics or pantomime, your child learns to move to music, remember step sequences, express themselves physically and shape movement creatively.
• …health awareness. With strength and endurance training, but also with all other exercises in physical education classes, your child’s health is actively promoted and his awareness of his own health is strengthened.
• …body control and awareness. In physical education, your child learns to assess and control their own body. In tennis, for example, it learns to regulate its impact and in gymnastics, to build up body tension, which gives it a conscious perception of its body and the muscles it contains.

Why is physical education important?

Physical education lessons are usually a welcome balance to the rest of the lessons in the classroom. Here the students can relieve tension and stress from everyday school life and do physical activity. This not only has a positive effect on the health and body weight of the students, but also on their cognitive ability. Because the movement in physical education also improves blood circulation and the oxygen supply to the brain. Children who are active can therefore concentrate better and remember things more easily. Physical education in the early school hours also has the advantage that the students’ tiredness quickly dissipates and they are alert and receptive for the subject that follows.

School sports offers in addition to physical education classes

Many schools offer opportunities to be physically active outside of physical education classes. For example, your child can choose one or more clubs for a sport that he or she particularly enjoys from what the school has to offer. School competitions such as the national youth games, excursions such as skiing camps or tournaments or marathons organized by the school also promote your child’s development and the fun of exercise. Finally, at school events, students can “make it big” in front of an audience with performances they practiced in gym class, reaping self-confidence and success.