Education

The Role of Sport

Physical education and sport for children and young people have demonstrated positive impacts on physical, mental, and cognitive health and development, and help to build effective long-term physical activity behaviours as adults. ^{6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13}

Children who play sport have improved cognitive development and pro-social skills, are more attentive at school, and achieve better academic results. ^{1, 4, 7, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 47}

Playing sport as a child is also highly correlated with staying at school longer, especially for boys. ^{16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 27, 28, 47}

Sport in Education Across the Lifecourse

Because sport participation in the education sector is so closely linked with physical education (PE), school sport, and other in-school physical activity opportunities, the observed benefits are often attributed to several sources. ^{11, 29}

Pre-school

Physical activity and motor development during the foundation years (ages 0-5) underpin a child’s acquired movement skills and establish perceptions and attitudes about sport and physical activity, which are all components of physical literacy. ^{30, 31, 32}

Children who have all five elements of physical literacy [enjoyment, confidence, competence, understanding and knowledge] are more active and report higher levels of happiness, greater trust in others, and enhanced resilience (continuing to try if they find something difficult). ²⁹

Primary and secondary school

When a child enters school, additional opportunities to develop their physical literacy become available through school sport, modified sports activities, PE classes, and in-school physical activity time, including play and active travel to/from school. ^{33, 34}

Children who participate in sports – particularly team-sports for boys and individual sports for girls – spend less time playing electronic or computer games and are less likely to be sedentary overall. ³⁶

19% of secondary school-aged students in one survey believed that their school did not have enough sports facilities and equipment, and 52% wanted a greater range of activities to be made available in PE and school sport. ³⁷

Children who achieve 45 minutes a day of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) perform better in writing, numeracy, and overall proficiency. ³⁵

Tertiary education

University graduates who participated in sports earn more on average than those who didn't participate in sport, or who participated in gym/physical fitness activities only. ^{5, 38}

Employers and students agree that engagement in sport, especially in a voluntary leadership or management role, provides ‘added value’ beyond standard academic qualifications. ^{5, 22, 39}

Challenges

There is no available national data on how many primary or secondary schools schedule the delivery of physical education (PE) and other planned physical activities such as school sport. ⁴⁰

Reports and evidence suggest that the current generation of Australian children and adolescents are not receiving the optimal benefits that sport and physical activity can provide. ^{40, 41} We also know that children are less likely to participate in sport when they have a low level of physical, cognitive, psychological, and social skills relating to movement (i.e., low physical literacy). ²⁹

Crowded school curriculums, with multiple converging and possibly conflicting priorities, mean that sport is often seen as an extra or a ‘value add’ rather than an integral part of developing healthy and active lives. ^{40, 41, 42}

Sport and physical activity can be powerful tools in helping children and young people to achieve their physical, academic, and social potential. The biggest benefits are produced through whole-of-school and society approaches using a variety of tools and techniques to motivate students, teachers, and parents to get involved and get active. ^{40, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46}