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Summary Head teachers' leaders have called the UK PMs comments on school sport extremely unfair.
David Cameron called for a big cultural change in favour of competitive sports in schools and suggested some teachers were not playing their part.The Association of School and College Leaders (ACSL) said Mr Cameron failed to recognise the huge contribution many teachers made to school sport.Teachers say cuts are affecting sport.The idea of an Olympics legacy is high on the political agenda, with politicians, sportsmen and women and commentators talking of the need to ensure young people benefit from the 2012 London Games through greater involvement in sport.The Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt described school sports provision as patchy earlier this week.And some commentators have pointed out that a relatively large number of Team GBs medal winners went to private schools.The prime ministers criticisms of school sport are ill-informed, unfair and fail to recognise the huge contribution that many teachers make to sports in schools”Malcolm Trobe ASCL deputy general secretaryHowever, many of the most high-profile gold medal winners went to state schools, including Jessica Ennis, Mo Farah, Bradley Wiggins and Andy Murray.Mr Cameron told LBC 97.3 FM radio: If we want to have a great sporting legacy for our children - and I do - we have got to have an answer that brings the whole of society together to crack this, more competition, more competitiveness, more getting rid of the idea all-must-win prizes and you cant have competitive sports days.He added that the problem was not simply one of money, but of some teachers not wanting to join in and play their part.We need a big cultural change - a cultural change in favour of competitive sports. Thats what I think really matters.The comments have angered unions representing teachers and head teachers, who say the scrapping of a sports partnership scheme for schools has damaged provision.The coalition government is also coming under fire for removing the requirement that schools in England provide pupils with at least two hours of sport a week - the minimum expected in schools in other parts of the UK.At the time, in autumn 2010, Education Secretary Michael Gove said he wanted to cut bureaucracy for head teachers, while trusting them to give pupils the best physical education and more opportunities to play sport competitively.He expected that schools would at least provide that much sport and PE.In a letter at the time, he wrote: In giving schools this freedom, we are trusting school leaders to take decisions in the best interests of pupils and parents they serve. I would expect every school to want to maintain as a minimum the current levels of PE and sport each week for every pupil.Today, a spokeswoman for the Department for Education said: This was not a target - it was an unenforceable aspiration.No more than two in five pupils took part in competitive sport when we told schools they no longer had to inform us of how much sport pupils were doing.Many Team GB medallists attended state school, which makes ludicrous his suggestion that teachers are letting the side down”Christine Blower National Union of Teachers general secretaryASCL deputy general secretary Malcolm Trobe said: We all want to build on the immense success of our Olympic teams and we understand that schools have an important part to play in this.However the prime ministers criticisms of school sport are ill-informed, unfair and fail to recognise the huge contribution that many teachers make to sports in schools.Many teachers, not just PE staff, willingly give of their time to motivate and coach young people in a wide range of sports.Mr Trobe said the government had removed the funding for what he called the most successful school sports scheme ever - the School Sport Partnership.This was a scheme linking sports colleges and clubs with schools, which brought more specialist PE teachers in to schools.LudicrousNational Union of Teachers general secretary Christine Blower said: These are foolhardy remarks by a prime minister who seems not to realise he is the architect of a worsening situation.Many Team GB medallists attended state school, which makes ludicrous his suggestion that teachers are letting the side down.Its not because of teachers that funding for the School Sport Partnership has been so drastically reduced.Nor is it down to teachers that playing fields are being sold off despite election promises.What we need is the support of government, not the shifting of blame.We know of many teachers who are spending time from their summer break taking children from their schools to the Games.Mr Cameron said the government was investing £1bn in school sports over the next four years.Chief executive of the Youth Sport Trust, John Steele, said he welcomed Mr Camerons focus on school sport, but teachers needed more resources.There is some fantastic work going on in schools to deliver sport from some very dedicated staff, he said.What many of these passionate people lack is simply the time and resource to deliver PE and sport as they know it can be.This is what they crave, as they know that much more can be done in schools to improve the delivery of sport.
