How can physical education be used to promote well-being in primary education? Hollie Monks

 Hi bloggers!

We have been learning about well-being and mental health this week and how they can be promoted through physical education, this blog post will discuss why mental health is a big issue for young people and how schools are looking to and reduce their health inequalities for children.

Rowling (2009) states that mental health is a part of well-being and can be defined as when a person uses their abilities to cope with stress in their day to day lives. Well-being and mental health work together to enable people to emote, think, earn a living, enjoy life and even interact with other people. (Rowling, 2009) However, there is a common misconception that mental health relates to mental illness, Seligman et al (2009) argues that there has been a shift into considerations for positivity within schools such as happiness, life satisfaction and resilience but dissimilar forms of mental health can occur such as depression which is why schools want to promote more well-being. Diener’s (2000) ideas chime with Seligman’s as he also suggests that we all have mental health but in different forms such as anxiety and well-being.

Mental health is a big issue within schools as 1 in 10 children have diagnosable mental health disorders which equivalates to roughly 3 children in every classroom. (Young Minds, 2017) Physical education is usually the only subject used to address mental health, (Evens et al, 2004) as Evens et al (2008) explains how different forms of social media that pupils are exposed to daily promotes a form of perfection that young people are expected to ‘work on’ relentlessly which is usually addressed in physical education. Bernstein’s (2001) ideas relate to Evens as he  argues that “young people are increasingly subject to performativity expectations in society within the totally pedagogies society.” Evans and Rich (2011, p.375) share similar views and suggest that physical education is responsible for the transmission and selection of health messages, they state that body pedagogies in schools should be selected based on health discourse and should be about the vision of an ideal body shape and how to achieve it through physical activity and healthy eating and that this should be more than just a passing concern.

DECELLS (2008) express the variety of different benefits that young learners can develop from physical education, they argue that children will build up their self-esteem to succeed and flourish which will help with fitness and overall well-being and health. Physical education can include cross-curricular activities such as ICT development because the young learners will be “analysing performance and data in order to improve their own and others' work, and through the creation of ideas and strategies to improve the impact of their work.” (DECELLS, 2008) This benefit fits in well with the Successful Futures document as it aims to not teach in silo subjects but in a cross curricular way which means that physical education can be taught more to address children of the benefits. (Donaldson, 2015)

Mental health and well-being is being looked to be tackled by the successful futures document. (Donaldson, 2015) Donaldson (2015) proposes that there will be 6 areas of learning where classes are no longer taught in silo subjects, he wants the new implementations to allow young people to build upon their mental and emotional well-being by developing empathy, confidence and resilience. Donaldson (2015, p.45) is replacing physical education with ‘Health and Well-being’ which will draw on the themes and subjects from physical, mental and emotion well-being, PE, healthy eating and cooking, sex and relationships and substance misuse, he believes that this will help to address young people about the concerns of physical activity and dieting and that it will help young people to promote well-being and reduce their health inequalities. (Donaldson, p.30)

Through my experience in schools I have seen well-being being promoted within the children’s PE classes as the teacher asked the children to express themselves through a yoga routine, it is suggested by Mind (2015, p.8) that this type of activity can reduce feelings of stress, help you think clearer and reduce anxiety levels to promote a happier mood as they argue that when you exercise your brain chemistry changes through the release of endorphins which can calm anxiety and lift your mood. (Mind, 2015. P.9)

 

References

•       DECELLS. (2008). Physical education in the National Curriculum for Wales. Welsh Assembly Government

•       Donaldson, G. (2015). Successful futures: Independent review of curriculum and assessment arrangements in Wales. Welsh Government.

•       Evans, J. & Rich, E. (2011) Body policies and body pedagogies: every child matters in totally pedagogised schools? Journal of Education Policy. 26(3), 361-379.

•       Evens, J. Davies, B. & Wright, J. (2004) Body knowledge and control studies in the sociology of physical education and health. London: Routledge.

•       Mind (2015) Physical activity and sport. Available at: https://www.mind.org.uk/media/2976123/how-to-improve-your-wellbeing-through-physical-activity-and-sport.pdf (Accessed: 11/04/2018).

•       Rowling, L. (2009). Strengthening “school” in school mental health promotion. Health Education, 109, 357–368. doi: 10.1108/09654280910970929

•       Seligman, M. Ernst, R. Gillham, K. & Linkins, M. (2009). Positive Education: positive psychology and classroom interventions. Oxford Review of Education, 35(3), 293-311.

Hollie Monks