Some want more sport in schools, or more competitive sport, and there are complaints about funding.

This misses the point, though.

Although obesity is an issue for school children, it’s actually far less of a problem for people in their late teens and early twenties. In other words, there aren’t lots of school kids dying through being overweight; instead there are lots of kids who are overweight aged 8-12 but generally lose weight and get fitter – for all the obvious reasons – over the next decade.

School sports can be great, but can also put people off. A good friend of mine now (in her thirties) does lots of exercise. But it took a while to get there. Being forced to do sport at school put her off it for a decade. She hates competitive sports, but has found lots of healthy activities she loves.

The idea that forcing kids to do sports they don’t enjoy, in an environment they find stressful, will magically get everyone fit and breed the next generation of top athletes is dodgy to say the least.

School sport at its best gives young people the opportunity to try different sports and find out what they enjoy and what they don’t. Through the huge number of sports clubs – both inside and outside schools – young people can then choose to do what they enjoy, whether it’s competitive sports like football or netball, or others like leisure cycling, dance or yoga.

A narrow focus on how many minutes children spend doing PE and games in school each week, or on whether every child is taking part in competitive sports, is not the best approach.

Instead we need to give children the opportunity to try different sports along with easy ways to pursue the ones they want to take further.

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