As a Health & Physical Education teacher from waaaay back, I’ve always had a passion for PE and seen it as being a vital part of any well-balanced school curriculum.

However, it seems to be common practice for schools to reduce the amount of time kids spend doing physical activity as soon as it is no longer mandatory. In most states in Australia this is around the end of Year 10.

Many schools offer no opportunities at all for Year 11 & 12 students to partake in physical activity during school hours. Often citing the need to dedicate as much time as possible to academic pursuits.

But what if being active, as well as being good for the body also had benefits for the mind? What if we could also keep the accountability aficionados happy by showing how that by being active, students could also improve their grades?

It’s common sense of course to believe that kids should function better if they’re active. Our body isn’t designed to be sedentary.

But it does help to have some research to back up our common sense opinions.

Research out of the Universities of Dundee and Strathclyde claims that every 15 minutes of daily exercise improves performance by an average of about a quarter of a grade, meaning it is possible that children who carried out 60 minutes of exercise every day could improve their academic performance by a full grade – for example, from a C to a B, or a B to an A.

Could your school give over more time for physical activity?

Common sense tells me it would have all manner of benefits for your community… now I just have to find the research to back me up.

Author: Dan Haesler is a teacher, consultant and speaker at the Mental Health & Wellbeing of Young People seminars. His website is: http://danhaesler.com/ and he tweets at @danhaesler