Health, fitness and wellbeing
Physical Education · GCSE · The School
Not the same thing
HEALTH is complete physical, mental and social wellbeing, not merely the absence of disease. FITNESS is the ability to meet the demands of the environment. You can be fit and unhealthy — an injured athlete, or one under severe stress — and healthy without being especially fit.
Three kinds of benefit
PHYSICAL: stronger heart, healthier weight, denser bones, lower risk of type 2 diabetes and several cancers. MENTAL: reduced anxiety and depression, better sleep, improved mood and self-esteem. SOCIAL: friendship, teamwork, belonging. A full-mark answer names all three, and most answers name only the first.
The guidelines
UK guidance: children and young people should average at least 60 MINUTES of moderate-to-vigorous activity a day across the week, with muscle- and bone-strengthening activity on three days. Adults: 150 minutes of moderate or 75 of vigorous a week, plus strengthening twice. Knowing the numbers is examinable.
Sedentary behaviour, and answering a "discuss" question
Meeting the 60 minutes and then sitting for the rest of the day is not the same as being active. SEDENTARY BEHAVIOUR — sitting or lying while awake, at very low energy cost — carries its own risks, which is why the guidance says to break up long periods of sitting as well as to hit the 60 minutes. The two are separate targets and an exam can ask about either. On the writing: a "discuss" question wants both sides and a judgement. On whether schools should require daily PE, one side is the physical, mental and social benefits and the fact that school reaches every child regardless of what they can afford; the other is curriculum time, facilities and cost, and that compulsion can put some pupils off activity for good. Then decide, and say why. An answer that only lists benefits has not discussed anything.