Prime minister David Cameron has said today that our success in the Olympic Games has called for "a big cultural change" towards sports taught at school, those of you teachers with a Teach Primary magazine subscription may be interested to know.
Whilst the last government introduced a compulsory 2 hours of sport in school, Cameron believes that schools need to focus on increasing the "competitive ethos" in pupils, rather than just ensuring that teachers are meeting their "targets".
"What the last the government did ... I think isn't right," said Cameron. "If you just simply sit there in Whitehall and set a target but don't actually do anything to help schools meet it, you are not really solving the problem. By just saying 'Look, I want you to do this many hours a week,' some schools think 'Right, as I've hit that minimum requirement I've ticked the box and I can give up.'"
However, the comments have not gone down very well with teachers. Christine Blower from the National Union of Teachers 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.
"It's 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."
Whatever happens, we hope that children can be inspired by the athletes doing so well in this year's games.
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Posted by Arabella Gibson.