Testing, training and tensions: a persistently disappointing picture of 'health' in secondary physical education?

Despite government attention to PE and school sport as important in helping young people to become independently active for life (e.g. Department for Children, Schools and Families, 2008), some consider that PE has not maximized its potential in this area (Cale & Harris, 2005; Trost, 2006), making this an important topic of study to better understand why this is. This particular study explored the micro-level of individual PE teachers’ philosophies, policies and practices with respect to the expression of health in secondary school PE curricula in England and Wales (see Harris & Leggett, 2013a, 2013b for further details of the study). At the time of the study, a ‘new’ version of the National Curriculum for Physical Education (NCPE) had been introduced and, for the first time, this differed for state schools in England (Department for Education and Employment (DfEE)/Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), 1999) and Wales (Awdurdod Cwricwlwm Ac Asesu Cymry (ACAAC), 1999). Table 1 summarises the health-related requirements of the two NCPE and their overall approaches.