Rebecca Watson

‘’We are educating people out of their creative capacities… I believe this passionately, that we don’t grow into creativity, we grow out of it. Or rather, we get educated out of it.’’ (Robinson, 2018) Budget cuts. We hear see this phrase everywhere, it’s on the news, the radio and all over the internet. Schools are receiving less money and therefore, doing everything they can to stay afloat. By doing so, it often means that creative subjects, such as the arts are cut from the curriculum or dramatically affected. In 2018, ‘9 in every 10 schools said they had cut back on lesson time, staff or facilities in at least one creative arts subject.’ (Jefferys, 2018) This often leaves children with talents in areas that aren’t academic, unnurtured. ‘According to the Association of school and college Leaders 2017 survey, cuts ‘led to an increase in class sizes in 82 per cent of schools.’ (Last, 2017) Increased class sizes puts a strain on resources available to the students. Subjects such a...

As our current relationship with mother nature deteriorates, it is important now more than ever to ensure children are aware globally, not just locally aware of what is happening in the world and the impact the have on it. Schooling is one of the best ways to ensure children are engaging with environmental issues and learning about sustainability. ‘Issues such as economic migration, climate change and usage of digital technology have meant that what happens elsewhere in the world can have a direct impact on children’s lives in the UK and vice versa.’ (Bourn. Et al, 2016) Firstly, what is sustainability? Sustainability can be defined in two ways, ‘the ability to be sustained, supported, upheld or confirmed’ or the ‘the quality of not being harmful to the environment or not depleting natural resources, and thereby supporting long-term ecological balance.’ (Dictionary.com, 2019) To answer the stated question I will be focusing on the later of the definitions as this one is gea...

The 2017 England Health Survey showed that ‘30% of children aged 2 to 15 in England were overweight or obese, including 17% who were obese.’ (Health Survey England, 2017) To me, these figures seem absurd. Children who should be out and active are being classed as obese. Everyone but most importantly children, should be spending ‘at least 30 minutes, 5 times a week being moderately active.’ (Allender. S et al, 2006) So, these figures had me thinking, why are children so inactive? When looking into potential challenges for sports participation in primary school children, a few stood out to be main factors. I’ve broken these down into four different categories: funding, time, facilities and interest. Funding Funding is one of the biggest contenders when it comes to why children don’t participate in sport.   Budget cuts are on the rise meaning that funding is being strained and stretched to cover costs of the more academic subjects, leaving the creative subjects strapped ...