“It’s good to play sports”: in primary school, students motivated to do 30 minutes of sport every day

It’s the meridian break in the courtyard of the Jean-Lurçat elementary school in Blanc-Mesnil, in Seine-Saint-Denis. The pupils of CM1 and CM2 are agitated while the little ones go to the canteen. Step-overs, rugby balls, everyone plays, runs, shouts and exerts themselves. So the prospect of doing 30 minutes of sport a day at school delights these young schoolchildren. “I already know how to do sports, I go to the gym“, launches for example one of them.

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At the microphone of franceinfo, all the students of this school assure that they are very active and that they play sports in and outside of school. “I already cycle at home, but also basketball, gym, I sometimes run with my father in the park“continues another.

“It’s good to play sports, because afterwards I’ll be used to it, and in the end, I’ll be muscular.”

a pupil of the Jean-Lurçat school

at franceinfo

Here, it’s not about lifting dumbbells or doing push-ups. The circular published by the Ministry of Education leaves establishments free to choose which activities to organize and at what time of the day.

This need to play sports has been reinforced by the pandemic. “We realized that after the two years of Covid, from a physical point of view, we had had a real regression“, explains Thibault Mignot, teacher in CM2 at the school.

If these 30 minutes of sport a day are in his eyes essential, it remains to “stall them” in an already busy schedule. “Upstream, you have to get out of the class, explain, prepare, so it’s never 30 real minutes”continues Thibault Mignot, who evokes “possible levers” when there is not always time to “go down to the yard“.

You can do activities in the class. This morning, we set up an escape game where you had to move around, go get things, it can be part of those 30 minutes of sport.

Thibault Mignot, teacher in CM2

at franceinfo

Playing sports in class therefore saves time, because it is impossible to fit these 30 minutes into extracurricular times such as the canteen at lunchtime or daycare in the evening. Nothing scary for the school principal, Lila Ammari, who has already experienced this sort of thing last year.

“The CPs did the muscular awakening every morning and the CM2s were more in collective games during recreation time, with spaces dedicated to football or ground games such as hopscotch or other“, she explains. These 30 minutes of daily physical activity must also be added to the three hours of Physical Education and Sportlife (ESP) compulsory per week.education does not specify whether this obligation now applies to all schools.