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Publication - Statistics

School Healthy Living Survey statistics 2019

Published
9 September 2019
Directorate
Learning Directorate
Part of
Education
ISBN
9781839601323

Information from an annual survey carried out in February each year of all publicly funded schools in Scotland on registration for free school meals, uptake of school meals (both free and paid for) and PE.

This document is part of a collection

View supporting documents Supporting documents

Chapter 2: Physical Education

Background

Increasing the amount of Physical Education (PE) pupils receive in school has been a government priority for a number of years.  Increased physical activity can have a positive impact on a pupil's health, educational attainment and life chances.  In 2011, the Scottish Government made a commitment to ensure that by 2014, every pupil will benefit from at least two hours of Physical Education in primary school and two periods (100 minutes) in S1 to S4 per week.  

In order to monitor progress in meeting this commitment, questions on physical education provision in schools have been included in the Healthy Living Survey since 2012. The survey reported on here was conducted in the week beginning 18 February 2019.

Key Findings

In 2019,

  • 99 per cent of all primary and secondary schools (2,340 of 2,366) were meeting the target level of PE provision, the same as in 2018.  
  • Almost 100 per cent of primary schools (2,005 of 2,009) were providing at least 120 minutes of PE to all pupils, compared to 99 per cent in 2018. 
  • 94 per cent of secondary schools (334 of 356) were providing at least 100 minutes of PE to all pupils in S1 to S4, the same as in 2018. 
  • The data shows that provision is lowest at S4 (94 per cent).  Focusing on S1 to S3, 99 per cent of secondary schools (352 of 356) were meeting the target, one percentage point up from 2018. 

For schools which are not meeting the required amount of PE, the main reasons given are lack of facilities and problems with timetabling (for example, some primary schools provide 2 periods of PE per week rather than 2 hours).

PE data by Urban Rural classification, size of school and local authority are available in the supplementary tables, which also contain school level PE data.

Table 2a: Percentage of primary schools meeting PE target1 by local authority, 2015 to 2019

Percentage
Local Authority  2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Aberdeen City 96 100 100 98 100
Aberdeenshire 96 99 99 99 99
Angus 98 98 100 100 100
Argyll & Bute 100 94 98 98 100
Clackmannanshire 100 100 100 100 100
Dumfries & Galloway 100 100 100 100 100
Dundee City 100 100 100 100 100
East Ayrshire 100 100 98 100 100
East Dunbartonshire 100 100 100 100 100
East Lothian 100 100 100 100 100
East Renfrewshire 100 100 100 100 100
Edinburgh City 95 92 97 100 100
Falkirk 100 100 100 100 98
Fife 100 100 100 100 100
Glasgow City 99 99 98 100 100
Highland 99 100 100 99 100
Inverclyde 80 100 100 100 100
Midlothian 100 100 100 100 100
Moray 100 100 91 100 100
Na h-Eileanan Siar 100 100 100 100 100
North Ayrshire 98 96 96 96 98
North Lanarkshire 99 100 100 100 100
Orkney Islands 100 100 100 100 100
Perth & Kinross 99 95 100 97 100
Renfrewshire 100 100 100 100 100
Scottish Borders 95 100 100 100 100
Shetland Islands 97 97 100 100 100
South Ayrshire 100 100 100 100 100
South Lanarkshire 100 100 100 100 100
Stirling 100 100 100 100 97
West Dunbartonshire 100 100 100 100 100
West Lothian 100 100 100 100 100
Scotland2 99 99 99 99 100

1. Target provision of Physical Education refers to at least 120 minutes per week in primary.

2. The Scotland total excludes Jordanhill for 2018 and 2019. For more information see background note 3.3. 

Table 2b: Percentage of secondary schools (S1 to S4) meeting PE target1 by local authority, 2017 to 2019

Percentage
 Local Authority 2017 2018 S1 S2 S3 S4 2019
Aberdeen City 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
Aberdeenshire 88 94 100 100 100 94 94
Angus 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
Argyll & Bute 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
Clackmannanshire 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
Dumfries & Galloway 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
Dundee City 100 100 100 100 100 88 88
East Ayrshire 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
East Dunbartonshire 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
East Lothian 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
East Renfrewshire 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
Edinburgh City 96 96 100 100 96 96 96
Falkirk 50 75 100 100 100 50 50
Fife 89 89 94 100 94 78 78
Glasgow City 97 97 100 100 100 97 97
Highland 97 93 100 100 100 97 97
Inverclyde 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
Midlothian 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
Moray 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
Na h-Eileanan Siar 100 100 100 100 100 50 50
North Ayrshire 67 78 89 89 89 89 89
North Lanarkshire 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
Orkney Islands 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
Perth & Kinross 70 60 90 90 90 90 90
Renfrewshire 100 91 100 100 100 100 100
Scottish Borders 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
Shetland Islands 86 86 100 100 100 100 100
South Ayrshire 100 100 100 100 100 88 88
South Lanarkshire 76 88 100 100 100 88 88
Stirling 100 86 100 100 100 100 100
West Dunbartonshire 80 60 100 100 100 60 60
West Lothian 91 100 100 100 100 100 100
Scotland2 93 94 99 99 99 94 94

1. Target provision of Physical Education refers to at least 100 minutes per week in secondary timetabled periods.

2. The Scotland total excludes Jordanhill for 2018 and 2019. For more information see background note 3.3.

Contact

Email: school.stats@gov.scot

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