Schools are, by their very nature, conservative institutions.
We inherit traditions, structures and timetables that have changed remarkably little over decades. While curricula evolve, examinations are reformed and new technologies emerge, the school week remains strikingly familiar.
Yet children’s lives have changed beyond recognition - and one area where this is clear to see is physical activity and exercise.
A generation ago, many children walked or cycled to school. On weekends, they disappeared after breakfast and returned home when the streetlights came on. They climbed trees, played football, rode bikes and more. Physical activity wasn’t scheduled; it was woven into childhood.
Getting children more active
Today that assumption no longer holds true. In many cities around the world - including Dubai, where I work - children are more likely to be driven to school than walk. They often live in apartment buildings rather than neighbourhoods with open spaces.
High temperatures for much of the year limit time outdoors, while increasing screen use means leisure time is often sedentary.
While Dubai is an obvious example, this is a global trend. Childhood has become, quite simply, less active.
Yet despite this, and the fact that the World Health Organisation recommends that children and adolescents accumulate at least 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity a day, schools continue to build timetables around assumptions for a different generation. PE is seen as something that only needs to happen once a week.
What do we want to teach?
When my principal and I began designing the curriculum for a brand-new school, we resisted the temptation to start with the curriculum structure. Instead, we began with a much broader question: What do we want students to leave school with?
Not simply qualifications for university, but the knowledge, habits and dispositions that will shape their health and wellbeing for decades after they leave our classrooms.
Once we agreed on that vision, the curriculum allocation and timetable largely designed itself - and for PE that led us to a decision that many schools might consider radical: every student from Grade 1 (age 6) to Grade 8 (age 13) will receive 50 minutes of PE every day from Monday to Thursday.
Friday, a shorter school day in the UAE, can then be used for occasional opportunities for inter-house competitions, tournaments and whole-school sporting events that bring the week’s learning together in authentic and enjoyable ways.
What matters most
The inevitable question, from a timetabling perspective, is, “What did you sacrifice?”
The honest answer is that we didn’t see it as a sacrifice at all. We saw it as prioritisation. We did not simply bolt daily physical education on to an already crowded curriculum. We redesigned the curriculum from first principles.
Mathematics and English remain four lessons per week, science is taught three times weekly, and we have protected three-weekly lessons dedicated to innovation, where students engage in robotics, AI, product design and food science.
Languages and humanities have slightly less curriculum time than is often found elsewhere, while traditional assemblies have largely disappeared, with pastoral education integrated throughout the school week rather than confined to a single gathering.
That wasn’t a compromise. It was a reflection of what we believed mattered most.
Boosting academic performance
Perhaps the greatest misconception is that daily physical education somehow comes at the expense of academic learning. In reality, the opposite may be true.
A growing body of research has demonstrated the relationship between regular physical activity and improved attention, executive functioning, working memory, emotional wellbeing and, ultimately, academic performance.
If that is the case, then daily movement is not simply an investment in physical health; it becomes an investment in every mathematics lesson, science investigation and piece of analytical writing that follows.
Our thinking also extended beyond movement itself.
Exercise without an understanding of nutrition is only half of the conversation. Alongside daily physical education, we developed a food design programme, whereby students learn practical cookery skills, meal planning, nutritional science, food labelling and healthy decision-making.
Our aim is not simply to teach children how to follow a recipe, but to help them understand the relationship between food, health and lifelong wellbeing.
Part of a wider philosophy
These decisions sit alongside other deliberate choices. We have chosen to delay one-to-one devices until later in primary school and limit recreational screen use within the curriculum to no more than 45 minutes per day throughout the middle years.
None of these initiatives exists in isolation. They reflect a single educational philosophy: schools should respond to the world that children inhabit, not the one many of us grew up in.
Will daily physical education be the right decision for every school? Probably not. Every context is different, and every community has its own priorities and constraints.
But every timetable is ultimately a statement of values that reveals what a school believes matters most. Therefore every school leader should ask themselves an uncomfortable question:
If you were designing your curriculum from scratch today - knowing what we now know about children’s health, cognition and the realities of modern childhood - would you build the same timetable?
Paul Gardner is the founding vice-principal and head of secondary at Ambassador International Academy Mankhool, an IB World School in Dubai
