In an on-line poll at the Sports Think Tank over half of respondents said they did not think introducing competitive sport in the primary school curriculum would increase participation or increase medal hopes in the future.

The poll was conducted at the Sport Think Tank between the 12-18th August at the height of the controversy surrounding the ales of playing fields and the Prime Ministers announcement that competitive sport would become compulsory in primary schools.

Andy Reed Director of the Sports Think Tank said "We are not surprised. Over 54% clearly stated that there would be no positive uplift by just introducing competitive sport into primary schools. In fact nobody in our survey thought this would lead to more medals and more participation.

All of the feedback we have had shows there is little evidence amongst the research community that there is any evidence based reasons to just promote competitive sport as the answer to the current problems. We know from the various studies that at primary school age the main criteria if to increase physical literacy through a variety of sports and activities and for children to learn to have fun in PE and sport to set them up for later life. We set up the Think Tank to try and get across these messages to politicians before they make snap announcements

Editors Notes