SCOTTISH schoolchildren will soon be able to have PE indoors again, The National has learned.
Education Scotland is expected to publish guidance for schools later this week.
Currently, Covid restrictions mean pupils must take their two hours of exercise outdoors, leading to fears of “a winter of physical inactivity”.
However, in a letter to Scottish Greens MSP Mark Ruskell, the Education Secretary has said the Government’s advice on indoor physical education is to be “brought into line with advice outwith school settings”.
That means children under 11-years-old can play organised contact sport both indoors and outdoors, and over-12s can participate in organised non-contact sport as long as they maintain social distancing.
Ruskell welcomed John Swinney’s clarification.
It was, he added, “urgently needed after teachers were getting conflicting advice from agencies and public health messages.”
Ruskell said: “I raised this with the Scottish Government after it became clear that physical education was being curtailed in primary schools.”
Larry Flanagan, from the Education Institute of Scotland, said it was appropriate that the advice was being updated over the winter months.
He said: “While it’s absolutely vital that schools are kept as safe as possible from Covid, physical inactivity presents a real risk to children too, especially in the winter months when darkness and colder weather can keep them indoors.”
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