Young people understand the importance of an active lifestyle

• Girls say they do less PE and the amount of PE they do decreases throughout the school years
• Boys are more likely to be active both inside and outside of school - nearly a quarter of secondary aged girls (23%) do not do any sport or physical activity outside of school
• Girls in year 10 are most likely to be concerned about body image and have negative feelings about the way they look
• Girls who are coaches, leaders, administrators or organisers are more likely to feel confident, happier and like taking part in physical activity, PE and learning at school

Motivators

• Girls in KS4 are less likely to feel that their school and parents encourage them to take part in sport or physical activity
• Girls are less likely to enjoy competition than boys, however, competition generally does not emerge as a big motivating factor for girls or boys to be physically active. The value placed on competition decreases throughout the school years.

Barriers

• For secondary aged pupils, boys were more than twice as likely to say they have no barriers to sport and physical activity than girls
• For girls from a BAME background, having their period is the biggest barrier to participating in sport and physical activity
• Confidence remains a continual barrier for girls
• The largest barrier that secondary aged girls experience to participating in sport or physical activity outside of school is time, with 26% of girls saying that they do not have time because of their school work.