Recently, some primary and secondary schools have suspended middle- and long-distance running events, once again drawing public attention to the physical health of students. Recently, multiple national ministries jointly issued the "Several Opinions on Further Strengthening School Physical Education Work," exploring the inclusion of physical education scores in the college entrance examination [Weibo] evaluation system. Many PE teachers believe that this move will make everyone pay more attention to physical education, but how to motivate students and get them to love physical exercise is even more crucial. Some primary and secondary schools in the city have come up with creative, localized solutions to improve students' physical fitness.
□Beijing’s Approach
Conduct Self-Tests and Spot Checks on Physical Health
Beijing has always attached great importance to the physical health of primary and secondary school students. Starting this year, Beijing has included the "proportion of primary and secondary school students meeting or exceeding the passing grade of the National Student Physical Health Standards" in the "Beijing District and County Economic and Social Performance Evaluation System," making it one of the performance indicators for district and county governments. According to reports, currently, physical health testing for primary and secondary schools in Beijing is conducted in two phases. First, all 1,700 primary and secondary schools in the city conduct self-tests every year. Each year, the Municipal Education Commission also carries out spot checks on the physical health of students in various districts and counties. This year, the number of schools participating in the spot checks increased from 48 to 144, and the number of tested students rose from 1,440 to 2,880.
It is reported that Beijing is currently formulating a "Three-Year Action Plan for Youth Physical and Health Work." To ensure student safety during sports, the issue of school doctor allocation in primary and secondary schools will be included in the action plan.
No. 24 High School, Rock Climbing.
■Beijing No. 24 High School
Rock Climbing Incorporated into Sunshine Sports
Incorporating rock climbing into "Sunshine Sports" exercise is a new attempt by No. 24 High School. Why would such a highly specialized sport as rock climbing enter campuses? Bai Ke, vice principal of No. 24 High School, admitted that the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake made educators realize the lack of survival education and the concerning physical fitness of students. As a result, the school began exploring the development of a series of school-based courses on "Survival and Development." Through exploration, they found that rock climbing was the best intersection between survival education and physical exercise.
It is reported that No. 24 High School’s independently developed "Bouldering Culture Wall" educational innovation project was completed last year. Bai Ke introduced that the bouldering culture wall is 3 meters high and 30 meters long, with unevenly distributed climbing holds that align with the body’s major meridians and acupoints. For safety reasons, the school also invited experts from the National Mountaineering Team to conduct pull tests to ensure the climbing wall meets national safety standards—even the school’s heaviest student, weighing 260 jin (approximately 286 lbs), can climb with no problem.
Currently, rock climbing is mainly conducted during PE classes, with each training session requiring the protection of PE teachers and the use of specialized safety mats. Through rock climbing, students can not only strengthen their arm, abdominal, and leg muscles but also improve their body coordination and flexibility. Teachers also incorporate some extension training, such as walking on a balance beam, to teach students survival skills.
Anwai San Tiao Primary School, Football Exercises.
■Dongcheng District Anwai San Tiao Primary School
Developing “Fancy” Football Activities
As a traditional program, football has been carried out at Anwai San Tiao Primary School for 12 years. Principal Cheng Hong said that football is a very suitable group game for children. With football as the starting point, the school has developed a variety of fun exercise activities, including football exercises, football classes, parent-child football games, and football culture exhibitions.
Cheng Hong explained that at the school, football exercises are something everyone can do, and small competitions are held monthly. He said that getting a small football to move skillfully between the children’s hands and feet is quite a technical task, and teachers need to present basic training points through the medium of football. The full set of football exercises takes about 11 minutes and is combined with game exercises, martial arts exercises, and rhythmic dance routines to ensure the effectiveness of the workout. Football exercises are practiced daily during morning exercises and integrated into every PE class. At the same time, the school has developed parent-child games using balls, extending physical exercise to families and encouraging parents [Weibo] to learn age-appropriate exercise methods to ensure one hour of parent-child exercise.
Lantian No. 2 Middle School, Combat Aerobics.
■Beijing Lantian No. 2 Middle School
Self-Designed Combat Aerobics Boost Students’ Confidence
Wang Lishan, principal of Beijing Lantian No. 2 Middle School, said that since most of the school’s students are children of migrant workers, the school created combat aerobics to help the children find confidence.
Wang Lishan said that these students are mainly children of migrant workers, many of whom attended private schools in elementary school and did not receive particularly good training. The children generally lack confidence. He said that the former principal worked hard to find a breakthrough and eventually came up with the idea of using combat aerobics to solve the children’s problems. This set of exercises is self-designed by the school, with a fast rhythm and movements from sanda and boxing. In addition to regular radio calisthenics, students perform this set of exercises during morning workouts, providing a full-body workout. At the same time, students also represent the school at district sports meets to showcase their skills, boosting their self-confidence.
■Chaoyang District Experimental Primary School
Setting Up a Gym for Overweight Students
Fitness balls, step machines, sit-up benches, abdominal machines... In a dedicated room at Chaoyang District Experimental Primary School, various fitness equipment is displayed. This is a special gym set up for the school’s overweight students, affectionately called "little fatty." Starting from the new semester, students can enter the gym under the guidance of PE teachers to engage in various equipment training to strengthen their core and arm muscles. The little fatties can also follow a “prescribed exercise plan” provided by PE teachers to lose weight through exercise.
Li Jun, the school’s research director, said that although the previous Sunshine Sports activities guaranteed one hour of exercise, it wasn’t in a solid block of time, resulting in less obvious effects on improving students’ physical fitness. The format was also relatively monotonous and couldn’t accommodate the needs of all students with varying physical conditions. To address this, they came up with a solution: the school moved the morning radio calisthenics time to after the last class in the afternoon, integrating the original morning broadcast time and the original afternoon break period. A brand-new course—Physical Fitness Training Class—was introduced every day during the third period in the morning.
This class lasts about 40 minutes. Its content takes into account the students’ physiological stage and also considers their interests at this age. It includes training in physical fitness elements such as "strength, endurance, and flexibility," such as the highly interactive "sack chopping" game, where students are divided into two teams to throw small sandbags at each other.
■Miyun Taishtun Primary School
Diverse Activities During Break Time Attract Students
At the Taishitun Town Central Primary School in Miyun County, the 30-minute morning break on Tuesdays and Thursdays is a favorite among many students. The school has tailored activities to suit students of different ages and adapted them to the realities of rural life, incorporating traditional sports popular among rural children into the break-time routine.
On Tuesdays, the school arranges special physical education activities for students of all grades. For example, third to sixth graders participate in the “Sunshine Partners” program, which primarily fosters teamwork. Younger students can choose from activities like badminton, jump rope, and rubber band skipping based on their interests. Students who enjoy roller skating can join the “100-Person Roller Skating” event.
In addition to the “Third Set of National Radio Gymnastics for Primary and Secondary School Students,” a set of self-designed exercises, and school-specific physical activities, Miyun County has also launched a daily half-hour group running session for students. After the first class in the afternoon, schools organize students to run, using changing formations and a mix of fast and slow jogging, combined with music and artistic elements, to encourage students to love running and exercise.
■ Yangzhuang Primary School
Small Campus, Big Fun with Jump Ropes and Shuttlecocks
Due to its limited space, Yangzhuang Primary School in Shijingshan District has to make do with simple setups for students’ physical activities.
According to teacher Gao Xiaowei, the school’s newly renovated plastic track is 150 meters long. During winter long-distance runs, the track is divided in half: first to third graders run on the western side, while fourth to sixth graders run on the eastern side. Each run consists of about 8 to 10 laps.
As a result, the school’s various physical activities are also adapted to the environment, organizing students into different competitions such as jump rope and shuttlecock kicking to improve their physical fitness, coordination, and flexibility. Although activities like shuttlecock kicking and jump rope are simple, students still have a great time and enjoy them immensely. Teacher Gao noted that students’ physical health has improved.
■ Gucheng No. 2 Primary School
Boys and Girls Dance Cha-Cha Together with Enthusiasm
Wang Ying, principal of Gucheng No. 2 Primary School in Shijingshan District, said that primary students currently have four PE classes per week. To encourage more physical activity, the school has devised many solutions based on its own conditions. For the morning exercises, the school added training for a cha-cha dance where boys and girls dance together.
“Now, as soon as the music starts on the playground, the kids rush out happily,” Wang Ying said. Previously, students only did the prescribed radio gymnastics, which often led to boredom and a lack of interest. To address this, teachers from the PE and arts departments collaborated to create a cha-cha dance routine. Initially, the school considered hiring a national Latin aerobics coach to design the routine, but the cost of 20,000 to 30,000 yuan was deemed too expensive.
So, the teachers created the routine based on online videos. They first designed it using Latin dance videos from the internet, then had friends review it to ensure it was suitable for primary students before rolling it out school-wide. Regarding the exaggerated hip movements in cha-cha, Wang Ying said the teachers made appropriate adjustments. Since cha-cha involves partner work, the school also paired boys and girls specifically. It is reported that this routine is mainly promoted among first to third graders, and when over 600 primary students dance cha-cha together, it’s lively and fun.
Additionally, the school has introduced a variety of other physical activities, such as Go and martial arts.
■ Tongzhou No. 2 Middle School
Grade-Specific PE Activity Classes Added
Tongzhou No. 2 Middle School is a large school with nearly 3,000 students. Just the junior high section alone has over ten classes per grade. Due to limited space, there is only one 400-meter standard track. If all students were to do exercises on the track at the same time, it would be completely filled, leaving no room for other physical activities. To solve this problem, the school has put considerable effort into arranging the space. After morning exercises, junior and senior high students follow different routes for long-distance running—for example, senior high students run on the inner and outer tracks according to their grade, while junior high students run in a figure-eight pattern in the center of the track.
Feng Haibo explained that since last semester, the school has adjusted its previous unified morning exercises to grade-specific PE activity classes, ensuring students get sufficient physical activity every day through fixed class hours.
On the school schedule, PE activity classes for junior high grades are mainly scheduled in the morning. In the 40-minute activity period, the first 20 minutes are dedicated to fixed long-distance running and morning exercises, while the remaining 20 minutes are used for various forms of physical activities tailored to each grade’s characteristics.
For ninth graders, the focus is on practicing exam-related events, such as basketball dribbling and shuttle runs, and sit-ups for girls, to supplement the insufficiency of the three weekly PE classes. Seventh and eighth graders focus on process-oriented assessment events, such as horizontal bar, parallel bars, and vaulting horse exercises.
□ Teachers’ Perspectives
Recently, multiple national ministries jointly issued the “Several Opinions on Further Strengthening School Physical Education Work,” proposing to actively explore the inclusion of PE in the academic proficiency exams for high school students. This sparked widespread discussion about the possibility of PE scores influencing future college entrance examination admissions. The release of the “Opinions” has also drawn varied responses from frontline PE teachers in primary and secondary schools.
■ Secondary School Teachers
PE in Gaokao Should Avoid Pure Exam-Oriented Approach
Gong Zhenguan, a PE teacher at Beijing No. 14 High School, said the release of the “Opinions” is very timely. Regarding the proposal to explore including students’ PE scores in the college entrance evaluation system, Teacher Gong believes it is necessary. He suggested that PE for the gaokao should not be designed like the physical fitness tests in the zhongkao [high school entrance exam], where students might only train for the test and then abandon the activity afterward.
Teacher Gong recommended designing the gaokao PE as a “skills + physical fitness test” format, guiding students to master one or two lifelong sports skills, such as ball games, swimming, or apparatus-based activities, and including their proficiency in these skills in the assessment. He mentioned that the current evaluation standards for students’ physical health were established in 1985 and have remained unchanged for over 20 years. In fact, with social development, some research findings on physical health should be incorporated into these standards to allow for more scientific and objective analysis of students’ physical conditions. For example, he has tried incorporating students’ obesity index into teaching, grouping students by body type—obese, normal, or underweight—and providing tiered instruction accordingly.
■ Primary School Teachers
Focus on Cultivating Interest in Primary Students
Hao Hongwen, head of the PE group at Gucheng No. 2 Primary School in Shijingshan District, said the hallmark of primary school PE is cultivating students’ interest, supplemented by basic skills. Taking his own school as an example, teachers once led students in making sand-filled bottle exercises using discarded cola bottles.
Additionally, PE classes should reflect diversity based on the teachers’ strengths, and PE instructors should also consider things from the children’s perspective. For instance, Gucheng No. 2 Primary School has introduced a wide range of PE activities, such as martial arts exercises, Latin dance, basketball, soccer, unicycles, table tennis, sandbag tossing, and shuttlecock kicking. Teacher Hao said that with a richer variety of activities, children can try the sports they truly enjoy. The focus for primary students is mainly on improving physical fitness and increasing their awareness of exercise. The school should select content with real exercise value to teach the children.
□University Practices
Tsinghua Announces It Will Continue Long-Distance Running Tests
As the only comprehensive university in China that requires all students to take long-distance running tests, Tsinghua University [Weibo] stated at a press conference celebrating the 100th anniversary of its Department of Physical Education that it will continue the long-distance running tests. Since 1998, Tsinghua has consistently required male students to complete a 3,000-meter run and female students a 1,500-meter run.
According to reports, Tsinghua established the long-distance running test because performance in such tests cannot be crammed for at the last minute and relies more on consistent daily exercise. However, two years ago, Tsinghua also considered canceling the long-distance running test, “first due to safety concerns, and second because the national physical health standards do not specify speed requirements for long-distance running.”
But while the school was hesitating, many current students and alumni spoke out against the idea, with some even writing to the president’s mailbox: they argued that long-distance running benefits students for life and that canceling it would lead to a decline in students’ physical fitness. As a result, the school decided to keep the long-distance running tests.
□Student Perspectives
“Running Helped Me Slim Down Indirectly”
Xiao Bo, a third-grade student at Taishitun Town Central Primary School, used to be a “chubby kid” that worried his parents. But after more than a year of consistent running exercises, Xiao Bo says he has grown taller and “slimmed down indirectly.”
Xiao Bo said that at first he was very resistant to running, finding it both boring and tiring. But later, the school not only combined running with popular music but also introduced various fun running methods such as varied-paced runs and “shoulder-linked train runs.” Gradually, he began to love running. Even during the summer vacation, Xiao Bo didn’t stop and even got his younger sister to join him for runs around the village.
□Policy Support
Winter Long-Distance Running Builds Students’ Stamina
In the cold winter, running becomes a primary form of exercise for students. Yet not long ago, news about universities canceling long-distance running events in sports meets and incidents of sudden death during long-distance runs were still frequently reported. Amidst various controversies, on December 7, the National Winter Long-Distance Running Campaign for Hundreds of Millions of Students was launched, with Vice Minister of Education Du Zhanyuan and Beijing Vice Mayor Hong Feng personally leading the run in the chilly wind.
Since 2007, the Ministry of Education, the General Administration of Sport of China, and the Communist Youth League Central Committee have continuously organized the National Winter Long-Distance Running Campaign for Hundreds of Millions of Students. Over the past five years, tens of thousands of students have actively participated in winter long-distance running.
At the launch ceremony, Vice Minister of Education Du Zhanyuan stated that winter long-distance running is a widely feasible form of exercise in most regions of China and an important measure to enhance students’ stamina and cultivate their strong will and hardworking spirit. According to the requirements, winter long-distance running activities can be incorporated into physical education classes or break periods, with no unified end time set for schools. The goal is to complete the selected total mileage, and schools with the conditions may also organize other physical activities such as swimming or rope skipping. Physical education teachers set daily running distances or activity levels for other exercises in stages based on the physical condition of their students. Under the organization of homeroom teachers, students collectively complete the day’s planned exercise goals on campus.