PE teaching hours: guidance and examples

It's up to you how many hours of PE your school teaches each week. Find out how many hours the DfE's healthy schools rating scheme recommends, and take a look at how much PE other schools teach.

Last reviewed on 17 May 2023
School types: All · School phases: All
Ref: 7423
Contents
  1. You decide how many hours to teach
  2. The DfE recommends at least 90 minutes per week
  3. Take a look at how many hours of PE other schools offer

You decide how many hours to teach

There's no required number of hours you need to teach PE for each week, so you can choose. Take your pupils' needs and circumstances into account when deciding how much time to spend on it.

Maintained schools: you must teach PE as part of the National Curriculum at both primary and secondary level - see your requirements here

Academies: you don't have to follow the National Curriculum, but your curriculum at both primary and secondary phases must be 'broad and balanced', and promote pupils' physical development. See your requirements here

You can also decide what counts as PE time

There's no statutory guidance on what constitutes a PE lesson, so you can decide what counts towards your PE provision. The DfE told us this.

This means you can include travel time to sports venues (like swimming pools) in PE time, but you don't have to.

The DfE recommends at least 90 minutes per week