While I don’t agree that a parent should believe that their child is simply “big boned” and not take initiative, I also don’t agree with schools sending home such a letter with the child, they’re right, it should be mailed. Bullying won’t help any nation’s children either, believe it or not.

I don’t mind the school’s calculating such things and I think the parents should be informed. Perhaps, schools should try to increase the amount of time that children are active, instead of cutting back recess times and thinking about 30-60 minutes of PE per week is sufficient (or cutting programs all together, due to funding).

My school (which I haven’t left that long ago), made everyone participate in at least two sessions per week, but the student would choose which sport and level they’d want to sign up for…so you’d have half a year of swimming, tennis, football, etc. then another half of year of whatever other sport you wanted, it seemed to make kids a bit happier. It also stopped that some of the practices that were a bit silly and that most kids, regardless of fitness levels, dread (who wants to run “suicides” every session? Sure they’re quite useful for some sports, but if you are just doing it for a class…).

Of course, we could take the simple route, and just let Gillian McKeith snatch your excrements and examine them on National television…can you hear her now “Ooof! That’s the most fragrant…”

More of that BMI crap? When I was 16 a school nurse told my mother I was overweight based on my height and weight. Never mind that I played on the school rugby team, was very muscular, and could run the legs off the fat old nurse.
“And what part of him is fat?” my mother asked the nurse on the sideline at a rugby game.
“Well er… we have these charts… the government has decided….. etc etc”
she waffled. “You could loose a few stone yourself,” my slim mother told her, “who are you to tell anyone they’re overweight anyway?”
Here in the US it seems weight increases as intelligence decreases. Not everyone is dumd and not everyone is fat. I actually weigh less than I did at age eighteen, not so much muscle these days.

Ahh, David you’re right. BMI isn’t always correct, some athletes can have more muscle and some thin people can have more than they should (yet it won’t show up on BMI). I think, generally, the BMI would cover the bases in this group though, as K-8 really goes up to what, 13-14? And most kids in that age group aren’t playing lots of sports with strenuous, serious practices (although this school would cover the age they probably would start).

My BMI is 24 - Not bad for a young’en w/ a shapely figure and a hot set of tits. My tits are about 3-4 pts of that so my real BMI, once I unload my boobs is around 20-21.

I live to exercise - I don’t exercise to live

-American hot toned and thin babe

[...] Anorak - DPS explains: “The health of our students is very important to us and we wish to be part of the solution, given the nation’s childhood obesity epidemic.” It can’t be too long before heavy-set children in the UK are being so measured. One key More obesity news [...]

I thought this was very interesting.