Five hours sport a week for pupils

Every child will have the chance to play up to five hours of sport a week by 2010, the Government will vow today.

School standards minister Stephen Twigg believes sport can help solve a range of problems, from poor diets to bad behaviour in the classroom.

It could even help reverse the decline in the study of foreign languages, he will tell a conference of specialist sports schools in Telford today. He believes listening to match commentary in other languages could arouse children's interest in the subject.

Mr Twigg's speech comes as the Evening Standard and EDF Energy's ?1million Sport for Schools campaign continues to pick up speed. More than 700 schools have now signed up to the scheme to provide vital sporting equipment for schools in London, which was launched on Monday.

Our poll of 34 schools last week showed one in three fail to ensure all their pupils do two hours of PE during the normal working week.

And eight out of 10 said they are in constant need of cash to replace items such as footballs or buy team strips. Mr Twigg is expected to respond by saying the Government will invest ?1.5 billion in school sport between 2003 and 2008 across England.

This will pay for all children to have their two-hour entitlement during school hours by 2010.

However, Mr Twigg is expected to stop short of calling this a target, preferring the word "expectation" instead.

Also by 2010, all children will have the chance to do a further two or three hours outside school hours on top, Mr Twigg will tell the conference.

This will be partly on offer in amateur and professional clubs linked to schools via a network of

sports "co-ordinators" and "partnerships".

Mr Twigg is to say sports schools must use their specialism to drive up standards in academic subjects.

He will say: "Sport can bring the curriculum and learning to life; make it relevant, interesting and fun for our children."

He will add that sport can give potentially disruptive children a means of channelling their energy. "Sport inspires young people, builds their self-esteem and fosters leadership and teamwork skills.

"It affords some children - often our most challenging - their first opportunity to do well, succeed and shine."

Evening Standard campaign was launched with the help of Olympic gold medallists Sir Matthew Pinsent, Steve Williams, Darren Campbell and Marlon Devonish.

If schools register on the website by tomorrow, they get a starter bonus of ?50.

Over the next six weeks, each copy of the newspaper will contain a 10p token which schools can collect to spend on items such as footballs, cricket bats and team strips.

Readers will also be able to collect the tokens to provide anything from javelins to swimming f loats for their local schools.