MOST experts would have us believe that children of this generation lead a sedentary lifestyle cooped up indoors in front of the television or a computer screen for hours on end.

Taking part in physical education (PE) or games at school can be the only time during the week that many of today's young people do any exercise and this is borne out by increasing levels of obesity among children.

But just how do schools in South Lakeland shape up when it comes to promoting healthy bodies? The Gazette's deputy news editor Mike Addison takes a look at PE in the area's schools and discovers that nationally there may be a problem - but not here.

Head teachers at schools in South Lakeland generally recognise the importance of promoting a strong body as well as a healthy mind and the value of providing children with a "rounded" education.

That's the view of Cumbria Education Authority's PE Adviser Howard Todd, who is responsible for promoting games and sport in the county's 300 primary and 42 secondary schools.

"We have not suffered as badly as some areas of the country where subjects such as PE have been squeezed out by the demands of the National Curriculum," he said.

"In a world where people want to use leisure time productively, head teachers in this area see PE as being very important to a child's well-being.

It's no good being a mathematician if you are going to die aged 35."

He said there was a desire in Cumbria's schools to stick to "best practice," which recommends two hours of PE in the curriculum every week and a minimum of one-and-a-half hours.

But Mr Todd stressed there was room for improvement and said he was focusing on increasing activities for girls, raising the basic skill attainment of children and encouraging them not just to be performers but participants, by getting them involved in coaching, umpiring and refereeing.

"A lot of girls switch off in their early teens because sport is not seen as being cool anymore," said Mr Todd, who is also treasurer for British School Gymnastics.

"That is why role models such as Denise Lewis are so vitally important."

He added that Cumbria "could do better" in raising levels of skill attainment for children under 11 although progress was being made to get young people interested in pursuing coaching qualifications through initiatives such as Junior Sports and Community Sports Leader Awards.

Mr Todd admitted that there was a lack of specialist PE teachers in the primary schools and, with pressures on staff time, there were not as many after hours activities, such as inter-school football matches, going on as there once were.

But he said schools in Cumbria still recognised the value of competition - and there was still a significant number of children playing sport for their school and participating for a club as well.