Physical education has yet to become an established and important feature in Australian and English school curricula. At one level physical education has enjoyed considerable political support, acquired the support of athletes and secured a place in the national curriculum of Australia and England. However, on another level, physical education has been the subject of crisis encounters in Australia, on the verge of being swept away by subsequent secondary education in England and has had numerous revisions. So why is physical education important? The main factor is the growing increase in obesity, but children also appear to have less knowledge of physical skills, lack physical fitness and are very inactive: these are some of the reasons why physical education needs remain in the curriculum but acquire also a higher priority. The purpose of this essay is to compare and contrast the national physical education (PE) curriculum in Australia and England and comment on any developments that might be made. The focus areas of the curriculum are the learning objectives of the curriculum and the time allocated in the curriculum. These areas were chosen for various reasons. Have the learning objectives and content of the physical education curriculum been chosen so that a comparison can be made between the objective of the curriculum, i.e. is the objective to teach only sport or to teach sport and knowledge? The objectives to be achieved also fall within this area. These will be examined to see how both countries assess pupils across the curriculum. Time allocation was the other factor chosen, and this is because it is a consequence of the learning objectives and contents. By looking at the distribution of time you will see how much time is spent on physical education and the amount of… middle of paper… schools need to start offering more extracurricular activities. This is an issue on which both Australia and England have abandoned their physical education. There could never be a case for making extracurricular activities compulsory for children, but one could add them to the curriculum and say that most schools provide the possibility of after-school activities. Regular curriculum audits need to be carried out to ensure that schools are following the curriculum. To conclude there are certainly many differences between physical education in England and Australia. However, both countries have fallen prey to the idea that physical education is not considered important and therefore the situation has become slightly worse. England has recently made physical education a priority, but unfortunately with the lack of information it is not possible to draw a proper conclusion about Australia.