Sir – It is not only a matter of preventing fast food outlets opening near schools, (Report, September 26) and improving the diets of school pupils, another subtle change has taken place with sports provision over recent decades.

Schools are now legally required to provide only one period a week of PE. That is all. In the past it was three or four periods a week. It is not a lack of sports fields, it is a lack of teaching provision/funding and the fact that schools are only required to provide one period.

It does not have to be competitive sports, it could be walking/running round Oxford’s excellent sports fields. It is the PE ‘requirement’ that needs to be changed by the Government and the schools themselves. They could make the choice, especially if parents asked for more sports. There is plenty of after-school and weekend sport available for those who are interested and have supportive parents to transport them.

I am talking about ordinary, average schoolchildren, many of whose parents will be working, who are not getting enough exercise, which in the past was provided in school.

Sports are good for self-esteem and it has been statistically proved that pupils doing regular sports do better in exams. Children are already tempted by tablet games and now many are unfit from lack of exercise.

Minimal PE provision exacerbates the dietary problems and leads inexorably to obesity.

Rosanne Bostock Oxford