Background: At the heart of this polemic lies the view that contemporary research in PE and Health (PEH) has largely overlooked one of the key determinants of social behaviour, social class and its expression in and outside schools; an omission that has quite serious consequences for how we (researchers and teachers) think about and conceptualise the purposes of PE in schools and what it can, and can not, achieve. Purpose: Class matters we argue, and unless it is returned to centre stage in research and professionals debate in PEH we are unlikely to achieve either balanced or complex understandings of what PEH is for, what achievements and "abilities" are to be valued and what we as researchers and teachers can reasonably be expected to achieve. (Contains 8 notes.)