High, goal-orientated movement time is an essential characteristic of good physical education (PE). Due to the low weekly dotation of PE in the Swiss school curriculum, the question arises as to how the available teaching time is used, to what extent do the pupils exert themselves and what the subject actually contributes to the achievement of the recommended activity guidelines? The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to analyse the use of time and to determine the effort and perceived exertion of 5th grades (n = 468) during physical education (PE) lessons of 90 min.