The Future For Primary Physical Education. Abstract. An in- depth examination of secondary research was undertaken together with a focussed case study to investigate whether current practices within primary physical education (PE) were best serving the learning needs of children in primary schools. A secondary purpose of this research was to examine the implications for this area of primary education regarding the professionalisation of sports coaching. The study was conducted within a unitary authority in the South West of England. Semi- structured interviews were conducted, firstly with both Partnership Development Managers (PDMs), followed up by questionnaires carried out with all of their School Sport Co- ordinators (SSCo's). Subsequent semi- structured interviews were then conducted with a primary school head teacher, a head of primary Initial Teacher Education (ITE), and with the only specialist primary PE teacher found within this authority. ![]() These research processes extrapolated information which highlighted current practices in many primary schools with regards to their PE delivery, and the findings illustrated that whilst current PE provision in most secondary schools was generally believed to be of a high standard, embracing recent initiatives and the current National Curriculum, the delivery of PE in primary schools was found to be less consistent. After several processes of inductive research it was concluded that widespread changes in the whole primary PE provision, starting from Initial Teacher Education, ought to be considered. Introduction. The quality of teaching in primary physical education (PE), and the subsequent learning experience offered, has been a much discussed contention for some time. Perhaps more so recently with the proposed changes to education, and specifically PE, as a result of recent curriculum reviews. Sloan (2. 01. 0: 2. PE is in serious trouble'. In fact, there is little evidence to support any claim that current Primary Initial Teacher Training (ITT) adequately prepares trainee primary school teachers to teach PE. Indeed, most evidence appears to be to the contrary (Price, 2. Blair and Capel, 2. Griffiths et al, 2. Sloan, 2. 01. 0). Coupled with this is the relatively recent change in government which has far reaching implications for primary PE. ![]() ![]() So much so that perhaps now, with the dismantling of the. School Sports Partnership programme (SSP), may be a good time to embrace wholesale change, to ensure the positive changes recognised over the last 1. SSP strategy (BBC, 2. Online] were not in vain. The challenge is accentuated by growing concern with the number of children and adolescents adopting sedentary lifestyles (Biddle et al. This recent end to SSPs was considered 'ill- conceived' by 7. British athletes who, according to the BBC (2. Online], wrote to the current prime minister, Mr Cameron, to argue that the changes put the fight against childhood obesity and other illnesses at risk. Not only does inactivity have profound effects on the health of the young (Sallis et al, 1. KS1 and KS2 may have ramifications for health throughout life (Sallis & Mc. Kenzie, 1. 99. 1). Therefore, the continuation of physical activity provides both short and long term health benefits as regular exercise encourages positive health behaviours into adulthood. ![]() The importance of high quality PE in countering this issue is stated in the current secondary curriculum (QCDA, 2. QCA, 2. 00. 7: 3). The introduction of Specialist Sports Colleges and SSPs in 2. Youth Sport Trust, 2. However, Carney and Howells (2. They proposed that every primary school should have a 'Primary Physical Education Specialist' (Carney and Howells, 2. Kelvin Kirk, Faculty of Sport Media Arts & Management, University College Plymouth St Mark & St John Abstract. An in-depth examination of secondary research was. Primary Games - Interactive maths games and supporting maths worksheets. Amazon.com: The Ante-Nicene Fathers (10 Volume Set) (9781565630826): A. Cleveland Coxe, Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, Philip Schaff, Henry Wace: Books. ![]()
This perspective has widespread support and Blackburn (2. Sloan, 2. 01. 0) states it is likely to be the 'single most effective influence in achieving pupil attainment in physical education'. The partnership strategy, developed by the SSPs, was set- up to enhance sport participation (Youth Sport Trust, 2. Key responsibility for this lay with each Partnership Development Manager (PDM), who managed the SSP and whose full- time role was to develop strategic links with key partners including primary schools. It is generally recognised that this has enhanced the physical experiences of primary school pupils (Youth Sport Trust, 2. The School Sports Coordinators (SSCo's), although usually based in a secondary school, concentrated on improving school sport opportunities, including out of school hours school learning, intra and inter- school competition and club links, across a family of schools. ![]() Primary Link Teachers (PLT's), who were normally existing primary teachers with a special interest in PE, were also a part of this process and were based in primary schools to help improve the quality of PE as well as ensuring equal opportunity and inclusion (Youth Sport Trust, 2. The SSCo's have been widely utilised in schools and within the community, and have proved essential in introducing new ways in linking pupils to after- school clubs and alternative sports programmes (Sport England, 2. Furthermore, each SSP was assigned a coaching grant of ВЈ2. DCMS, 2. 00. 8), thus giving a clear indication of the acceptance by the government of coaches as professional deliverers of sport to school children, in a bid to achieve the 5 hours of physical activity. Additionally, the Physical Education, School Sport and Club Links Strategy (PESSCL), which was the precursor to the PE Sports Strategy for Young People (PESSYP), claimed Professional Development as one of its eight programmes, which was supposed to offer opportunities and support for teachers to gain the expertise they need to offer high quality PE (DCMS, 2. The success of this agenda has been questionable at best. The 5 Hour Offer and the National Curriculum. One aim of the PESSYP strategy was the 'five- hour offer' (Youth Sports Trust, 2. PE and sport at school each week; and create new opportunities for them to participate in up to a further three hours each week of sporting activity, through school, voluntary and community providers.' (DCMS, 2. It was always proposed that this additional provision would be supplied by sports coaches, and delivered through the PESSYP strategy. This aspiration has further 'blurred' the boundaries between PE and sports coaching. This government aspiration for all children to have access to 5 hours of high quality sport (Youth Sports Trust, 2. This is illustrated through a recent study which involved measuring primary PE contact time across a random selection of primary schools (Hannay, 2. It emerged that in KS1 the children received an average of 1. PE per week, of which 7. Hannay, 2. 00. 8). Of these games lessons 1. Teaching Assistants (TA's) covering Planning, Preparation and Assessment time (PPA). In the same study an average of 1. PE was noted for KS2, of which 4. It was further found that when looking at the whole PE delivery, not just the games, the coaches 'taught' more PE lessons than the class teachers. Hannay (2. 00. 8: iv) concluded that this evidence 'may suggest that some primary teachers may not understand the important role that physical education should play in the life of every child.' However, this government funded provision must surely have been better than the rather sporadic nature of the extracurricular provision prior to the introduction of SSPs or the Physical Education, School Sport and Club Links Strategy (PESSCL) (DCMS, 2. PE teachers. The outcome of recent government changes in this area indicate that it is likely that schools may return to a pre PESSCL situation. The Teaching/Coaching Relationship. The implementation of the aforementioned strategies over the past 1. This is perhaps due to the fact that the depth of sport and PE expertise, knowledge and understanding of generalist primary teachers is not as great as in secondary schools. Additionally, coaching was introduced as one of the ten work strands of the PESSYP strategy and included initiatives such as 'school sport coaching', 'recruit into coaching' and 'sport unlimited', and the need for more qualified coaches working in/with schools had never been greater (Youth Sport Trust, 2. The expansion of the Specialist Sport College network and the creation of SSCo's helped blur the boundaries between the fields of PE teaching and sports coaching. Teachers needed to be able to coach, and coaches had been, for some time, working within the school system. Subsequently, the link between education and coaching has never been clearer. As a result, it could be argued that the need for coaches and PE teachers to have an understanding of both fields is crucial. With this point considered, the discipline of sports coaching can now more confidently defend itself as an educational component in the relationship, and coaching pedagogy is an important part of this (Jones et al, 2. Lyle (2. 00. 2: 1. PE teaching and [sports] coaching were regarded as synonymous', a position which, it could be argued, did not help the 'professionalism' of teaching. Lyle (2. 00. 2) also believed, interestingly, that it was also not helping the coaching profession. He maintained that all the influences and interactions made it hardly surprising that there had been a symbiosis between PE teaching and coaching, and many teachers, by virtue of requirements of their roles, became involved in coaching, perhaps more so in secondary education. A frequently raised argument has been the coach's perceived lack of educational subject knowledge in comparison with the PE teacher (Carney and Howells, 2. When considering secondary education this argument may be justified, with much evidence supporting the PE teacher's knowledge of children's physical activity theory, such as fundamental movement skills. However, with Blair and Capel (2. PE subject knowledge throughout the whole of their teacher training and little, if any, theory, this claim has little grounding.
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