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Sport and fitness for today’s youth
August 2009 £2.75
PE teachers urged to take radical action By Louise Cordell PE TEACHERS need to take radical action to move the subject back into the heart of education, according to AfPE chief executive Professor Margaret Talbot. In her keynote speech at the organisation’s National PESS Conference, she called for those in the industry to do everything they could to raise its profile. She said: “We must begin to position ourselves back into educational policy – we have been led by sport for too long – and we need to take radical action and go back to the roots of physical education to do it. “PE has so much to offer to children’s education and development, but its place in the curriculum demonstrates the need to argue its case – we have lost our educational roots. We expect children to employ maths and linguistic skills in everyday life, but we need to think about what we expect them to take away from school in terms of physical competence.” She pointed out that currently PE within the curriculum receives only a tiny fraction of the money that is set aside for school sports and that this disparity has increased as 2012 and the Olympic Games draw closer. She also claimed that, if this doesn’t
change, physical education will not be in a position to develop and change, and will simply maintain the current, unsatisfactory standards. Margaret added: “The first challenge is clarity and we need to define exactly what we mean by physical competence and its effect on children. It is important to remember that physical skills are not currently in the curriculum and if we are trying to put them there, we need to be much better language users. At the moment we balk at articulating what it is about PE that makes it so special.” According to AfPE the key for physical education is delivering two hours of high quality PE effectively and consistently. However, Margaret pointed out that this is often not the case, with poor primary subject knowledge due to the ‘systemic weakness’ in initial training and the onoing problem of the primary/secondary transition. She added: “Not all schools are demonstrating high quality PE, despite all the resources allocated to them. We have got to redefine PE, its distinctive contribution to learning and its place and role within the curriculum – we shouldn’t be happy to live with physical eduation merely as a handmaiden for sport. Instead we need to talk ourselves back into educational policy.”
‘Unhappy memories of PE lessons’
Olympic champion Lord Sebastian Coe visited sports venues on Merseyside to see how 2012 is inspiring a generation of young people to take part in sport. His tour began at the annual Merseyside Primary Games at Wavertree Sports Park and included stops at Halewood Learning Centre and St. Helens Community Fire Station, where he spoke to children about how the Olympics are helping them be more active. More on the visits, Page 9
PE LESSONS are the cause of our unhappiest school day memories, according to a new survey released by the Cricket Foundation. Nearly a third of people claimed it was their unhappiest experience of junior and secondary school – outranking exams, bullying, teachers and school dinners. The research also found that it was women in particular who had negative memories of the lessons with 34 per cent choosing sport, compared to 21 per cent of men. The national survey was commissioned to mark National Cricket day – part of its Chance to Shine sports education programme. The scheme brings in professional coaches from local cricket clubs to work with PE teachers in schools, developing programmes of coaching and competition. Wasim Khan, director of operations and development for the Cricket Foundation said: “It’s sad that so many people have negative memories of their school days and of PE in particular. We hope that our Chance to Shine initiative is inspiring thousands of youngsters and that special school events will leave a lasting positive impression on children for many years to come.”