Teaching Physical Education in the Primary School

Bev Hopper, Jenny Grey, Patricia Maude

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2005
• Print ISBN: 9781138169883
• eBook ISBN: 9781134581948
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This book includes information on all six areas of the PE National Curriculum (games, gymnastic activities, dance, swimming, outdoor and adventurous activities, athletic activities), to increase subject knowledge and to develop teaching, management and planning skills.
This book provides professional development for generalist primary teachers and student-teachers and also offers support to subject leaders charged with the responsibility for other colleagues. It will build on current practice and aim to increase knowledge, understanding, confidence and enthusiasm in an area of the curriculum which often receives a very short time allocation during initial teaching training courses.
Teaching Physical Education in the Primary School is a comprehensive guide to the subject for primary educators. It deals with not only the teaching and learning of PE, but also everything that is relevant to co-ordinating the subject.

Introduction

Chapter 1

What is Physical Education in the Primary School?

In order to teach physical education teachers need additional skills, knowledge and understanding to those required by other subjects in the primary curriculum. Teachers are working with active, moving children in a large space and often a large amount of equipment. They need to be able to teach from observation, differentiate a very wide range of activities and of course, there is the continual awareness of risk assessment and concern for safety.

During Initial Teacher Training (ITT) the time allocated to physical education has been reduced due partly to the increased demands of English, mathematics, science and information and communication technology in the timetables of trainee teachers. In school, the mentors of trainee teachers often express their own insecurities about teaching physical education and many feel unable to offer much support.

As college tutors, we searched for a book that we could recommend to primary trainee teachers in order to supplement their short physical education ITT courses. They needed something that offered them knowledge and understanding about the six areas of activity, management, organization, planning, teaching and assessment, appropriate to inexperienced teachers of primary physical education.

Such a book did not seem to exist, so we set about writing our own pack of materials to support our primary ITT physical education college-based courses. Soon class teachers then began to ask if they could buy their own copies; they had seen the trainee teachers’ packs and found them useful too. As a result, this book was written.

The ‘Study Sheets’ in Chapter 7 are useful for professional development in a variety of contexts. Subject leaders may want to use them as a focus for staff meetings. This can be particularly beneficial if teachers have the opportunity to complete some of the sheets whilst observing the subject leader working with a class of children. A great deal of rich discussion is likely to be generated! The sheets are useful for newly qualified teachers who may need to develop their confidence and competence in teaching physical education by watching another teacher teaching physical education as part of their induction process. For trainee teachers the sheets offer foci for observing children being taught either in school or in college and offer a wide range of possibilities for private study.

We have tried to ensure that the book is ‘user friendly’ and focuses on giving practical advice to develop teachers’ skills in order that children learn and are taught effectively and safely in physical education.

Although Teaching Physical Education in Primary Schools is written to take into account the recommendations of the QCA document Maintaining Breadth and Balance (1998), its practical nature will ensure that the book will be useful no matter what new legislation brings.

Primary teachers who feel their own training in physical education was rather short, subject leaders who are responsible for the professional development of their colleagues and of course, trainee teachers will all find this book helpful.

Primary physical education teaching has undergone many changes, from the Syllabus of Physical Training for Schools (Board of Education, 1933), through Planning the Programme: Physical Education in the Primary School (HMSO, 1953) to the Physical Education in the National Curriculum (Department for Education, 1995) and now Maintaining Breadth and Balance at Key Stages 1 and 2 (Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, 1998).

Whilst it is expected that the new millennium will bring revised curriculum orders for all the foundation subjects, those for physical education are not expected to be radically different from the current recommendations of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA).

The current recommendations are not new. They have been adapted from the Physical Education in the National Curriculum (DFE, 1995). However, the implementation of the National Literacy Strategy and the proposed National Numeracy Strategy has led to schools being given more flexibility about teaching the National Curriculum in foundation subjects. Schools no longer have to teach the full programmes of study in these subjects as long as they maintain a curriculum that is broad, balanced and relevant to children’s needs. Whilst the QCA feels that these arrangements should not involve major replanning of the Key Stages 1 and 2 curriculum, examples of how curriculum plans might be modified by prioritizing, combining or reducing are given in the document Maintaining Breadth and Balance (QCA, 1998).

This QCA document outlines the new flexible arrangements for the National Curriculum in foundation subjects at Key Stages 1 and 2. In physical education, the QCA currently states what physical education is about at each key stage, lists the key aspects, which are important for all children, that should be taught and states the expectations for children’s knowledge, understanding and skills by the end of key stage.

What physical education is about at Key Stage 1

At Key Stage 1, children develop physical skills, begin to link them to form short sequences or series of movements and learn to make simple judgements about their performance. They build on their own creativity and enthusiasm for physical activity using indoor and outdoor environments. Children work alone, learn to cooperate and work with a partner. They become aware of the changes that occur to their bodies as they exercise and recognise the short term effects.

Key aspects drawn from the programme of study for Key Stage 1

■ Developing a positive attitude to physical activity and health.

■ Learning safe practices. In particular, responding readily to instructions and learning how to lift, carry and place equipment safely.

■ Actively engaging in the continuous process of planning, performing and evaluating, through dance, games and gymnastic activities, with the greatest emphasis on performance.

Expectations

By the end of Key Stage 1, it is expected that most children will be able to:

In dance

■ show control and co-ordination in the basic actions of travelling, jumping, turning, gesturing and stillness;

■ perform simple rhythmic patterns and use movement expressively to explore moods and feelings in response to stimuli, including music.

In games

■ send, receive, travel with a ball and similar equipment;

■ play simple games that involve running, chasing, dodging and avoiding, individually, in pairs and in small groups.

In gymnastic activities

■ perform the basic actions of travelling, rolling, jumping, balancing, climbing and swinging using the floor and apparatus;

■ link actions together both on the floor and using apparatus.

What physical education is about at Key Stage 2

At Key Stage 2, children develop their skills and become increasingly able to plan, perform and evaluate what they do. Children work co-operatively and competitively in a range of physical activities involving creative tasks, problem solving and decision making. They practise movements and sequences to improve and refine their performance and make judgements about their own and others’ work. They sustain energetic activity over appropriate periods of time and understand the short-term effects of exercise.

Key aspects drawn from the programme of study for Key Stage 2

■ Developing positive attitudes to physical activity and healthy lifestyles.

■ Learning safe practices. In particular, following rules, laws, codes and safety procedures for different activities and knowing how to warm up and recover from exercise.

■ Activity engaging in the continuous process of planning, performing and evaluating through a range of activities, including dance, games, gymnastic activities and swimming, and, if possible, athletic activities and outdoor and adventurous activities.

Expectations

By the end of Key Stage 2 it is expected that most children will be able to: In dance

■ compose and combine basic actions by varying shape, size, direction, level, speed, tension and continuity;

■ express f...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Illustrations
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 What is Physical Education in the Primary School?
• Chapter 2 Knowledge and Understanding of the Six Areas of Activity
• Chapter 3 Physical Education and Other Areas of the Whole Curriculum
• Chapter 4 Planning for Physical Education at Key Stages 1 and 2
• Chapter 5 Teaching and Management of Physical Education at Key Stages 1 and 2
• Chapter 6 Assessment, Recording and Reporting in Physical Education
• Chapter 7 Study Sheets
• Appendices
• Appendix A Expectations of Trainee Teachers' Work with Children in Primary Physical Education
• Appendix B Blank Lesson Plan
• References and Futher Reading
• Index