94,000 fewer children and young people were active in the 2020-2021 academic year compared to 2018-2019

The number of children with a probable mental health disorder has increased from one in nine in 2017 to one in six in 2021

And so, if there was ever a time to make sure you’re making the most of your PE and sport premium, it’s now.

You’ve got until the end of this academic year to spend your premium in full, which includes any unspent funds rolled over as a result of the pandemic.

There’s so many ways to spend the premium, but how do you know what will have the most impact on your school and pupils specifically?

Get bespoke recommendations by completing the Primary School PE Scorecard. 

What is the Primary School PE Scorecard?

The Department for Education (DfE) states that schools should use their premium to secure improvements in 5 key indicators:

• Engagement of all pupils in regular physical activity
• The profile of PE and sport is raised...

This week on the podcast we welcome two of the team from Wodensfield Primary School, Deputy Headteacher Liam Gould and PE Lead Teresa Shackleton.

Who is Liam Gould?

Liam is Deputy Headteacher of Wodensfield Primary School. Liam has over twenty years’ experience working in schools and leadership roles, but his passion has always been in sport and PE. 

From a young age Liam’s parents provided him with lots of opportunities to play and participate in different sports.  Liam’s first official participation in sport was playing for a local junior football team, as he moved into his teens this expanded to cricket, tennis, table tennis and golf.  This engagement with sports has continued into adulthood. Liam continues to play golf and has a handicap of 5, he coaches his son’s (U12’s) and daughter’s (U9’s) football teams, valuing the chance to provide his own children and their teammates with key opportunities to lead...

This week on the podcast we’re joined by primary school PE lead John Haycock.

Who is John Haycock?

John has been a teacher at Chilcote primary school for 11 years, both as PE and class teacher.

Joining the school with a view to take over PE, John completed his NQT and became PE lead in his second year. 10 years on, John’s passion for sport and physical activity combined with his drive has put PE, school sport and physical activity at the heart of school life 

What’s discussed in the episode?

• Where to go to get support as a PE lead
• The role of a PE lead over the last 10 years
• Observing lessons - best practice
• Making PE and physical activity the heart of school life
• Helping children to become young leaders
• Opportunities for those less active
• Split role as a class teacher and a PE lead

 The Primary PE Huddle is back for Series 3 with a whole new host of experts from across the sport and physical activity sector.

To kick off the series, we welcome Greg Dryer, co-founder and CEO of miMove.

Who is Greg Dryer?

Greg is the co-founder and CEO of miMove, the world’s first bespoke app enabling schools to help pupils make physical activity a normal and regular part of their lives. 

Prior to the creation of miMove, Greg was founder and director of the Centre for Physical Education, Sport and Activity at Kingston University (CPESA) after a long teaching career that afforded him the opportunity to work with all ages from pre-school through to post-grad. 

Greg is a highly experienced physical educator and critical thinker, having led PE departments in three London schools before moving into higher education. 

Greg’s work disrupts exclusive practices in PE and sport. Drawing inspiration from psychology, critical theory,...

The Covid-19 pandemic has not been a linear process. Just as we think life is getting back to ‘normal’, another variant comes along and everything changes. As teachers, what and how you teach your children is constantly in review, and the need to tend to children’s mental and physical health stays high on the agenda.

The term ‘Recovery Curriculum’ has been used by various people in various ways. In essence, it is about taking into account the experiences of the past two years and adapting what we do in light of those experiences.

Our new Recovery Curriculum course  helps you to navigate your way through this process.  

The central intentions for the course are to: 

• Understand why a recovery curriculum is important at this time
• Understand how physical education, physical activity and school sport can be used as a whole school platform, embedded throughout the day
• Give you the knowledge, understanding and ability to enable...

Movement is our first language, our first form of communication with the outside world.

It also forms the foundation of how young children engage with themselves.  Fundamental physical skills provide children with essential life skills; the first touch, giggle, step and smile.  Interaction - reaction, body movement and language are the main methods of communication.  From birth the brain prioritises movement, it is one of the primary functions in early life after the rudimentary survival functions; heartbeat, breathing and digestion.  Each move a child makes builds critical neural pathways in the brain and develops physical competency.  The more repeated physical experiences the increased sensory receptors and subsequent cemented neural pathways.  Overtime movement becomes fully automated.  Once movements become automated children’s brains are then free to process other thinking (conscious) tasks like talking and listening.  Each...

It’s been in the pipeline for a while and now we are thrilled to be launching a brand new Aspire:ED online course.  

Designed and taught by Helen Battelley, Inspiring Early Years PE, physical activity and physical development is, as you may have guessed from the title, a course for those who work with (or aspire to work with) younger children aged around 3 – 7 years.  

 As with all of our courses, it offers you the flexibility to study wherever, whenever and however you want to. You can learn in short bursts or do longer stints if you have time. You can pause if you’re interrupted or go back and repeat anything you’re unsure about. With Aspire:ED, you are in control.  

What is the course about?  

The three-module course will help you to develop an understanding of how best to support children physically in the Early Years. Combining both practical and theoretical content, you will gain:  

• A depth...

We’ve recently added two new printable resources which are bound to be popular this winter. Make sure you check them out!  

Wet Weather Task Cards 

Wet play can ruin everyone’s day. Children feel cooped up and can’t get their excess energy out; Lunchtime supervision staff spend the time sorting out arguments and trying to get the volume down; Teachers have to deal with the fallout for the rest of the afternoon. 

But what if it could be different? 

This set of cards is packed full of ideas for how to get children active even when they need to stay indoors. We’ve got ideas for games which require minimal equipment but that will help burn some energy, keep children engaged and hopefully make wet play a lot less painful for everyone.  

English on the Move Christmas Activities 

These festive, physically active learning English activities will keep your pupils active, engaged and thinking during the...

One of the teachers who attended the WMPESS Conference said,  

“It’s been a really good opportunity to get to know some of the different things available to us as a school and to get to know some other people around Birmingham leading PE in different ways.” 

Words like these make us incredibly proud, because they sum up the very reason why we created the conference in the first place.  

With 50 delegates, 3 keynote speakers, 7 workshop leaders, 2 movement break leaders and 18 stands in the marketplace, it was an action-packed day with an abundance of learning and networking. Although Covid-19 still casts a bit of a shadow on everything at the moment, everyone in attendance seemed to enjoy the chance to meet in person and chat in ways that just don’t quite happen on Zoom. 

As everyone made their personal selection from the range of...

Whole school improvement is no small matter. As a teacher, SLT member, or school governor, it is your responsibility to plan for and make changes that will have a positive impact on not only assessment data but also the wellbeing of all members of the school community.

As an experienced school governor, Andy Heald  is no stranger to school improvement and he believes that physical activity is key to success.

Listen to this week’s episode of The PE Huddle: Physical Activity for Whole School Improvement to find out more.

In the podcast, we discuss

• The importance of asking “What is the bigger picture?” when looking at the PE curriculum
• Why you should focus on the WHY, before the How and the What
• Andy’s belief that Activity + Achievement = Fun
• The need to create great physical activity experiences for children
  
  

Available to listen NOW wherever you get your podcasts