Get ready for your school’s Ofsted PE deep dive with Greg Dryer.

Greg is a national PE consultant and founding director of the Centre for PE, Sport and Activity at Kingston University. He’s also a qualified teacher, former senior tutor at Youth Sport Trust, and business owner. Greg is founder of miMove, a ground-breaking app that helps teachers, parents and coaches support young people’s physical activity journeys.

Greg joins us at this year’s conference to provide practical advice and guidance on:

• How to prepare for a PE deep dive
• What to do during a PE deep dive

Where can you get a ticket?

Head over here to find out more about this year’s conference on 25^th November in Birmingham.

See the full agenda and get your ticket here.

Aspire:ED members get exclusive discounts!

• Discover members: 10% off
• Thrive members: FREE ticket

Find out more about our memberships. 

Effective assessment supports pupils to succeed.

It can enhance both teachers’ teaching and children’s learning.

Take part in Jon Davies practical workshop at this year’s conference to see and experience effective assessment in action.

Jon Davies is Operations Manager at Aspire Active Education Group. With eleven and a half years’ experience in the education sector, Jon is an expert in the primary PE curriculum.

During Jon’s workshop, you will:

• Explore effective and simple assessment procedures that can be replicated across the curriculum
• Discuss the importance of assessment in PE
• Take part in a practical session that can be implemented in your school setting

To learn the theory behind this practical session, join Education Consultant Crichton Casbon in his workshop ‘Assessment in PE’. This linked workshop will take you through a process to support your understanding of the 3 stages of assessment and its central role in teachers’...

It’s in line with the national primary curriculum. It helps children master fundamental movement skills. And it can be transformative in its impact on a child’s physical, emotional, cognitive and social development.

And yet gymnastics is barely covered in initial teacher training.

As a result, it’s seen as a difficult and dangerous sport to teach, with teachers left apprehensive about delivering lessons.

But with the developmental benefits it offers, gymnastics is an essential component of the primary curriculum.

So how do you move from fearing the sport to making it one of your favourite to teach?

With this brand new course from Ryan Bradley, former international gymnast and founder and director of RB Gym & Sport.

What will you learn?

The course gives you the skills, knowledge and confidence to plan, teach and assess primary gymnastics.

It’s broken down into three modules. Module 1 focuses on KS1 gymnastics skills and progressions, Module 2 covers...

We’re delighted to announce our third and final keynote speaker at this year’s conference is Will Roberts, Chief Operating Officer of Youth Sport Trust. 

Having experience in the fitness industry and as a sports coach in his home city of Stoke-on-Trent, Will moved into an NGB before joining the Youth Sport Trust team. Now Chief Operating Officer, Will continues to be actively involved in sport in his local community in North Staffordshire as a volunteer coach and club leader.

Will joins us on 25^th November to share his expertise in a keynote speech titled:

The critical ingredient: ensuring physical literacy for young people in challenging times

Where can you get a ticket?

Head over here to find out more about this year’s conference in Birmingham.

Aspire:ED members get exclusive discounts!

• Discover members: 10% off
• Thrive members: FREE ticket

Find out more about our memberships.

How can you get children engaged in learning, improve their concentration, increase their confidence, make concepts easier to understand and raise attainment?

Get them up and on the move.

Not only is physically active learning proven to facilitate learning, it also boosts physical activity and reduces sedentary time.

And looking at the current picture of children and young people’s health and wellbeing, this is crucial.

• 3 million children and young people now do less than an average of 30 minutes of physical activity a day
• 94,000 fewer children and young people are active compared to pre-pandemic levels
• The number of children with a probable mental health disorder has increased from one in nine in 2017 to one in six in 2021

It’s vital we create accessible, engaging and inclusive opportunities for children and young people to be active. Physically active learning is one way of doing just that.

But where do you start?

Take part in Andrew Stanton’s workshop at this...

What makes simple and effective assessment?

Join Crichton Casbon, Education Consultant, at this year’s conference to develop your understanding of the three stages of assessment.

Who is Crichton Casbon?

Crichton Casbon M.Ed (Curriculum Studies) is an internationally recognised expert in the physical curriculum.

Recognising the exceptional ability of physical activity to bring happiness, health and success, Crichton’s passion drives his esteemed work in the sector as teacher, advisor, researcher, author and consultant.

Crichton is a curriculum designer with a specialism in Physical Education.

Crichton managed the implementation of the secondary curriculum in England for QCA and directed the PE and School Sport (PESS) project as part of the Government’s national strategy for PE and Sport. Crichton has led the development of three national curriculum programmes of study in PE, national schemes of work and co-authored a book on assessment in PE. A former teacher of PE,...

What’s your school’s view of break time?

If your first thought is “hard work”, you’re not alone.

Break time is seen as needing to be short and tightly managed by many schools as a result of poor behaviour and the pressure to cover an ever-expanding curriculum and raise attainment.

The purpose of break time can be unclear; there’s a lack of clarity around how it can support school aims and children’s development.

A lot of schools lack the resources to run activities at break, and even if the equipment is there, the lack of training for staff means supervising is done at a distance.

The absence of things to do means children can get bored and they’re left without an effective outlet for their bounds of energy. The result? Behaviour issues, fall-outs, incidents and injuries. 

And so, lunch breaks are being made shorter and afternoon breaks seem to be disappearing.

But quality break times can be key to the physical, social, cognitive,...

As a dance specialist with 20 years of experience working in primary schools and within the community, Steph understands the time pressures that come with planning, researching and resourcing an engaging creative curriculum for your pupils.

Add in a lack of confidence or experience in a subject, and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed.

Steph’s workshop is a chance to change that. It’s a chance to gain the knowledge and skills to deliver dance with confidence at your school.

Steph is a dance specialist, a qualified children’s fitness instructor, and is currently joint PE coordinator at Delves Junior School in Walsall. Steph also works for Inspire Activity, a company delivering Community Games events throughout the Midlands, inspiring children and families to become more physically active.

Join Steph at this year’s conference to gain ideas and structures to apply to different year groups, covering a range of topics and dance genres.

Get your ticket here...

When it comes to a child’s development, gymnastics can be transformative.

The impact ranges from physical to emotional to cognitive to social.

Here we break down that impact and take a closer look at why gymnastics is an essential sport to teach in primary school.

Teaching gymnastics develops key physical skills

If you’re looking for a sport that covers just about all of the physical skills that children need to develop, gymnastics is your answer.

Flexibility, strength, technique, speed, control, coordination and balance are all developed through gymnastics. Which leads us on to our next point…

Teaching gymnastics is in line with the national curriculum

KS1:
“Pupils should develop fundamental movement skills, become increasingly competent and confident and access a broad range of opportunities to extend their agility, balance and coordination, individually and with others.”

KS2:
“Pupils should be taught to develop flexibility, strength, technique,...

It’s part of the national curriculum, boosts physical and mental health, and is both a life and a lifesaving skill.

And yet 1 in 4 children leave school unable to swim.

Primary schools are faced with a multitude of challenges when it comes to delivering swimming and water safety lessons. Funding, teacher training, curriculum pressures, facility access, just to name a few.

The fear is, if action isn’t taken, that 1 in 4 could rise to 6 in 10 children by 2025.

Speedo’s Swim United campaign is calling on the Government to invest in primary school swimming to affect real change.

And we too must unite to take action, to do everything we can to ensure every child has the opportunity to learn to swim.

Which is why we’re delighted to announce that Ashley Jones, Water Safety and Drowning Prevention Manager for Swim England, will be joining us at The Active Primary Schools Conference to deliver a keynote speech.

Ashley is responsible for supporting school...