In the words of a Key Stage 2 pupil, this week’s podcast guest “is a genius”.

For episode 3 of The Primary PE Huddle, we welcome Tagtiv8  founder Bryn Llewellyn.

Who is Bryn Llewellyn?

Bryn worked in multiple UK schools for over 20 years as a teacher and school leader. In 2012, Bryn founded Tagtiv8. His pioneering approach to Physically Active Learning (PAL) provides a valuable and enjoyable alternative to classroom-based learning – crucial when challenging the increasing problem of sedentary lifestyles.

Research by Leeds Beckett University demonstrates that Tagtiv8 PAL solutions tackle inactivity and obesity levels, as well as impacting positively on academic performance. Following this research, Dr Andy Daly-Smith and Bryn Llewellyn co-delivered their TEDx Talk.

And Bryn’s work doesn’t stop there, he’s also co-director of Move & Learn (CIC), and education consultant for the BBC and Premier League...

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,...

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...

There’s been an update to the PE and sport premium conditions.

 And we wanted to bring to your attention a particular detail:

Premium must be spent in full by the end of the 2021-2022 academic year.

That includes any underspend, so any premium that was rolled over as a result of the pandemic.

And you need to publish information about your spend on your school’s website by 31^st July 2022.

So, if you’ve got premium to use, here we’ve highlighted some programmes that directly meet the Department of Education’s 5 key indicators of suitable premium spend.

What are the 5 key indicators?

Before we jump into the programmes, we just wanted to refresh your memory of the 5 key indicators .

As you know, the PE and sport premium must be used to make additional and sustainable improvements to the quality of your school’s PE, physical activity and sport provision.

You should expect to see improvements across 5 key indicators:

• ...

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...

With just shy of 30,000 followers, Emily is well-known in the Teacher Twittersphere. She’s known for her love of books, stationery, and initiating #TeacherSelfcareSunday which aims to help teachers focus on their own wellbeing and banish Sunday blues.

Just as she is always generous with her ideas and resources, Emily has taken time out of her busy week to give us her views on PE, in this week’s episode of The Primary PE Huddle.

Who is Emily Weston?

Emily has been teaching for eight years, predominantly in Year 6, although she has also spent one year working in Secondary as a Transition Teacher. With a real passion for this area of education, she now leads CPD on the subject, as well as creating resources and finding new ways to make the process easier for children. Alongside this, she has been Reading Lead, which is another area she has passion and drive to develop in schools.

Having played a whole range of sports...

Due to unforeseen circumstances, we are sorry to announce that keynote speaker Caroline Sidell will not be able to join us at the WMPESS Conference  next week. We hope to collaborate with Caroline in the future so that you don’t miss out on hearing from her, so watch this space!

Don’t be too disappointed though (and don’t think you’re getting an extra long lunch!) because every cloud has a silver lining: Kevin Pace has kindly agreed to step into Caroline’s place.

An experienced teacher, school governor and author, Kevin is Director of the SUMO4Schools Foundation, a community interest, not-for-profit company which works with schools and other organisations to improve the lives of young people, professionals and parents.

Kevin’s keynote - Resilience in the Classroom starts in the Staffroom - will explore ways in which SUMO can support the wellbeing of staff and students in education settings. 

He summarises it in three points:

• Resilience...