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 repetitive function becomes an automated movement, ther...

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:

• Engagement of all pupils in regular physical activity.
• The
...

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 of understanding to create inspiring physical learning opportunities within a ra...

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 run up to Christmas. These resources are not just a time filler; they are a grea...

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 workshops it was clear to see that we had catered well for different interests, and as always we had lots of people keen to get active by participa...

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 throughout her...

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 is not a birth right. It is a life skill th
...

In the penultimate episode of this series of The PE Huddle, Dan meets Ryan Ellis to talk about what Ryan sees happening in schools and his tips and tricks for juggling the many demands on you as a PE Lead, including pointing out that the National Curriculum for PE doesn’t actually require you to teach specific sports.

Who is Ryan Ellis?

‘The PE Umbrella Man’, as he is often called, lived a childhood filled with sport and physical activity and always had a burning desire to teach PE. After several years of coaching and then teaching, Ryan turned his full focus towards making a bigger impact in primary PE.

In 2015, Ryan set up The PE Umbrella which has evolved from a podcast platform into a consulting career allowing him to provide training for schools, universities and SCITTs.

Listen to this week’s episode of The PE Huddle: Make PE the golden thread in your school to hear Ryan’s words of wisdom.

In the podcast, we discuss

• Why you don’t need to pressure yourself to ...

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

Have you signed up for the WMPESS conference yet?

The importance of an ambitious, compelling, needs-driven and well-structured physical education curriculum

 As a former teacher, school leader, and physical education specialist, Steve Caldecott knows the reality of school life and leading PE. As a school inspector, he knows what the expectations are for physical activity within the curriculum. And as a representative of the Association for Physical Education (afPE) he has his finger on the pulse with all the latest developments, trends and advice.

 Who better, then, than Steve to give a keynote speech at this year’s West Midlands PE and School Sport Conference?

 Steve’s not-to-be-missed speech will cover:

• Using some key wording from the Education Inspection framework to support your curriculum planning
• Making effective use of the national curriculum
• The introduction of some key questions to help you to reflect on your physical education curriculum.

 For those of you who hav...