New course: Physically Active Learning in the Early Years
The foundations of our physical activity behaviours start in the earliest of years.
Children who develop physical literacy in the Early Years are more likely to enjoy being physically active, and they have lower morbidity and mortality across their life course.
And it’s not just physical development, there’s a growing body of research linking physical activity to cognition and future academic performance.
But the Early Intervention Foundation’s parent polling suggests that less than 1 in 5 under 6s are getting the recommended amount of daily physical activity.
Time, cost, and access are all barriers to children’s physical activity outside of a learning environment.
And so, it is crucial that children have an abundance of opportunity to be physically active within the learning environment.
Physically active...
Practical workshop: Primary Dance in PE
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.
Physical Activity and Movement Play in Early Childhood
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...
Inspiring Early Years PE, physical activity and physical development
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...
