For most people, professional development means building new skills, enhancing performance and unlocking opportunities. For teachers and coaches, it means all those things and more.  

Because when you’re boosting children’s physical and mental health, expanding your knowledge base doesn’t just benefit you. It gives pupils a better start in life.  

According to Sport England, physically literate children are more likely to be active for the long term – but more than half of children aged five to 15 in England aren’t doing the recommended daily amount of exercise. 

For many pupils, school provides the mainstay of their physical activity. It’s where they learn Fundamental Movement Skills – from balancing to throwing a ball – that blossom into sporting talents and vital life tools like teamwork and taking part. It’s also where they discover the power of play.  

As an educator, the wider your...

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...

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,...

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

We’re excited to announce that the inspirational Crichton Casbon will be leading not one, but TWO unmissable workshops at this year’s WMPESS conference.

• Great Teaching in PE
• Assessment in PE – made simple and usable

If you’re looking to make your PE lessons more memorable and meaningful, or wondering how to make assessing PE more than just a hoop to jump through, then these workshops are for you.

Crichton is a curriculum designer with a specialism in Physical Education and he really knows his stuff!

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. He 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, geography and English, he has also worked as a LEA Adviser for...