Physical Education Consultancy
I am able to provide seminars and workshops within the school setting to any school staff delivering PE. I am also able to provide an ongoing support service for those I work with in the form of a critical friend. Having the opportunity to contact me and ask questions beyond the face to face engagement will help to underpin and embed a culture of reflective practice that will hopefully fuel an ongoing process of professional development that will ensure an improvement in children's primary PE experiences.
To ensure participants gain the most out of sessions it is important that the structure includes both classroom based time to discussion and debate theories and opinions, and practical activities to allow those participating to see how the theory is actually put into practice. Therefore those attending must be prepared to be actively involved themselves.
Why Use Team Beaver Physical Education Consultancy in Your School?
My experience within Higher Education has uniquely enabled me to work in support of the Primary PE sector. My time spent lecturing led to me being entrenched in exploring and evaluating modern teaching and coaching age appropriate pedagogical practices, which in turn motivated me to undertake my masters dissertation within this topic area. I have spent eleven years building this knowledge and understanding whilst observing the need for improvement in the support offered to primary school teachers to incorporate this into their own professional practice. My own personal observations of various Primary teacher training courses identified the lack of emphasis placed on PE in those courses, with the time spent on it drastically smaller than all of the rest other subjects. This has never been a more poignant topic when you consider the ever increasing problems within the UK in relation to childhood obesity levels, the negative impact this problem has is not only limited to biological and cognitive development, but also the individuals quality of life throughout the entire life course. Through delivery of a broad and challenging PE curriculum we can not only positively enhance the biological development pathways, we can also help to build the physical activity habits that will remain throughout the life course.
​Government funding through the PE and Sport Premium is there to help improve the quality of Primary PE, I am able to provide support through workshops, seminars and mentoring to help meet the 5 key indicators that are identified as the core aims by the DfE. Through developing your staffs understanding of delivering PE I can help to rejuvenate your whole school approach to PE ensuring that the children's experience encourages them to participate in both competitive and recreational sport, also ensuring that the breadth of those activities is increased.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have on my services and we can work to build a bespoke programme for your school.
Primary PE and Sport Premium
Key Indicators
Schools must use the funding to make additional and sustainable improvements to the quality of PE and sport they offer. There are 5 key indicators that schools should expect to see improvement across:
- The engagement of all pupils in regular physical activity - the Chief Medical Officer guidelines recommend that all children and young people aged 5 to 18 engage in at least 60 minutes of physical activity a day, of which 30 minutes should be in school
- The profile of PE and sport is raised across the school as a tool for whole-school improvement
- Increased confidence, knowledge and skills of all staff in teaching PE and sport
- Broader experience of a range of sports and activities offered to all pupils
- Increased participation in competitive sport
My Background in Physical Education
I have had a lifelong passion for physical education (PE) and sport, this led me to begin playing rugby from the age of 15, and although not as regularly as I would like, I still play occasionally to this day (27 years later!). I also have a keen interest in the use of boxing-related training to promote health and fitness. I have a vast level of relevant academic experience, having entered higher education as a mature student at 27 I graduated at 30 with a first-class honours degree in Sport Science.
This led me to apply for a lecturing position on the Physical and Sport Education degree at St Marys University, where I spent 11 years lecturing PE, culminating in me becoming the Programme Director of the course for the last two years of my time there. My specialist area within the course was the physiological development of the young person. Whilst working at St Marys I completed my Master's degree in Strength and Conditioning.
We do not learn from experience... we learn from reflecting on experience
John Dewey
My developing passion for the delivery of high quality PE led me to research the impact of the teaching style of coaches working within the primary school setting on children's motor competency for my dissertation study. This required me to work voluntarily in a primary school delivering PE to two year 6 classes for 12 weeks. I continued to do this for 18 months once the research project was finished.
My interest in the primary PE setting was originally stoked from delivering vocational education courses to sports coaches working in primary schools. I quickly learnt that there was a whole group of professionals attempting to teach physical education with little understanding of the finer nuances required when teaching PE. Considering the enormous importance of a high quality PE experience to successfully support children's physical and cognitive development, this situation did not sit well with me. From that moment on I felt motivated to promote the importance and improvement of Primary PE.