PE with purpose or a game of chance?
Written by: Vinny Halsall, FA PE Officer
Let’s start with a question for you to muse over as your read this brief blog: Do you have a personal purpose that shapes your thoughts, behaviours and day-to-day actions? We’ll return to this later.
The role and importance of education is one of the most talked about topics, whether that be as professionals, parents or people within our local communities. Everybody has an opinion of the role that education plays in society, though perhaps less clarity of its meaning. For this reason, an awareness of the derivation of the word can be useful and thought provoking. The word ‘education’ derives from the following Latin terms: educare – to bring up or to nourish; educo – to lead out; educere - to draw out or to manifest; educatum – the act of. With these in mind, my thinking is that education is the act of supporting the development of others in terms of knowledge, understanding and application of specific concepts.
Turning more specifically to Physical Education, DfE National Curriculum guidance states:
“A high-quality physical education curriculum………..should provide opportunities for pupils to become physically confident in a way which supports their health and fitness. Opportunities to compete in sport and other activities build character and help to embed values such as fairness and respect.” Gov UK Physical Education Programmes of Study 2013
In bringing together the broad definition of ‘education’ and what it might look like in terms of Physical Education, let’s revisit the focus of this blog. Does your PE programme have a clear purpose or is it a game of chance? I would advocate that as professionals, we have a responsibility to ensure that our planning, delivery and review of Physical Education is underpinned by a strong philosophy that aligns to your school mission statement and values, as well as your own personal ‘why’?
As we know, every school irrespective of type, denomination and age group has a very clear mission statement, vision and values. These will undoubtedly focus on some or all of the following:
- A caring and inclusive environment
- Meeting the needs of all children
- The development of the whole child or pupil
- Promoting learning through high standards of teaching and leadership
- Developing values such as respect, kindness, determination and resilience
- Enabling all pupils to become good citizens in a global world
It is well documented that Physical Education can be instrumental in helping to meet every school’s mission statement and values. I deliberately say ‘can be’ as there is much conjecture across the PE landscape around what high quality PE should look like. At this point, I would encourage you to listen to PE Insights Podcast: Nathan Walker and Dr Shane Pill 15:36-20.00 where Shane Pill provides a pragmatic view, supported by research based evidence, around why a multi-activity ‘sports’ approach to PE curriculum design has limited benefits due to time constraints. One thing for sure, is that with the limited number of hours afforded to PE within curriculum time and beyond, our programmes cannot do everything: hence the need for a clear purpose.
The FA Physical Education Team, which is part of England Football Learning Grassroots Development Team, advocates Holistic Development as fundamental to our purpose and philosophy. We use the mantra ‘developing the person before player’ within the coaching environment; this can easily be reframed within the school and PE context as ‘developing the person before pupil’. Our England Football Learning: The FA 4 Corner Model aims to support development in the following ways: technical/tactical, physical, social and psychological. Other approaches have a similar focus, such as
- Tom Brush: ME in PE Model which features physical me, healthy me, social me, thinking me and personal me.
- AfPE Head Hands Heart Model which focuses on thinking, doing and behavioural change.
- The CARE curriculum in Physical Education: Sprake, Grecic and Palmer which advocates Cognitive, Active, Relational and Emotional aspects of development through games and physical activity.
- IPLA Physical Litercay Concensus Statement highlights the importance of move, connect, think and feel.
The common thread here is the clear purpose around the development of the whole person in line with Bloom's Domains of Learning: Cognitive, Affective and Psychomotor.
As we see more professionals across the Physical Education and School Sport landscape believe in this approach to their PE curriculum aims, design and content, with recognition of the ongoing impact that the CoVid-19 pandemic had on our young children, how important is it to have your own personal purpose?
This brings us back to my opening question: “Do you have a personal purpose that shapes your thoughts, behaviours and day-to-day actions?” In my opinion, this is vital if we are to influence not just the children and young people that we teach, but also the adults that we interact with. By having a clear ‘why’, we can be consistent with our aims, messages and behaviours which helps to shape our ‘what’ and ‘how’. For the sake of an example, my purpose is framed by my surname HALSALL: Healthy Active Life Styles And Life-long Learning, which enables me to work with a consistency of aims, approach and messages when interacting with learners, colleagues, family and friends, and building relationships along the way. The “Healthy Active Life Styles” element highlights the importance that I place on holistic development with health encompassing physical, mental, social and spiritual well-being.
As we all continue on our journey to ‘physically educate’ our young people, as well as influence those who share our vocation, I would encourage you to consider your personal ‘why’ and try to summarise it in words, phrases and concepts. By doing so it will help provide a clarity of purpose… or will you leave your pedagogical approach to Physical Education to be simply ‘a game of chance’?