Physical Education

Dance and gymnastics

Fitness & health

Swimming & water safety

Two schools show good practice in using AOTS in PE and sport

Adults Other Than Teachers can offer a great deal to schools seeking to broaden their provision of high-quality physical education. However, recruiting, training and supporting AOTS, and understanding how and when it's appropriate to use them, is vital. The two schools in this programme show the way to achieving this. Denton Primary School in Northamptonshire has supported an enthusiastic parent in her wish to become involved, resulting in her changing career and qualifying as a coach. Tong High School and Sports College in Bradford employs several full-time sports assistants. They are distinguished sportsmen and women in their own right, who have been trained and supported to a high level to work with pupils of all abilities, within and outside curriculum time.

Adults Other Than Teachers

Diane Elithorn shares the benefits of yoga with her pupils

Dianne Elithorn at Lowercroft Primary is mad about yoga and, since qualifying to teach it to children, has introduced it throughout the school. Diane believes that the non-competitive exercise can help to improve both the physical health and mental wellbeing of children which can help with learning. Dianne works with Janine Hurley from YoYogis who teaches yoga through storytelling for younger children. They weave a story together using traditional yoga poses based on animals to ignite the pupils' imaginations. Both Diane and Janine believe that yoga fits all the criteria of the healthy schools and the every child matters initiatives as it works on so many different levels, and Lowercroft fully embraces it.

Anyone for Yoga?

Pupils learn cheerleading routines in inspiring PE lessons

Grangehurst Primary School, Coventry, shows how it incorporates cheerleading into PE lessons, encouraging healthy competition, and offering pupils the chance to perform and work as a team. The pupils are put through their paces by cheerleading coach former and GB international Kim Nurden, and teacher Liz Cave talks about how a course from the UK Cheerleading Association will allow her to become a coach. The UK's senior cheerleading champions The Rising Stars also demonstrate their routines, showing their prowess in a sport that is becoming a favourite activity for many young people on this side of the Atlantic.

Cheerleading

Learn about animal movements at the Natural History Museum

Rodmell primary school in Lewes is preparing for a dance performance based on animal movements at a local show. To help the children make their costumes and movements more authentic teacher Leanne Stevenson books two sessions at the Natural History Museum in London. &nbsp; "Investigate" is a hands-on science centre in the museum which allows students to hold, touch, measure and explore real specimens using microscopes, mini cameras and computers. Back in school the pupils draw on their experience to perfect their performance and add the final touches to their costumes. See the resources and support materials page for more information relating to this programme. You can also find the subtitle document for this programme on the resources and support materials page.

Creepy Crawlies

Dance techniques are used to improve cross curricular learning

Find out how pupils at Brindishe Green School have been improving their dancing and cross-curricular learning by using different body shapes in their dance lessons, in this primary lesson idea. Early studies by dance centre The Place and the Open University have shown that using different body shapes in dance classes can help improve cross curricular learning. Dance coordinator and teacher Jenny Powell, with help from The Place, has put this method into practice during her lessons and helped other teachers in her school implement the technique. Jenny explains the method behind the Pin, Ball, Wall and Twist technique, and describes how she has found it useful in her teaching, as well as other benefits. Year 5 pupils demonstrate the different movements and reveal how these body shapes can make dance lessons fun and imaginative.

Dance - Four Body Shapes

A primary dance lesson starter using magnets as inspiration

Magnets inspire movement in this fun Key Stage 2 lesson starter as Year 3 pupils explore the properties of magnets to create dances. Dance becomes a cross-curricular as the pupils at Deansfield School in Eltham, London, explore the features of magnetism: push, pull, repel, attract.Pupils are encouraged to think about the special properties and movements of magnets, such as what happens when opposite and the same ends of magnets come together. This lesson starter can be used to explore and reiterate a basic understanding of magnetism.

Dance - Moving Like Magnets

A look at how dance can be used across the primary curriculum

At Broadway Junior School in Gateshead, teacher Chris Horn and his colleagues have been using dance to engage learners of all abilities across the curriculum. Chris documents this process in his video, Dancing Across the Curriculum. Watch Chris and his class in action as they combine words in extended sentences and express these as short dance sequences. There's also a chance to see an example of geography combined with dance, with children asked to use dance to explore ideas about scale from mountain to sand. Chris joins educational consultant Adrienne Jones plus teacher Andrea Noble and headteacher Margarita Acklam to discuss the benefits of this approach to pupils' learning. In particular, the group discuss the approach in terms of creativity, self-esteem and achievement. They conclude by considering how teacher video supports CPD and can help non-specialists embrace this kind of innovation.

Dancing Across the Curriculum

Including disabled pupils in sports lessons at secondary school

Discussing the importance of inclusion for disabled pupils in relation to sports lessons at secondary school. Schools are required to ensure that pupils of all abilities have equal access to the full range of activities that take place within school, including sport. Despite this legal requirement, a survey carried out by the children's charity, Whizz-Kidz, found that a third of pupils with disabilities felt excluded from PE. At Ipsley Middle School in Redditch, children in wheelchairs are even included in hurdling. The school's subject leader for PE explains that it just means giving a little more time and thought to lesson preparation. The school has also found that other children are just as keen to include and assist children with disabilities during games.

Disability Equality - Inclusion in PE

An expert guides a primary teacher through a dance warm-up

A dance education specialist demonstrates how warm-ups for Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 lessons can be easy even for wary teachers, in this CPD resource. Alison Swann, a CPD specialist from The Place has taught dance in education at schools across London. She shows a teacher and a dance coordinator how to have fun, with simple warm-ups that even the most frightened teacher can do with or without music. Alison and the teachers address common fears and talk about the difference between a PE and dance warm-up, as well as the health and safety implications of warming-up properly.

Easy Dance Warm-Ups

A look at cross-matching PE goals with other learning areas

For teachers and pupils at KS1, physical education can be something of an obstacle course. It requires a level of co-ordination, stamina and control that doesn't always come naturally - it's something that has to be learned. Deepdale Infant School in Preston is a typical inner-city school. Here acceptance of sport is linked primarily to the issue of gender. Boys at Deepdale happily embrace PE but it's the girls who often don't thrive in the sporting environment. In this programme, we see how staff get girls interested in PE by combining sport with stories and transforming story-time into a physical role play and encouraging girls to be active in the playground. We are also introduced to the school's Dads & Lads Scheme; something designed to help boys with their own achievement problems. As part of the scheme, homework backpacks containing books and basic games equipment allow fathers and sons to play and read together. Throughout the programme, Deepdale demonstrate how the secret to their success lies in cross-matching PE with other curriculum areas.

Professional Development for Quality Teaching

Subjects

> Primary Physical Education