Fitness & health

Physical Education

Secondary

Bringing positive competiton back into physical education

There is a renewed emphasis on the value of competitive sport in schools, with a new national schools' competition framework, and the appointment of a network of competition managers across the country. Both are designed to help schools nurture talented young athletes, but also to ensure that all students have opportunities to learn vital life skills from participating in competitive sport. Some students will gain a great deal simply by playing competitively during a PE lesson, while others - like Year 12 hockey player Alicia - aspire to compete at the Olympics. Consequently, competition needs to take many forms, and it must be appropriate, integrated and inclusive. The Manor School in Mansfield, King Edward VII School in King's Lynn and Dorothy Stringer School in Brighton show how they are ensuring all their students benefit from competing, whatever their abilities and aspirations.

A Place for Competition

Two schools show how to give a physical boost to lunchtimes

In this programme, we see how two schools have transformed listless playtimes into positive physical experiences. The Deanes School in Essex has introduced a number of zoned areas within its playground, known as Activity City. The wide range of activities offered helps to develop skills in sport and PE. Some of these are specifically designed for SEN groups, and the gifted and talented. The Activity City is a very structured environment and, as well as getting the students active during lunch, the school has noticed a marked improvement in students' attitudes to study, post-lunchtime. The programme also features Rawmarsh Community School, near Rotherham. The school offers a range of lunchtime activities, the most unusual being a radio station that broadcasts music, requests and school announcements over a school system at break time and lunchtime. The students love having music to perform to, and levels of physical activity and engagement have increased since its introduction.

Active Lunchtime

Tackling child obesity with positive and fun schemes

A look at how two schools have tackled the problem of child obesity and health threats to life expectancy head on. Tong High School, a specialist sports college in Bradford, and Cumberland School in Newham, East London have implemented schemes to improve students' health and health awareness. At Tong, a health fair day promoted the health message, and this was followed up by the launch of a Healthy Lifestyles Card ? a kind of loyalty card which gives students real incentives for choosing healthy food and increasing the amount of exercise they take. At Cumberland School, the cycling club teaches students to ride safely, in preparation for riding to school. The aim is to use this as a tool for promoting physical activity. We take a look at how these very different schemes have worked and how they have changed the lives of pupils at the two schools.

Healthy Secondary School

Overcoming body-consciousness and getting pupils into PE

Keeping adolescents engaged in PE and sport isn't easy, but at Sedgefield Community College in County Durham, a wide range of simple, low-cost measures has produced a dramatic increase in girls' participation rates. At the Tone School Sports Partnership in Taunton, a programme targeted at a small group of disaffected Key Stage 4 girls seeks to make them feel better about their bodies and about exercise. In return for attending a weekly PE session held at the Somerset College of Arts &amp; Technology, the girls are treated to hair and beauty lessons, also at the college. At Wexham School in Slough, research indicated that boys, just like girls were dropping out of PE and sport, sometimes because of body-consciousness. To overcome this, a series of indoor-rowing clubs was established across the partnership to gives boys an exercise option with which they might feel more at ease than conventional PE.

Professional Development for Quality Teaching

Subjects

> Secondary Physical Education

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A Place for Competition

Active Lunchtime

Healthy Secondary School

Maintaining Participation at KS4