Fitness & health

Physical Education

Primary

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?

How one headteacher improved vitality and stamina in her school

Julie Bradley became headteacher of St Leonard's Primary School in 2000 and - having noticed a lack of energy in her students - quickly set about trying to improve their vitality and stamina. Together with her staff at the Burnley school, she re-jigged the timetable, ensuring that the school day followed a rhythm of energetic and quiet times and that PE was placed high on the school's agenda. As a devoted fan of Burnley FC, Julie knew that physical education and sport could help her pupils find a new focus. Regular breaks for classroom aerobics and mental gymnastics were introduced to help keep pupils alert and focused on their work. Provision of food and drink was also addressed, with water bottles standard for all pupils and healthy eating at breakfast time, snack time and lunch time. All the hard work is now paying off in the children's improved energy and self-esteem, not to mention a shared passion for Burnley FC.

Healthy Primary School

Yoga is introduced to pupils in Leeds

A visit to India inspires two primary teachers from Leeds to start yoga clubs in their school in order to improve concentration and promote a calmer atmosphere. Kate Bowen and Jane Sanders from Leeds decided to introduce yoga and record the outcomes on video after discovering that it improved the focus of the Indian pupils. From the start, the enthusiasm of their own pupils is evident, as is their desire to learn more about how their Indian counterparts practice yoga. They begin to communicate with the Indian pupils via email, and hope soon to be swapping the video they have shot. Throughout the project we see how Kate and Jane encourage the pupils to take ownership of the project, including teaching yoga to children in other Leeds schools. In the discussion that follows, Rittika Chanda Parruck from the British Council in India talks about the project with the pair as well as Gillian Sherrif, from another school in Leeds. Rittika asks whether yoga should be introduced more widely and how its effects could be measured.

Indian Influences: Yoga

A reception teacher shares her PE tips with trainee teachers

PE enthusiast and reception teacher Sharon Badger shares her tips for integrating Fundamental Movement Skills into the curriculum with trainee teachers. Sharon is someone who only embraced physical activity later in life, and she fully understands the dread PE often holds for the pupil and primary teacher alike. She shows how over seven weeks she has integrated Fundamental Movement Skills into the curriculum, in PE, maths and English and right across the school day. Can the structured skill breakdown of the FMS method help the trainee teachers overcome their fear of PE?

KS1 PE - Fundamental Movement Skills

An inner-city class tries yoga for the first time

Advanced skills teacher Sue Bacon introduces yoga to her class at an inner-city primary school in Bristol. Sue had tried yoga for herself, but had never thought of using it in the classroom, until now. After attending a workshop run by yoga expert Rachel Jefferson-Buchanan, Sue invites her to try her research on Yoga in Education techniques with Sue's class. But how will they respond?

KS1/2 PE - Yoga Across the Curriculum

How to get students moving during sleepy afternoons

Primary school teacher and PE co-ordinator Keth Macdonald has devised an initiative aimed at waking up pupils on sleepy afternoons. He has put together a series of exercises and games designed to give the children a break after lunch, and even mid-lesson. Some are pulse-raising, whilst others focus on co-ordination and concentration. All have produced positive results in terms of attainment and self esteem. This programme shows: <ul> <li>How to put together a simple exercise programme to rouse pupils from post-prandial torpor</li> </ul>

KS2 PE - The Afternoon: Staying Awake

Waking and shaking for better learning

This programme takes a look at two schools that are incorporating physical exercise into their daily routines and the effect that this is having on their pupils. For ten minutes every morning the pupils at Winterslow School in Wiltshire take part in a specially designed exercise routine called Wake and Shake. Assisted and monitored by their local sports college, the school has found that the initiative has produced impressive results, not only in general fitness, but also in levels of attainment and self esteem. At Ide Primary School in Devon, similar initiatives are taking place. The school has developed a skipping programme, which the pupils follow each morning as part of their approach to implementing the philosophy of "whole-brain learning". This programme explores: Making fitness a whole-school priority How setting aside short periods for physical activity can boost pupil performance How to implement a "whole-brain learning" strategy at your school

KS2 PE - The Morning: Waking Up

Inspirational ideas to increase pupils' participation in PE

Willow Brook Primary School in Keyworth, near Nottingham, has gone to great lengths to ensure that all of its pupils are offered a wide range of high-quality physical education and sport. The school is already providing the government target of two hours of PE each week and ensures that its youngest pupils develop basic skills, enabling them to become competent and confident sportsmen and women. Willow Brook is open to all sorts of new ideas to help enhance sporting opportunities for its pupils. External coaches, plus professional development and leadership schemes are used to ensure the delivery of both quantity and quality in PE. Meanwhile, we're introduced to the "walking bus" scheme at Clayton Brook Primary School in Lancashire. It isn't physical education in the strict sense, but it achieves some of the same outcomes, with the children clocking up 2.5 miles of walking and 75 minutes of exercise each week.

Professional Development for Quality Teaching

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