Wrapping up the 2021/22 academic year

Wow, what a year

As we know, kindness, gratitude and reflection are incredibly powerful when it comes to looking after our own wellbeing. These things are important to all of us and consequently this post aims to hit all 3 as we start to wrap things up for the summer break.

Review of the year

We cannot believe another year has passed and have really enjoyed our involvement with a whole host of partners and providers this year. It has been great to be back in person at conferences right across the country as well as capitalising on the power of technology. This has allowed us to ‘Zoom’ into international conferences and networking sessions as well as regular check ins with our course participants. In addition to our work with local networks, we have expanded and really valued our work with the Association for physical Education (afPE), British Rowing, the Department for Education (DfE), Dumfries and Galloway, the Federation of British International Schools in Asia (FOBISIA), Hodder Education, the International Physical Literacy Association (IPLA), Physical Education, Health & Wellness, Athletics, Sports, Experiential Learning (PHASE) Asia Pacific, the Scottish Association of Teachers of Physical Education (SATPE), Sport England, Sport Wales, and the Youth Sport Trust (YST).

Perhaps our most exciting partnership to date has come through Slough School Sport Network and the great work led by Laura Brookstein. This provided the springboard for our work with Lee Sullivan (author of our second published book Is PE in Crisis? Leading a Much-Needed Change in Physical Education) and a team of passionate Heads of PE who have recently released their PE Concept Curriculum 2.0 which is really going down a storm. In fact, as we write this well over 300 schools have downloaded the new materials. We have also enjoyed our extensive work with PE networks to include Active Partners Trust, Active Surrey, Leap Active Partnership, Greenshaw Learning Trust, and Liverpool School Sports Partnership. We are so excited to say that we have increased our capacity and team of experts for 2022/23 and will have more to share on that at the beginning of the next academic year. However, we are also already quite booked up for conferences and network delivery so please do get in touch ASAP if you would like to work with us.

Zooms

We also started our series of drop-in Zooms with subject specialists who have shared their thoughts and expertise on a number of topics. Here are links to all the recordings:

Podcasts

We have also been busy contributing to a range of podcasts, in case you missed them, here are a few of the Podcasts our team have featured on in the last year or so:

We would also like to thank the following educators who have kindly shared their reflections via guest blogs. Here are links to some of the most read ones for 2022:

If you would like to join the 2022/23 line-up then we would love to hear from you.

Physical Education Resources

Our catalogue of PE teacher and coach resources goes from strength to strength. Search by keyword, phase or activity here and definately watch out for the series of ‘activity prompt cards’ that continue to be published capturing key rules, common misconceptions and significant teaching points for a whole host of activities. You will also love the non participant lanyards to make sure every child is learning in your lessons.

Insight

As you are no doubt well aware, the health of the nation continues to be a big priority and in January 2022 ‘A National Plan for Sport, Health and Wellbeing‘ was released. This was the culmination of a range of contributions from across a range of sectors and in March 2021 we presented evidence alongside AfPE and YST to the House of Lords Select Committee for Sport and Recreation.

Our Book Club Review series also continue. Here are links to those featured so far:

Coming very soon we review, ‘Threshold Concepts in Physical Education’ and ‘The Spectrum of Teaching Styles in Physical Education.’

Physical Literacy

The groundswell around physical literacy continues, with significant work continuing by Sport England with a group of experts and we know it is already embedded in their Active Lives survey. Make sure you are up to speed with 7 principles for practice in this quick blog for busy teachers. We have also launched our own Physical Literacy Course with a guest appearance from Dr Margaret Whitehead.

Ofsted’s PE Research Review

In March Hanna Miller released her PE research review. It is a long document that will no doubt drive practice within PE so make sure you have read our quick blog summary here.

Wellbeing

Our Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 and 4 Complete Wellbeing Curriculum continues to be well received by schools and their students. We have heard of lots of schools utilising this content during the recent spell of hot weather as well as making use of the bank of resources on the Studio You catalogue – especially pilates and yoga. However, remember it is essential to look after your own wellbeing to ensure you are in a good place to be able to support the wellbeing of others. What are you doing to unwind this summer? What new routines and commitments do you plan to implement next academic year to look after yourself?

Courses

Our courses continue to receive excellent feedback from our participants. The Awesome PE in 5 Ways and Preparing for a Successful Ofsted Deep Dive courses are very popular and we have also launched our new Physical Literacy Course. We also have some exciting new courses in development for the next academic year so keep an eye out for those.

Thank you

A massive thanks to everyone who has engaged with us this year. We really value every interaction – whether that was a twitter post, a conversation at one of our Zoom meetings or in-person conferences, a 1-to-1 meeting or participation in one of our courses or regular network sessions. We have had so many rich conversations and are confident physical education is in great hands if you are representative of the whole profession.

Have you worked with us this year? If so, we would love to hear a quick update on what you are up to, what has had most impact on your practice and your plans for next academic year – please do drop us a quick message here.

We plan to take a bit of downtime ourselves during August, but also have a number of exciting new ideas bubbling away behind the scenes that we can’t wait to reveal next academic year.

Once again, please rest up and get ready for an incredible 2022/23

Liz, Will and the Team at PE Scholar