Since the introduction of the Primary PE and Sports Premium funding, there has been an ongoing debate about the use of it for external providers and whether this leads to deskilled employed staff and lower quality PE lessons. Even if the funding has not been used in this way in your school, lots of teachers are reluctant to deliver the subject and feel like they do not have the expertise to teach it well. Have you ever thought about this in relation to your specific setting? Let’s have a look at how we can monitor this and move forward!
Why Is PE A Subject People Don’t Like?
A third of teachers lack the confidence to teach PE, over a quarter of primary school teachers say they don’t feel adequately qualified to teach the subject and more than half want more professional development opportunities for PE. Despite this, the majority of teachers say they recognise PE is as important as the other subjects they teach. This shows that a lot of the time, it’s not that teachers don’t like PE, it’s more likely that they simply don’t feel knowledgeable enough to successfully teach it.
Why Is It Important To Audit Your Staff’s Skills?
Looking at the above, you need to know which of your staff need strong support, which have aspects needing to improve and which are already super confident in PE. This is so all the children in your school receive the highest quality PE sessions possible and don’t take on these negative feelings towards the subject themselves.
Auditing your staff is a great way of finding gaps to fill which in turn helps your staff to feel valued and invested in. Auditing can go into as much or as little detail as you feel is necessary, but asking them to rate their knowledge on specific topics and aspects of PE (such as planning and assessing), as well as asking for further detail on their impression of PE and what children would say about their lessons.
Where Can I Begin?
Make sure you ask about a person’s overall confidence with the subject and find out if they have any specialist knowledge in the field. You may be surprised what skills are being hidden! Also, ask where people want support and how they would like to further develop. Our Ultimate PE Leader Pack includes an extensive Teacher Development Questionnaire which can be edited and adapted to fit your needs.
#JoinTheMission