03/01/2022
Literacy and Numeracy through Physical Activity
MATHS MOVEMENT Teacher Training Opportunity for all Primary School Staff.
PE and School Sport is permanently under pressure to justify its place in our education system especially within primary schools with the decline of the School Sport Partnerships. Some head teachers see the value of PE and Sport, but many are forced to consider how you fit all the required curriculum into the school week. I have 'done the maths' the requirements recommended by the government do not fit into the curriculum time allocated. Especially as many schools will only do Literacy and Numeracy in the mornings.
Also kids are actually giving up more and more time in the evenings to do homework and this pressure is falling on their shoulders from a younger and younger age .
Most agencies have tried to persuade under pressure head teachers that PE and Sport deserve more time in the curriculum by using obesity statistics, declining physical activity and declining sports club membership. When I school is under pressure from OFSTED non of this matters!
I would like to put another idea out there that even the head teacher in a school with hard to reach students would have to agree makes sense.
Why not devise I way to deliver maths and English within a PE lesson, where the physical task actually requires numeracy and literacy ability to complete it with a similar game or task but an increasing level of maths and English complexity. Thus the child who is good at the core areas of the curriculum, but has previously struggled to find the incentive in PE and Sport, gains value and the child who really enjoys PE but struggles with numeracy and literacy learns these core subjects in a physical way. Nationally it is recognised that boys tend to be physical learners, perhaps this is why they lag behind the girls at certain stages of their school careers.
I have seen many attempts to combine Literacy and Numeracy truly within a sport, ie maths in Football etc I, and the children saw through the fact that there was a clear transition between playing and then going back to the classroom to do the maths. I have now drawn upon this experience along with my 25 years + of delivering PE and working as a strategic authority wide officer to produce a concept and set of resource cards
Basically I have taken the Maths and English curriculum requirements as the starting point and devised physical tasks that teach / re-enforce them. Maths taught physically not PE with a bit of maths thrown in!!
Then transfer these games into the wrap around curriculum of a school, before, lunchtime and after school clubs and the re-enforcement roles on. The Kids don't even realise! They are just playing games and it is like doing homework for fun!
Stand up clear the chairs for 10 mins and deliver maths physically!
If you are going to do a warm up or a skills practice in a PE lesson why not truly include a maths element / requirement. Even better teach it in maths and follow up with the physical maths in PE!
Also include it in a theme week, use Tri Golf, Athletics, Multi-skills and many more less conventional sports and you can see why it would grab a student attention.
Go to acecoaching.org or contact me [email protected] or ring me on 07429289964 for more info it is a true teaching eureka moment!
Anyone out there with contacts to a school, teachers, governors, providers of services, please pass this on they will not be disappointed.
Every head teacher who has seen it so far sees it as sector leading!
Thanks for reading
Wayne
