Operation transformation in primary school

heldel00

Can't believe what I'm after hearing and watching!

First they stated that PE is not mandatory in primary schools.

Second they actually weighed primary school children and took note of weight.

Third the principal of the primary school said we should have specialised PE teachers teaching PE. (I'm all for visiting Specialists but not continuously.)

I feel I'm quite capable of teaching PE and take great interest in it. We don't need specific visual arts/drama/music so why PE?

RTE are going back to visit that primary school in a few weeks and need to do their homework!

byhookorbycrook

The DES are vehemently opposed to paying outsiders to come in to do PE or whatever. In our school, we swop round as needs be for strands, the teacher who is best at gymnastics would not be the best to teach ball games etc. Works really well and no teacher is under undue pressure.

What part of the country is the school in?

heldel00

The PE teacher is from Cavan so I assume its in Cavan.
Yeah make use of "in-house expertise" ourselves but not only with PE, we also do it with visual arts and music.

Weighing the children was the bit that really got my goat.

yurmothrintites

I took offense to the show's statements last night. It implied that primary teachers were not trained in PE or that PE was not taught effectively in schools.

I love teaching PE and feel the curriculum is well laid out and generally taught very well. It was another negative portrayal of primary teachers and the profession.

RTE and OT failed to research or provide basis for their claims to make a show seem more inclusive and appealing to its audience.

koriko

yurmothrintites wrote: »

I took offense to the show's statements last night. It implied that primary teachers were not trained in PE or that PE was not taught effectively in schools.

I love teaching PE and feel the curriculum is well laid out and generally taught very well. It was another negative portrayal of primary teachers and the profession.

RTE and OT failed to research or provide basis for their claims to make a show seem more inclusive and appealing to its audience.

I see your point. However some primary teachers simply are not good at teaching p.e.. Some abstain from teaching it as much as possible and some altogether! The show, despite being a bit dramatic and sensational, made a few valid points.

yurmothrintites

koriko wrote: »

I see your point. However some primary teachers simply are not good at teaching p.e.. Some abstain from teaching it as much as possible and some altogether!

That may be true in the minority, as with every job there are those who are not suited to, or show little aptitude in aspects of their profession, but the vast majority of primary teachers are very well trained in PE and teach it to the required standard.

I don't think a teacher would get away with never teaching PE. Abstaining from teaching PE may have happened in the past, but with all the increasing curricular planning and progress records teachers are expected to keep, it would be virtually impossible not to teach it and not have questions to answer.

koriko

yurmothrintites wrote: »

That may be true in the minority, as with every job there are those who are not suited to, or show little aptitude in aspects of their profession, but the vast majority of primary teachers are very well trained in PE and teach it to the required standard.

I don't think a teacher would get away with never teaching PE. Abstaining from teaching PE may have happened in the past, but with all the increasing curricular planning and progress records teachers are expected to keep, it would be virtually impossible not to teach it and not have questions to answer.[/

Agreed- times are changing thankfully. Still room for improvement, more cpd or even epv courses on the topic are badly needed IMO

evolving_doors

Ya I saw that bit and was a bit puzzled about what the principal said. In retrospect and given the mention of a 'visiting' PE teacher initiative, I think the principal was implying that every school should have the oppertunity to avail of a visiting specialised PE teacher. I.e...someone who would be trained in taking their baseline fitness levels and comparing with a national average and coming up woth appropriate strategies etc.. I think the way he said it came across badly.

I wouldnt mind too much about the weighing/gauging fitness levels, as long as its done sensitively with results not disclosed/discussed amongst pupils.

Im a secondary teacher so not up to speed on the lay of the land. But I would have assumed that all classes in primary do some form of activity! Are there schools that dont do any PE?

heldel00

Armelodie wrote: »

Ya I saw that bit and was a bit puzzled about what the principal said. In retrospect and given the mention of a 'visiting' PE teacher initiative, I think the principal was implying that every school should have the oppertunity to avail of a visiting specialised PE teacher. I.e...someone who would be trained in taking their baseline fitness levels and comparing with a national average and coming up woth appropriate strategies etc.. I think the way he said it came across badly.

I wouldnt mind too much about the weighing/gauging fitness levels, as long as its done sensitively with results not disclosed/discussed amongst pupils.

Im a secondary teacher so not up to speed on the lay of the land. But I would have assumed that all classes in primary do some form of activity! Are there schools that dont do any PE?

PE is as important a part of the curriculum as visual arts, music, history, geog, science.
I wouldn't think there are many teachers out there that wouldn't do it at some stage during the week. (Some children can be quite literal though and you could bring them outside for games etc. and an hour later they would ask "when are we doing PE?" Just because you weren't in the GP hall or maybe even because you didn't say "time for PE"!!!
No, I still don't agree with weighing the children. Health and fitness should be more about feeling better in yourself than figures on a weighing scale. (Being able to run further, jump higher, clothes fitting better etc.

Jimmy Iovine

Off topic slightly, but I think it's ridiculous that children are only entitled to one hour of PE a week, but that's probably more like 30-40 minutes. Coupled with half an hour lunch breaks (during which they're expected to eat their lunch), is it a wonder that so many are unfit? I know that with my class, some of them take close to half an hour to eat their lunch. Bye bye play time.

My unpopular opinion for the day is, that any school finishing at 2:30/2:45 should be made work until 3/3:15 so that the children get an extra half an hour to run around at lunch time.

The English system has a lot of faults, namely Ofsted, but children get two hours of PE a week. I work in a 600 children school and it's fine. One lesson inside and one outside every week.

We've been lucky enough to get CPD as well with a trained professional teaching the lesson once a week. That money comes from the Government through the Sports Premium funding. https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/getting-more-people-playing-sport

More could be done with all of the money the government take in from taxes. That's never really going to happen though, and it's really sad.

byhookorbycrook

How about this, children go home at usual time and let the parent take some responsibility? Schools cannot be made scapegoats for all of society.
Croke Park hours do not take account of any sports teachers do after school. so some schools have just abandoned sport outside of school hours, if the DES want more PE done on our own time, then let it CP hours reflect this.
Having children walk/cycle some part of the school journey would also be a good start. Some parents would drive the child down the corridor if they could.

heldel00

:P

Jimmy Iovine wrote: »

Off topic slightly, but I think it's ridiculous that children are only entitled to one hour of PE a week, but that's probably more like 30-40 minutes. Coupled with half an hour lunch breaks (during which they're expected to eat their lunch), is it a wonder that so many are unfit? I know that with my class, some of them take close to half an hour to eat their lunch. Bye bye play time.

My unpopular opinion for the day is, that any school finishing at 2:30/2:45 should be made work until 3/3:15 so that the children get an extra half an hour to run around at lunch time.

The English system has a lot of faults, namely Ofsted, but children get two hours of PE a week. I work in a 600 children school and it's fine. One lesson inside and one outside every week.

We've been lucky enough to get CPD as well with a trained professional teaching the lesson once a week. That money comes from the Government through the Sports Premium funding. https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/getting-more-people-playing-sport

More could be done with all of the money the government take in from taxes. That's never really going to happen though, and it's really sad.

Where is the "no thanks" button when ya need it!

purplecow1977

Jimmy Iovine wrote: »

Off topic slightly, but I think it's ridiculous that children are only entitled to one hour of PE a week, but that's probably more like 30-40 minutes. Coupled with half an hour lunch breaks (during which they're expected to eat their lunch), is it a wonder that so many are unfit? I know that with my class, some of them take close to half an hour to eat their lunch. Bye bye play time.

My unpopular opinion for the day is, that any school finishing at 2:30/2:45 should be made work until 3/3:15 so that the children get an extra half an hour to run around at lunch time.

The English system has a lot of faults, namely Ofsted, but children get two hours of PE a week. I work in a 600 children school and it's fine. One lesson inside and one outside every week.

We've been lucky enough to get CPD as well with a trained professional teaching the lesson once a week. That money comes from the Government through the Sports Premium funding. https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/getting-more-people-playing-sport

More could be done with all of the money the government take in from taxes. That's never really going to happen though, and it's really sad.

I think you're on your own!!!!

Little CuChulainn

Jimmy Iovine wrote: »

Off topic slightly, but I think it's ridiculous that children are only entitled to one hour of PE a week, but that's probably more like 30-40 minutes. Coupled with half an hour lunch breaks (during which they're expected to eat their lunch), is it a wonder that so many are unfit? I know that with my class, some of them take close to half an hour to eat their lunch. Bye bye play time.

My unpopular opinion for the day is, that any school finishing at 2:30/2:45 should be made work until 3/3:15 so that the children get an extra half an hour to run around at lunch time.

The English system has a lot of faults, namely Ofsted, but children get two hours of PE a week. I work in a 600 children school and it's fine. One lesson inside and one outside every week.

We've been lucky enough to get CPD as well with a trained professional teaching the lesson once a week. That money comes from the Government through the Sports Premium funding. https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/getting-more-people-playing-sport

More could be done with all of the money the government take in from taxes. That's never really going to happen though, and it's really sad.

When parents stop driving their kids the 5 minute walk to school then I think you can talk about teachers staying on to raise their children healthily.

nice_guy80

If schools allowed the kids to run around at lunch it might help things along Most schools do. If it isn't allowed it's generally down to lack of space (DES ) or a number of litigation happy parents suing because little Asbo tripped and *shock , horror* cut their knee

Plus, banning all junk food in lunch boxes

Allowing the Croke Park hour to be used for sports coaching by selected teachers
Again, back to the DES. It's ironic that the name of the home of our national games has given its name to an hour that has done so much to kill them.
Despite this, you'll find most schools do a more than 1 hour a week, despite complete lack of support from the DES.
Schools alsp fundraise to organise buses for matches/swimming and to PE equipment, sports' facilities and so on. Why do you thinks schools collected all those damn Tesco tokens and took sports bibs from the likes of McDonalds.