“The Future For Primary Physical Education” |

ABSTRACT:

An in-depth examination of secondary research wasundertaken together with a focused case study to investigate whether currentpractices within primary physical education (PE) were best serving the learningneeds of children in primary schools. A secondary purpose of this research wasto examine the implications for this area of primary education regarding theprofessionalization of sports coaching. The study was conducted within aunitary authority in the South West of England. Semi-structured interviews wereconducted, firstly with both Partnership Development Managers (PDMs), followedup by questionnaires carried out with all of their School Sport Co-coordinators(SSCo's). Subsequent semi-structured interviews were then conducted with aprimary school head teacher, a head of primary Initial Teacher Education (ITE),and with the only specialist primary PE teacher found within this authority.These research processes extrapolated information which highlighted currentpractices in many primary schools with regards to their PE delivery, and thefindings illustrated that whilst current PE provision in most secondary schoolswas generally believed to be of a high standard, embracing recent initiativesand the current National Curriculum, the delivery of PE in primary schools wasfound to be less consistent. After several processes of inductive research itwas concluded that widespread changes in the whole primary PE provision, startingfrom Initial Teacher Education, ought to be considered.