Exposed: The Truth About Exemplary P.E Teachers

I’ve been fortunate enough to have taught PE & school sports in primary schools and a variety of other sectors for over 14 years. During this time I’ve had the opportunity to observe, mentor and professionally develop hundreds of PE teachers throughout the UK.

In my formative years, I embarked upon every UKCC (United Kingdom Certificate in Coaching) training course in every subject I could find, and gained over 16 sporting qualifications by the age of 21. However, when matching my pedagogy against Ofsted criteria, I found that I was teaching beyond the relevant criteria and I had to learn to scaffold my approach to ensure that every child was developing at a positive pace; leaving no child behind.

What Makes an Outstanding PE Teacher?

It’s been long discussed with schools, coaching organisations and teachers about ‘What makes an outstanding PE teacher?’ and what qualifications they should have…

The truth is that qualifications are an entry parameter for progress and should never be used as a sole identifier for teaching success. 

Since the implementation of specialist PE teachers in primary schools there has been no primary school PE teaching qualification, which means that secondary teachers and primary school ‘coaches’ had to re-align their perspective, expectations, delivery mechanisms and pedagogy to meet the needs of primary school pupils… In my experience I've found that;

QTS PE teachers typically enter the profession with:

•   Good teaching and learning skills
•   A high level of professionalism
•   Excellent structure and reporting of lessons to meet NC requirements

& to become exemplary they develop skills in:

•   Accelerating progress within lessons, ensuring excellent pace and interaction throughout
•   Imparting passion for physical development with dis-engaged pupils.
•   Progressing skills beyond NC requirements

‘Coaches’ with a range of UKCC qualifications typically enter the profession with:

•   Good teaching and learning skills
•   Ability to extend learning for gifted and talented pupils
•   A natural ability to engage learners in physical education, including those who are reluctant

To become exemplary they develop skills in:

•   Effective assessment and reporting aligned with school processes
•   Scaffolding learning to ensure all learners make excellent progress
•   Setting clear expectations for learning aligned with the school framework 

The Combination of skills required:

The key thing for sports professionals, schools, teachers and coaches to recognise is that both entry parameters to primary school physical education have their place in education. It is the acute combination of effective teaching and coaching methodologies that are required to deliver primary PE to an exemplary standard.

At J and C Academy, we have a range of PE teachers who we have professionally developed aligned to their needs. For instance, exemplary QTS teachers like Sarah Saputo and Anthony Nelson have worked in the secondary sector for several years before re-aligning their methods to meet the needs of primary pupils. 

Similarly, we have exemplary PE teachers like Samir Sawhney (See his PE Masterclass Video here) and Sean McGeeney who have several years’ experience in the primary sector and through good practice and training have developed into role model teachers.

P.S – Take a look at an example of 2 PE Teachers who helped ensure Newport School gained an Outstanding Distinction Grade from the AFPE (Association For Physical Education) Quality PE Mark.

Best regards,

Jazz Rose
Director of Education
J and C Academy
www.jandcacademy.com

J and C Academy Values: Passion - Positivity - Productivity - Performance - Progress