The focus for the 2024 Physical Education conference was about the legacy that well taught Physical Education can create for young people.

High quality PE helps our children to acquire skills and behaviours they need to do the jobs that don’t yet exist and solve the problems that face our world.

This conference provided an opportunity to challenge teachers to consider how they can best embed "Education" into PE whilst encouraging pupils to re-focus on having a healthy body and a healthy mind.

Workshops

We are really excited that this conference engaged both primary and secondary colleagues in the same space, in a range of practical and 'classroom' workshops.

These ranged from discussions about subjects as wide-ranging as 'Healthy Schools, 'Mental Health', 'Inclusive PE', 'Learning outside the classroom', 'Physical Activity as a behaviour management tool', to practical workshops such as 'Bringing Water-Safety to life', 'Cost effective OAA' 'Yoga', 'Games-making', 'Dance for reluctant dancers', EYFS, Physical Active Learning, 'Speed-stacking', 'Boxercise', 'Gymnastics', 'Korfball', 'Cheerleading' and 'Table-Tennis'.

Feedback and Evaluations

All delegates provided a score between 1 & 6 as a response to each question

Question 1 - 'Was the content of the conference relevant to your professional development needs?' - Average score was 5.3

Question 2 - 'The time allocated to workshops and breakout groups work' - Average score was 5.4

Question 3 - 'How would you rate the quality of the key note speaker's presentation?' - Average score was 5.3

Question 4 - 'How would you rate Breakout workshop 1 for quality of content, engagement & discussion?' - Average score was 4.7

Question 5 - 'How would you rate Practical workshop 1 for quality of content, engagement & discussion?' - Average score was 5.7

Question 6 - 'How would you rate Practical workshop 2 for quality of content, engagement & discussion?' - Average score was 5.5

Question 7 - 'How would you rate the overall organisation of the conference?' - Average score was 5.7

Question 8 - 'Was the conference venue appropriate for the event?' - Average score was 5.8

Question 9 ' 'What 'take homes' have you gained from the conference that you think you will be able to put into practice?'

Nice to network with secondary and primary

Keep kids moving!

I’ve got some great resources and links to resources that can help me implement things in school. Love the ideas from Tagtivate.

Gymnastics fundamentals

Different way to implement our behaviour policy so children understand. Simple street dance moves and some calming yoga techniques

Some of the Hidden disabilities workshop points raised are very useful - Bryn's tagtiv8 session on active learning was excellent and something I will push to SLT.

Practical ways to use active learning in curriculum areas other than PE

The active learning ideas for maths and literacy was amazing and so simple . Gymnastics reminded me to go back to fundamentals

Lots more ideas for getting children active throughout the school day

Some great tips re gymnastics and some good OAA ideas.

Behaviour ideas with sports, movement in lessons across curriculum, korfball understanding and boxecise ideas

Lots of practical and easy to set up/lead OAA activities. Also, ideas on how children can adapt given games and create their own.

Embedding physical literacy throughout the day

Lots around active learning. Tips for alternatives to 'just dance'.

Some places to find resources and support for our school curriculum

Networking - speaking to other members of staff from other schools.

How to introduce active learning to maths as well as a range of other subjects and how to effectively deliver aspects of gymnastics to Primary school aged children

The gymnastics session was excellent - allowed clear take homes. Great talk from Max. Yoga was well planned, relative and allowed transferable skills into my teaching.

The dance workshop was excellent and I can take away key points and adapt across dance themes and year groups now.

Table tennis session was useful with direct 'take homes' to feedback to department.

Ideas to support strategic development of our PE provision - Active Learning strategies and use of Tagtiv8, alongside high quality Gymnastics provision.

Motivation

Gymnastics techniques for children

Including movement in all sessions.

Lots of strategies and ideas that can be put into place immediately, and lots of key ideas to think about over the long term. Feeling motivated to put lots of action in place! Stand out thoughts: make sure to be teaching basic shapes in gymnastics and develop movements from there; should brain breaks be called such when really they activate our brains?; how can learning be active, when can children move in Maths, English, etc...

Loved the practical ideas for making learning more active.

I found the whole conference extremely helpful. I have been looking at kite marks and awards for PE but as we are an infant school we are unable to gain any from the School Games. It was therefore, extremely helpful to attend the first work shop around Everyone Healthy and they were able to answer lots of my questions regarding this. The other two workshops offered lots of practical information that I can take back to school. It was also of great help to have the stalls and companies there to talk to face to face.

Lots of small ideas to take away and into lesson. Eg using some of the tips learnt in the Yoga session as well as STEPS framework for inclusive PE. A big take away is making learning active and this will be on our action plan for next year as we start to make changes towards this.

Contacts to develop the activities further. Ideas to get started

games making very productive and good for all students to succeed, cheerleading,

a clear understanding of swimming safe rescue expectations/criteria, inspiration for teaching outdoor adventure activities

Ideas to incorporate movement into maths lessons

Confidence in delivering Yoga, mental health strategies and reflection time, supporting EYFS with bringing PE tasks into the

Bring Yoga into daily practise. Active movement into maths etc.

Spending less time sat at a desk and using movement to support learning.

Further embedding the role of promoting physical activity as a 'whole school' approach not just the responsibility of key personnel in school.

New ideas/ suggestions for current curriculum lessons. Ideas for potential future sports/ activities on the curriculum.

Gymnastics techniques

So many, encourage all staff to include more moving in sessions and confidence in teaching gymnastics

Ideas for pupils to lead games ideas and develop their collaboration and leadership skills.

Ways of linking maths into PE lessons, ways of keeping kids active and engaged

Try to increase our movement through learning during class time- Bryns talk

Activity within curriculum lessons, continued to build on a range of Boxercise activities, knowledge and understanding of table tennis, ideas for supporting pupils with asd

swim safety, SEN inclusion, ways to use boxercise

The 7 strengths pupils should gain from PE at school. The importance of movement for learning/concentration and to use it within lessons/transition times. The enjoyment of speed stacking and its versatility: can adapt activities for both primary key stages; can be used indoor/outside at lunchtimes/lesson times; help children who do not engage with standard games/sports; opportunity to improve your performance both individually and as part of a team; refocus certain children who lack concentration at times et . I like the inclusivity of Korfball and feel I can adapt the resources we have to play the game. It will help those girls, for example, at our school who are put off by competing with the boys for fear of failure whereas in this sport they will be marking girls.

Gymnastic techniques and how to get children moving within the classroom as movement breaks

Swimming activities to maximise time in the water, orienteering ideas, NHS health check for staff

Ryan’s session on games making was really interesting, highlighting how PE can be use to promote empathy while engaging students in physical activity

We are now in the process of organising training for the boxercise so that we can teach in school.