Overview

Charleston Community Schools Grouping

Provide more choice and more activity

The starting point was to consult with the pupils to find out what they wanted to do. This was done via a questionnaire completed by all S1-S4 pupils (see PDF file).

The responses were evaluated and new activities were sourced and taken forward. This included sub aqua, dodgeball, gymnastics club, dance, tennis, squash, flag football and golf.

The Active Schools Co-ordinator was involved in discussing the active schools programme of activities, and the planning of festivals/events based on the curricular experiences of the pupils.

Only some the activities could be delivered by the PE staff so they facilitated the requests through making links to the local sports centre, golf club, tennis and squash clubs, utilising their facilities and staff to provide a fuller range of activities. The PE department also worked in partnership with coaches and dancers to enhance the PE curriculum and finally they offered a range of new extra-curricular clubs.

Examples of this include dance, which was offered to S3 girls and was supplemented with an after-school club for S1-S4 girls. There was also the dodgeball out-of-hours club offered with over 100 boys and girls attending on a regular basis.

The department also developed a noticeboard highlighting the pathways from curricular to extra-curricular and community club provision of activities. This included times and contacts. An example is flag football, which has also been offered to pupils. A flag club is part of the after-schools programme and for those who wish to be more fully involved in competitive American football there is a pathway to the local club.

There was also funding released to some of the community clubs to provide training and coaching qualifications to enhance the pupils' experiences when they attended the clubs.

Fortrose Academy and Nairn Academy Community Schools Grouping

More teachers and more time for PE

In both the Fortrose and Nairn pilots a specialist PE teacher was employed to develop the secondary-based, primary-focused model for PE. This necessitated a new job description being written for the PE specialist. 

The teachers who were employed in the pilots were line managed by the principal teacher of PE in the secondary school and were fully involved in developing a programme of activities that would make up a 3-18 PE programme. There was a degree of flexibility at times that allowed the primary specialist to work in the secondary and some of the secondary staff to work in the primary.

Normally, the primary PE specialist teachers led the lessons in primary schools with the class teacher in a support role. The class teacher then followed up the lesson or repeated the content of the lesson that had been previously taught. This model provided excellent CPD for staff in primary schools. It also encouraged more time and better quality PE for the children because of the increased skills, enthusiasm and confidence of classroom teachers. One afternoon a week the specialist teacher met with secondary colleagues to compare the course content and learning experiences to that of the secondary school.