Last Friday I had a meeting with the Junior and Senior School Directors of Sport at North London Collegiate School in Edgeware, North London. Expanding on my fitness program for schools, in this meeting I had a ‘penny drop’ moment. I was explaining why some primary schools embed this program – love everything about it – and then stop using it after a period of two or three years. These schools often discontinue this program as they become alerted to a new ‘top down’ directive to focus their attention and sports premium funding upon.
This is a question of vision. So long as the PE vision in a primary school (or any school for that matter) is driven by discrete, beyond school thinking, it will largely misfire in terms of outcomes for every child. With a connected vision, there is less indecision. Change is a good thing – but the wheel has already been invented, and it works well.
North London Collegiate School, most independent junior schools and some state primary schools adopt a different approach. They own a level of subject expertise and commitment which enables a clear and sustainable vision to be created and shaped from within. This vision will draw together the wide-ranging components of this subject to ensure every child works deliberately and consistently. This way, more children make more tangible and lasting progress, and ultimately excel.
We must join up our thinking.
The curriculum; co-curricular clubs; competitions & fixtures; community links; wider active school initiatives; recruitment, training & development of staff; facilities & equipment; monitoring, recording & reporting; and leadership & vision must work together in unison.
