Physical Education and Sports - Literature review Example

Physical Education and Sports Name of Student Student Number Institution Course Code Name of Lecturer Submission Date Physical Education and Sports Introduction The current government policy and strategies on physical education and school games has brought about great impact as far as PE curriculum and sport in the country is concerned. The improvements within the PE curriculum is trickling down to the community with the change for life clubs enhancing community sports with the concept of PE curriculum taught in schools. This report evaluates the new sport strategy and its impact upon the roles of PE teachers and coaches within schools. The new youth sport strategy will be evaluated on the basis of building a lasting legacy for competitive sports in school, improving links between schools and community sports clubs and investing in facilities. Sports development is important and highly sought after in regard to objectives like talent growth and health improvement, practices like sport specific technical skills, and eventually practitioners in regards to career development officers, coaches among others (Department for Education 2013). The new sports strategy involves the government initiative for youth sports to be enhanced through ‘change4life’ and ‘school games’ initiatives and improve on the achievements realised with School Sports Partnerships (SSP) programmes. The culture of SSP will be improved with school games competition and also corroborations with community clubs to ensure easier transition of sporting life after school life into community sporting. The success of youth sports initiative is underpinned in the aim of using the power of sport to change the lives of youths towards a positive trend of health and lifestyle. Further, the PE curriculum will enhance active lives even after schools through community sport clubs that have been linked to every schools within given area. Physical Education (PE) and sports in school constitute a key aspect in the curricular and co-curricular activities within UK. With this new youth sport strategy, there is a greater projection for more improvements in respect to prior policies and strategies laid down pertaining to physical education. Current Government Policy and Strategies on Physical Education and School Sport The current government policy of creating a sporting habit for life is very timely and targets the young people who will carry on the culture of leading active lifestyles to the future generations. Physical education is crucial in nurturing psychosocial development and creates opportunities to enhance interpersonal relationships, self-esteem and personal growth (Grout and Long 2009). Thus, enhancing and promoting the learning of PE through provision of materials, equipment and capacity building is a way forward towards promoting a sporting culture within a society from an early age. Change4Life: With the contribution of PE in schools making pupils active due to curriculum requirements, as well as following rules and regulations, it is evident that many lead inactive lives after school. Change for life is a strategy that aims at enhancing sporting activities among youths beyond their school life (DCMS 2012). The strategy has resulted to introduction of clubs that promote alternative school sports to enhance inactive youths to participate in active lifestyles. Further, the corroborative sports with schools will create a culture of transition from school sport into community sport. The major aim is geared towards ensuring a habit of regular participation, responding to children desires and creating a sense of belonging (DCMS 2012). Through ensuring a physically active young generation, the country is assured of a vibrant community that will lead an active life by increasing their time participation per week in physical activities (Kirk 2010). The new strategy targets building a lasting legacy of competitive sport in schools through ensuring continuous PE and increasing the number of hours per week of which pupils engage in physical activities (Phillpots 2012). Further, links between the schools and community sports, clubs and youth groups will be enhanced. This will not only promote sport among the community but also enhance harmony and integration among pupils and the community (Lindsey 2010). The strategy also seeks to work with the sport’s governing bodies that focus on youths while at the same time investing in facilities. This will ensure that youths are catered for and reached out to participate actively in physical activities. The provision of equipment will greatly boost the participation of many young people who fail to participate in their desired sport for lack of facilities, equipment and materials to engage in games (DCMS 2012). Finally, communities and the voluntary sector also have a great role in ensuring a sporting habit for life. The sport strategy undertaken aims at enhancing consistency of the number of youths making sport part of their lifestyle. The Sport England aims at investing more than £1 billion of lottery and exchequer funding to enable young people to play sports regularly and solve the challenges that have hindered people for ages to develop interest in sport to their adult lives (Department for Education 2013). The British government is keen towards enhancing the youth sport in the recent years in respect to supporting physical education and school sport both financially, laying out policies and strategies and monitoring the implementation. School Games: the introduction of competitive school games will enhance greater participation in terms of games played and standard of competition. The morale of embracing and participating in school games is expected to be raised a notch higher with the new sport strategy (Armour 2011). Schools games ensure a unique chance to bring up motivation and consequently inspire millions of youths to take competitive sports keenly. The new government policy for sports singles itself out clearly with respect to ensuring it targets the young people by providing sport materials, equipment, as well as funding to ensure effective implementation of the strategies laid out. Corroboration programmes with other schools and the community at large has been entrenched in the strategies to ensure that the aspect of sports is permeated to all in the same measure (Department for Education 2013). Thus, this policy is highly viable and will surpass the achievements or realise what the previous strategies failed to achieve. Physical education came into focus with its eventual recognition in the National curriculum and is clearly entrenched in the Education reform act (1988) among the foundational subjects. This strategy seeks to promote sports beyond the target of PE lessons within the curriculum. The national curriculum ensures that PE remains one of the five subjects to be taught to pupils of all abilities and capacities in the course of their schooling (DCMS 2012). The aspect of physical education has developed progressively amid the challenges to realise its potential since inception with the ‘raising the game’ strategy following the Education reform act in 1995. In 2002, the ‘Gamer Plan was introduced with the aim of ensuring a sporting future for all, and culminated with the introduction of the PESSCL strategy which entailed the School Sport Partnerships (Kirk 2010; DCMS 2002). The great event of London Olympics Games brought profound impact to the UK’s sport and a lasting legacy was initiated to permeate the experience gained. The two aspects of Change4Life and School Games has impacted upon sport partnerships by promoting games among the friend schools in a given groups and with the society (DCMS 2012). This is by improving the levels of corroboration, availing relevant facilities, opening inactive game arenas and availing funding from the government. According to Allender, Cowburn and Foster (2006), the UK government has always targeted increasing the population percentage that is reasonably active in terms of duration set aside for moderate exercise by 2020. The percentage target is 70% which is way below the 37% and 24% for men and women respectively that is quoted by statistics currently. With such an ambitious target, the youth sports strategy undertaken currently will ensure that the future generation grows in a culture of embracing sports and physical exercises (Sport England 2009). Sport England aims at increasing the number of people who participate in sport and consequently make their lives better in its current sport strategy (DCMS 2012). This strategy targets the groups of 14-25 year olds, as well as the disabled persons to participate in sports through enhancing participation at least once a week. Through this strategy, enhancing the quality of life through culture and sporting activities is imperative, as well as support pursuit of excellence (Department for Education 2013). Further, through sport and physical activities, tourism will be championed, as well as enhance creative and leisure industries in the context. The Impact of the New Youth Sport Strategy to the Role of the PE Teacher in School Sport The introduction of the new youth sport strategy has impacted greatly upon the teachers in respect to improving levels and standards of sports. The funding and facilities availed has made it possible for the teachers to focus upon enhancing the sports participation among pupils and teach practices with a context of being useful even in life after school. The teacher has the major role of laying out the physical education outline and formalise its implementation (Armour 2011). The new sport strategy aims at working with sports like Football, Rugby, swimming, Cricket and Tennis meaning that the work of teaching PE will involve incorporating various sporting activities perceived critical within the strategies. This will promote learning among all as every individual will have a game of their interest being addressed. Through the new policy, 6000 partnerships of schools and local clubs will be created by 2017 (DCMS 2012). This directly impacts upon the role of the teacher in the context that they have to make arrangement with the clubs and community, thus their effect is felt. This will promote sporting among young people even after completing school as they will have clubs they can identify themselves with effectively. School games will be monitored by teachers, thus creating a unique chance to motivate millions of young people in the country. This makes PE teachers part and parcel of the stakeholder of motivating a sporting culture for life. Physical education teachers are critical in the implementation and realisation of a successful policy implementation (DCMS 2002). Thus, teachers are core partners towards the realisation of this strategy to fruition and realising tangible results in enhancing sports among the youths in their future lives. The new sports strategy improves the participation of PE teachers in the context of increased duration set out for sports within the schooling timelines and during the free times (DCMS 2012). The necessity for implementing and developing broader range of skills, learning how to utilise wide range of opportunities in sports and physical activities among teacher is critical and highly enhanced by this new sports strategy. Further, with the need for more participation in competitive sports, the teachers are faced with more responsibilities of preparing their students for the same. Change4Life strategy keeps the PE teaching assistants on toes with the requirements of the government as stipulated in the new strategic policy (DCMS 2012). Consequently, the role of keeping records among PE teachers finds relevance and more insights with school games as there is need to monitor progress of participants and choose the best for competitive sports. This is in respect to ensuring that the given institutions or groups excel in the participation (Ofsted 2011). PE teachers are very effective in ensuring that extra-curricular activities and school sports programs run effectively. They take a lead role through providing coaching sessions or by coordinating the progress of the programs (Kirk 2010). The new youth sport strategy will ensure that teachers are well equipped to offer high level support to the schools in teaching physical education. The teachers will also be required to be in constant consultation with sporting officials and curriculum development offices, as well as sport coaches to come up with the best ways possible of implementing the strategies (Sports England 2009). In context, the work of teachers is enhanced in regard to their scope coverage, as far as PE is concerned and also their indulgence with competitive sports within the school and community sporting. Physical education teachers also have a role in promoting community activities (Stafford 2008). This is well supported by the policy and thus, cooperation with the community will be improved. Activities like organised recreational sports, dance classes, martial arts and gymnastics are activities that can be promoted within a community setting to enhance physical activity (Lindsey 2010). The introduction of the new sport strategy enhances sporting activities through various programmes as. The impact may appear pleasant or not to the teachers, but all aspects work towards ensuring a sporting future for all and improve participation in active lifestyle. The Impact of the New Youth Sport Strategy to the Role of the Coach in School Sport The new strategy of sports impacts directly upon the roles of the coach in respect to capacity and intervention purposes. The coaching process is now more vibrant, focussed and more youths have gained interest to learn professional games. According to DCMS (2012), NGBS will liaise with local partners to create satellite clubs to be run by caches and volunteers and be linked with existing clubs in a community. This promotes the work of the coach to higher level of national promotion of sports in partnership with education sectors. This in turn elevates not only the work of the coach, but also the number of people embracing lifelong active lives. The funding strategy works effectively towards ensuring that sporting levels and standards are raised to achieve higher results than before (DCMS 2012). The new measures will create employment for more coaches to man the satellite clubs in the community and also enhancement of assessment measures to ensure the government receive the value of its money (Phillpots 2012). The new sports strategy promotes the outsourcing of competent and professional coaches. The level of expertise among the coaches will be assessed and thus experienced and professional coaches will increase. The coach is ensured of a comprehensive and equipped programme to roll out physical practice among the youth and create a sporting culture (DCMS 2012). This greatly enhances the work of the coach and the impact on the outcome expected should be profound. The coach work will not only impact on his work, but also upon the skills acquired by the youths. With committed coaches and volunteers aimed at perfecting their groups to acquire more funding, there is greater hope of achieving competent and serious sporting young men for sport4life strategy to be realised. The youth sport strategy will greatly impact on the role of the coach in the sense that equipment, materials and funding will be availed to promote games and physical activity among the youths (Phillpots 2012). This raises the level of participation and coaching professionally. Physical education has a role to play in the laying of firm foundations towards good pupil’s physical health and an active lifelong lifestyle. It has been argued for long that physical activities promote health through keeping the body fit and healthy (Allender, Cowburn and Foster 2006). This new sports culture will promote the work of coaches towards ensuring good health and well-being of human beings is enhanced through physical activities. There is need for coaches in school sports to implement an actual game programme and promote professionalism in the physical activities carried out in school (Stafford 2008). This is crucial in helping the students appreciate and embrace the practices as part of their lives. Coaches have a role with respect corroboration of schools and communities through competitive games; this will be enhanced via students being prepared professionally for competitive games (Stidder and Hayes 2012). In so doing, this forms a way of promoting cohesion and integration within the community settings and strengthens the skills of pupils in school and monitors their progress (North 2007). The new strategy also creates a channel of promoting non-profiting making groups to seek for funding to promoting sports. This creates a channel for upcoming coaches who are not employed to promote sports and physical education. The strategy on sport4life will impact the role of a coach in respect to incorporating and enhancing special sporting needs among special education students (DCMS 2012). Coaches are trained to handle and attend to the needs of special education students, thus easing the work of coaching such students. Physical education coaches take the lead role of coaching and coordinating school sports programs which can only be handled by physical education assistants (Ofsted 2011). Further, they ensure overall school safety via supervision of sport activities, ensuring equipment for use are in the right working condition and supervise groups to ensure discipline and following of school rules to the latter (North 2007). The youth sport policy will enhance participation as the government’s promotion of sports for life acts as an encouragement of its contribution towards promoting physical activity. The new youth sport strategy will effectively enhance the work of coaches and consequently improve on the implementation of the 'playing 4 life philosophy.’ In context, the proceeds of coaching are expected to trickle down to the society from coaching students in schools through the prevailing curriculum. With 6000 clubs constituting of 2000 in Football, 1250 in Cricket, 1300 Rugby Union, 1000 in Rugby League and 1000 in Tennis being linked to secondary schools (DCMS 2012); competent coaches will be required and hence creating opportunities among the coaching profession. The strategy inculcates ambitious objectives to ensure that sports bring up elevated participation in both the young and old. The motivation of funding and awarding the winning groups will ensure the competitive sports promote a sporting culture impacting greatly upon the work of the coaches (Department for Education 2013). Every coach will have to work hard to ensure their sporting groups remain active and relevant to continue getting consistent funding by the authorities. Conclusion The current government’s youth sport strategy is critical in respect to raising the percentage of people participating in active physical activities per week. The new sport strategy has impacted greatly by creating a link of school sport to the community sporting through change for life clubs. The school games competitions has also played a critical role in promoting sports by enhancing morale which has also been made vibrant by the funding and lottery offers for the best teams and clubs. These have promoted sport with facilities being availed and inactive game arenas being reopened. The realisation of regular physical activity among youths will provide numerous health benefits ranging from leaner bodies, reduced lifestyle diseases to enhanced mental health and cognitive functioning (DCMS 2012). School sports and PE are connected to improved student’s performance due to enhanced concentration, memory, and improved behaviours. Therefore, the strategy by government is aimed at benefiting the entire country as investment in the sport will reduce expenses incurred treating various lifestyle ailments within the health care facilities. Concentrating on school PE will promote physical activity to the young people through imparting life skills to enhance their physical activity life, and consequently create a way of behaviour change within the society (Phillpots 2012). The inclusion of competitive sports programme within the school curriculum is of great importance and enhances education value. Students acquire not only knowledge but also skills to engage in physical activities. Physical education contributes equally to the welfare of the students just like any other subject within the National Curriculum. The fact that the government is funding the programs to promote youth sport and create a sporting lifestyle is a major boost for the realisation of a sporting society. Reference List Allender, S., Cowburn, G. and Foster, C., 2006. Understanding Participation in Sport and Physical Activity among Children and Adults: A Review of Qualitative Studies. Health Education Research. 21(6): 826-835. Armour, K., 2011. Sport Pedagogy: An Introduction for Teaching and Coaching. London: Prentice Hall. DCMS, 2002. Game Plan: A Strategy for Delivering Government’s Sport and Physical Activity Objectives. London: Crown Copyright. Department for Culture, Media and Sports (DCMS), 2012. Creating a Sporting Habit for Life: A New Youth Sport Strategy. London: Crown Copyright. Department for Education, 2013. Evidence on Physical Education and Sport in Schools: Key Findings. London: Crown Copyright. Accessed online, December 16, 2013, from . Education Reform Act 1988, 1989. Chapter 40. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. Grout, H. and Long, G., 2009. Improving Teaching and Learning in Physical Education. London: Open University. Kirk, D., 2010. The Practice of Physical Education and the Social Construction of Aims, In R. Bailey (Ed.). Physical Education for Learning: A Guide for Secondary Schools. London: Routledge. 15-25. Lindsey, I., 2010. Collaboration in Local Sport Services in England: Issues Smerging from Two Local Authority Areas. International Journal of Sport Policy. Vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 71-88. North, J., 2007. Increasing Participation in Sport: The Role of the Coach. Paper Prepared for UK Sports Coach. Phillpots, L., 2012. An Analysis of the Policy Process for Physical Education and School Sport: The Rise and Demise of School Sport Partnerships. International Journal Of Sport Policy and Politics, pp. 1-19, doi: 10. 1080/19406940.2012.666558. Stafford, I., 2008. Coaching Children in Sport. London: Routledge. Ofsted, 2011. School Sports Partnerships: A Survey of Good Practice. Manchester: Crown Copyright. Stidder, G. and Hayes, S., 2012. Equity and Inclusion in Physical Education and Sport. London: Routledge. Sport England, 2009. The PE and Sport Strategy for Young People: A Guide to Delivering the Five Hour Offer. London: Sport England Read More

Thus, enhancing and promoting the learning of PE through provision of materials, equipment and capacity building is a way forward towards promoting a sporting culture within a society from an early age. Change4Life: With the contribution of PE in schools making pupils active due to curriculum requirements, as well as following rules and regulations, it is evident that many lead inactive lives after school. Change for life is a strategy that aims at enhancing sporting activities among youths beyond their school life (DCMS 2012).

The strategy has resulted to introduction of clubs that promote alternative school sports to enhance inactive youths to participate in active lifestyles. Further, the corroborative sports with schools will create a culture of transition from school sport into community sport. The major aim is geared towards ensuring a habit of regular participation, responding to children desires and creating a sense of belonging (DCMS 2012). Through ensuring a physically active young generation, the country is assured of a vibrant community that will lead an active life by increasing their time participation per week in physical activities (Kirk 2010).

The new strategy targets building a lasting legacy of competitive sport in schools through ensuring continuous PE and increasing the number of hours per week of which pupils engage in physical activities (Phillpots 2012). Further, links between the schools and community sports, clubs and youth groups will be enhanced. This will not only promote sport among the community but also enhance harmony and integration among pupils and the community (Lindsey 2010). The strategy also seeks to work with the sport’s governing bodies that focus on youths while at the same time investing in facilities.

This will ensure that youths are catered for and reached out to participate actively in physical activities. The provision of equipment will greatly boost the participation of many young people who fail to participate in their desired sport for lack of facilities, equipment and materials to engage in games (DCMS 2012). Finally, communities and the voluntary sector also have a great role in ensuring a sporting habit for life. The sport strategy undertaken aims at enhancing consistency of the number of youths making sport part of their lifestyle.

The Sport England aims at investing more than £1 billion of lottery and exchequer funding to enable young people to play sports regularly and solve the challenges that have hindered people for ages to develop interest in sport to their adult lives (Department for Education 2013). The British government is keen towards enhancing the youth sport in the recent years in respect to supporting physical education and school sport both financially, laying out policies and strategies and monitoring the implementation.

School Games: the introduction of competitive school games will enhance greater participation in terms of games played and standard of competition. The morale of embracing and participating in school games is expected to be raised a notch higher with the new sport strategy (Armour 2011). Schools games ensure a unique chance to bring up motivation and consequently inspire millions of youths to take competitive sports keenly. The new government policy for sports singles itself out clearly with respect to ensuring it targets the young people by providing sport materials, equipment, as well as funding to ensure effective implementation of the strategies laid out.

Corroboration programmes with other schools and the community at large has been entrenched in the strategies to ensure that the aspect of sports is permeated to all in the same measure (Department for Education 2013). Thus, this policy is highly viable and will surpass the achievements or realise what the previous strategies failed to achieve. Physical education came into focus with its eventual recognition in the National curriculum and is clearly entrenched in the Education reform act (1988) among the foundational subjects.

Read More