With the extension of the Primary PE & Sport Premium, Active Essex is keen to ensure that schools have appropriate support and guidance in order that they can plan and deliver the most effective and efficient School Sport offer.
Central to the objectives of the Primary & PE Sport Premium is that the use of the funding should lead to; Increased confidence, knowledge and skills of all staff in teaching PE and sport.
In line with this objective and in response to an observed deficit in Physical Education and School Sport input into some existing teacher training programmes, Active Essex initiated a training programme for School Centred Initial Teacher Trainees (SCITT).
Delivered for the third year running in 2016 this successful programme brought together four Teacher Training providers, National Governing Bodies for; Cricket, Football, Volleyball, Tennis and Netball alongside input from Create Development and our Project Ability Lead. The three day programme delivered 18 hours of training in 6 sports over 7 days to 140 Primary SCITT trainee teachers. The training weeks will be followed up later in the term with ‘twilight top ups’ allowing the attainment of NGB qualifications and the introduction of other sports.
In line with National Curriculum expectations the overriding aim of the two weeks was to teach the fundamentals of Physical Literacy through the medium of the sports presented.
The most pleasing aspect however, was the impact of the training on the teachers with; 75% of the teachers reporting that the sessions had 'very much' improved their confidence in their ability to lead sessions in PE and School Sport.