Schools drop the ball

Primary schools that do not take responsibility for PE teaching do the children a disservice, writes BRIAN O'CONNELL

DOES IT matter that some primary school students will not experience physical education (PE) classes with their teachers? The phenomenon of contracting out the teaching of physical education to such sports organisation as the GAA or the Football Association of Ireland has become common in schools across the country.

The Irish Sports Council, in co-operation with sports bodies and local sports partnerships, developed a national Buntús Primary Schools Initiative in recent years through which additional supports such as training, resource cards and equipment, are provided to help teachers and others introducing young people to sport, and to complement the curriculum.

Concerns are now being raised that many teachers are not getting the experience they need to maintain a confident approach to PE teaching.

This may mean that PE gets less emphasis at primary school. Studies by Dr Catherine Wood of the school of health and human performance at Dublin City University, found that on average primary school pupils get just 46 minutes of PE teaching weekly.

The habits formed in school years can have a significant impact on children’s attitude to health and fitness for the rest of their lives. Many children, though, are not learning these habits from teachers and PE times are increasingly seen as not a part of the regular school curriculum.

Dr Frances Murphy, a lecturer in physical education in St Patrick’s College in Drumconda, is one of those responsible for ensuring teachers are trained to teach PE as part of the curriculum. Surveys conducted in St Patrick’s show that one in four student teachers cite a former teacher as having the most influence on their attitudes to physical education.

“We were surprised at the research,” says Murphy. “I think we felt parents or coaches would be the strongest influences. The figures indicate that teachers are just as influential. In interviews, students told us about positive experiences they had in school and how influential that was in their attitude to health and fitness.”

While student teachers receive comprehensive training in the teaching of PE, many of them never get to put this into practice. “The way PE is being taught in many schools is a big issue for us,” Murphy says. “Outside coaches coming into schools is not the way forward really. Our philosophy is to empower teachers to teach and look for support only on an occasional basis.”

The Department of Education says that such organisations as the GAA “provide extensive opportunities for schools to participate in sport”, but that, “school sports partnerships with sporting organisations have not been formally established in the State”.

The changed economic climate may affect this relationship. During the good times, many sports organisations were well funded and could offer services to schools for relatively little cost. “This idea of bringing in outside coaching is a Celtic Tiger phenomenon,” says Murphy. “Big sporting bodies like the GAA had the money to employ full time coaches and went into schools for free. Previously, this tended only to happen in schools in affluent areas where parents paid for these specialists.”

Thirty-one-year old primary school teacher Aoife O’Donnell says teachers should be taking a more hands-on role in the subject, but that school policies often dictate otherwise.

“I’ve been teaching seven years and have taught about seven lessons in all that time. All the way along, external people have been brought into all the schools I have worked in. We are trained to do it and we should do it.”

O’Donnell says this lack of engagement with the subject affects the confidence of teachers to pick it up again. “I am at the stage now if I had to go to a new school and had to teach PE, I would really feel out of my depth as it has been so long since I have done it. I wouldn’t mind it and would enjoy doing it. Although I’m not very sporty, I get a kick out of it.”

While often it can be a positive development for schools to engage outside bodies, such as swimming clubs or cycling experts, to assist with children’s natural learning, O’Donnell warns that a generation of teachers are losing out on much hands-on experience. The knock-on effect of this is that pupils no longer see PE as part of the normal routine. This can have consequences for when they leave school.

“As my sister said recently, if children’s sporting lives were dependent on teachers, they’d be in big trouble,” O’Donnell says.