St Mary’s has extended its commitment to providing quality sport and exercise education for young people, through a consultancy project to develop a new Certificate and Diploma in Supporting Teaching and Learning of School Sport.
Coachwise UK, a nationally recognised organisation who provide education and learning support to a wide range of national governing bodies, awarded St Mary’s staff the contract to develop the learning and tutor resource pack for the 1st4Sport Level 3 qualification in PE and School Sport.
By 2015 all coaches working in Primary schools delivering Primary PE or School Sport will have to have, or be working towards, the Level 3 qualification in PE and School sport.
Through its Centre for Coaching, located in the School of Education, Theology and Leadership, with strong links to the School of Sport, Health and Applied Science, St Mary’s is working with Coachwise to develop these teaching resources to assist coaches and students of the Certificate. This includes writing and developing engaging resources for both the learner and tutor, linked to the 12 units within this Level 3 diploma.
What We Said
Michael Ayres, Physical and Sport Education Lecturer and leading the project on behalf of St Mary’s Centre for Coaching, said, “St Mary's University is very pleased to be involved in the development of this resource. As one of the leading educators of primary school teachers in the country, we feel that providing better quality support for the delivery of PE and school sport is crucial to the success of the government’s primary school sport initiative, and an area much in need of enhanced support."
What’s Next?
12 members of staff from various sportbased degree programmes at St Mary’s are working towards successful completion and publication of the learning resource and tutor support pack. The project will be completed in time for the Level 3 Certificate and Diploma in Supporting Teaching and Learning of School Sport to become compulsory in 2015.
Did You Know?
- The most common sports children aged 5-16 take part in outside of school are football and swimming.
- More than half of pupils in compulsory education surveyed in 2013 said they felt encouraged to take up sport more seriously after the London 2012 Olympics.
- PE and physical activity make up less than 10% of the primary school curriculum.