England Handball archive Issue 1 September 2013 | Page 8

8

PASS IT ON!

ONEY M
TALKS
£ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ activities, measures or impact. It £ needs to be tightly monitored by the £ £ head, the PE subject leader, the teachers and other agencies such as £ £ Ofsted and local authorities, as well as £ getting feedback from the children.’ £ Crichton insists that the coach’s initial £ training of a teacher should be just the £ £ ?rst part of a package o?ered to £ £ schools. £ Ideally, the coach should thereafter
school sport in Su?olk, stresses the importance of coaches working alongside teachers and ideally becoming embedded in the school framework: ‘The perfect scenario is that the relationship between the school and the coach is progressive. ‘The problem comes when schools bring in coaches who just make ?eeting visits. There’s no structure, progression of

T

of If the UK is to make the most into the recent injection of cash rt, then head primary school spo rk teachers and coaches must wo e som together. Mike Dale spoke to ppen. who are already making it ha

he London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games’ promise to ‘inspire a generation’ has thrown school sport into focus. In March, the government announced that £150m was to be ring-fenced to improve physical education (PE) in primary schools, from where the next generation of British Olympians and Paralympians will hopefully emerge. All English primary schools with over 17 pupils will receive £8,000 a year plus £5 per pupil for the next two years to spend on PE. Each head teacher will have complete autonomy in deciding exactly how it is spent. The funding is welcome, but it is ?nite. Learning the lessons from previous PE and schools funding, thorough assessment is vital if high-quality PE and competitive sport participation is to be created. As Baroness Sue Campbell CBE, former chair of UK Sport, said: ‘If you leave it to 18,000 head teachers to decide how to spend this money, I think some will make great choices, and many might not. ‘Each head teacher must thoroughly assess their school’s needs. Coaches and governing bodies of sport, in turn, need to tailor their expertise to those needs and deliver something sustainable.’ Michael Crichton, learning and improvement adviser for PE and

“

A continuous relationship between coach and school staff is the ideal model.

”

work alongside school sta? in

nurturing and monitoring pupils’ development, linking activities with other areas of the curriculum, such as science, literacy and numeracy, and providing extra-curricular sessions and links with local clubs. Jan Hickman, PE adviser for the London Borough of En?eld, agrees that a continuous relationship between coach and school sta? is the ideal model. ‘I’ve been waiting 30 years for this funding,’ she says eagerly. ‘It is up to all parties to forge these relationships on an individual basis. In many cases, they begin through getting involved with governing body initiatives. ‘Even if governing body coaches cannot commit to becoming quasimembers of school sta?, there are a host of schemes available that enrich schools’ curricular and extracurricular PE provision and a wider focus on enhancing pupils’ life skills.’ Handball is a sport perfectly suited to teaching fundamental sport skills – run, jump, catch and throw – to primary age children. Because it’s very much an emerging sport, it’s also a great leveller; no child starts as ‘the best’ in the class, nor indeed ‘the worst’. Without an established club infrastructure, England Handball has worked very hard to grow its sport through schools. It has a very strong