Strengthening ‘the foundations’ of the primary school curriculum

ABSTRACT

The low status of the foundation subjects (e.g. Music and Physical Education (PE)) in English primary schools is well documented. Using PE as an illustrative example, a thematic analysis of 51 PE trainee students’ assignments, based on their perceptions of a two-week experience in a primary school, highlighted a number of areas of concern (e.g. limited/inadequate preparation; insufficient teacher knowledge/confidence; variable/limited subject leadership and non-qualified teachers delivering the curriculum). The possibility of teachers, coaches and other external specialists learning collaboratively with and from each other within a community of practice/learning is proposed as one way of strengthening the foundation subjects within the primary school curriculum.

KEYWORDS:

• Foundation subjects
• teacher learning
• CPD
• communities of practice/learning
• physical education
• primary education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 As part of the PE and Sport Strategy for Young People, coaching grants of £21,500 per year were paid directly to School Sport Partnerships with the aim of improving the quality and quantity of coaching offered to young people.

2 The School Sports Partnerships were introduced as part of the Physical Education, School Sport and Club Links (PESSCL) strategy in 2002. As part of this PLTs were appointed in primary schools and School Sport Coordinators in secondary schools to support the strategy, the overall aim of which was to increase the quantity and quality of PE and school sport provision for young people in UK schools. PLTs were normally qualified primary school teachers.

3 The National PE-CPD strategy was one strand of the PESSCL strategy (outlined earlier).