'The motivation, confidence, physical competence, understanding and knowledge to maintain physical activity at an appropriate level throughout life,' runs a definition of physical literacy in the Spring copy of Physical Education Matters. Elsewhere, on the Internet I've read of the ABC of physical literacy - agility, balance and coordination.
Having just rejoined the Association for PE, I'm a bit baffled with all the noise around Physical Literacy. Indeed a heading of 'Achieving High Quality Physical Education through Physical Literacy' seems a total tautology. Surely, physical literacy is simply the result of good PE teaching, not something to be promoted as a separate end. It reminds me of a previous scheme, dating back to the 80s and early 90s, called 'Health Focused PE'. Again, is it not self evident that the promotion of health is one of the purposes of good physical education.
For me the aims of physical education have always been very clear. Physical Education is physical, intellectual, social, emotional and moral development of individuals through engagement in structured physical activity. I wish we would stop bleating on about Physical Literacy or whichever next craze does the rounds. My experience is that much PE teaching is of no higher quality than when I joined the profession back in the early 80s. Ofsted talks about good lessons being about thinking skills, independence, collaboration and leadership but these are often not promoted in a structured and effective way in the PE that I see. In fact, in recent training courses that I have led, some delegates have not been aware of different thinking skills and how their teaching styles impact on their development.
Perhaps if we spent less time debating key strands, 'games sense', 'health focus' and 'physical literacy' but rather concentrated on promoting good quality teaching and learning we would actually achieve more.
Another great worry of mine is that in some schools the only PE that exists at KS4 is accredited courses. If pupils do not want to do GCSE they are forced into B Tech. I've seen hoards of bored students sitting at computers completing assignments just to get themselves and their school a few more points on the league table. To me this a is a million miles away from PE as I understand it. PE is about physical activity - let's get back to basics and get them active!
