Skip to main content

Blog

Moments of Meaning in Sport

Posted Friday, 5 December 2014

I t is extraordinary how sticky the memories of sporting moments can be. Middle aged adults who can't remember what happened the week before, or the names of people that they met yesterday, can recall with the utmost clarity the details of sporting encounters of thirty years previously. Particular occasions...

BOOK REVIEW: In These Girls, Hope Is A Muscle

Posted Friday, 21 November 2014

by Madeleine Blais This is the true story of an American high school girls' Basketball team. It charts the tale of how the team recovers from a defeat in a regional final the previous season, and tells the story of the the following season, in which they become Massachusetts state...

Teaching Persistence Through Sports

Posted Friday, 21 November 2014

Would you like your pupils to have greater persistence? Would your parents like their children to learn determination at school? These are uncontroversial questions. Persistence (or "Grit" as American psychologist Angela Lee Duckworth calls it) is a predictor of future high achievement. More reliable as such than either IQ or...

What is a 'Great Game'?

Posted Friday, 21 November 2014

Every week, teachers and coaches enquire of their colleagues, "How was your game?" The response they get says a lot about the culture of sport in a school. If the answer is always numbers first, then the primacy of competitive success is clear. However, what if the response is, "We...

The Value of Organised Physical Learning in the EYFS

Posted Thursday, 6 November 2014

Introduction I would like to propose a fairly controversial approach to one aspect of physical development within the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). Given the need for a seamless transition into Key Stage One made apparent in the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile Handbook (Standards and Testing Agency 2014), it...

BOOK REVIEW: Tackling Rugby

Posted Thursday, 6 November 2014

What Every Parent Should Know About Rugby Injuries by Allyson Pollock This is a book by a professor of public health about the risk to children of playing rugby in schools. Its basic premise is that the likelihood of injury to children has been insufficiently measured by those responsible for...