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“The Social Animal” by David Brooks

Posted Tuesday, 1 December 2020

In this illuminating and compelling book, David Brooks weaves a vast array of new research into the lives of two fictional characters, Harold and Erica, following them from infancy to old age. In doing so, he reveals a fundamental new understanding of human nature. Most success stories are explained at...

The Growth of High Performance in School Sport

Posted Friday, 27 November 2020

Twenty years ago it was all very different. Schools had specialist, qualified, PE teachers, who were expected to operate all dimensions of the sports programme. A major part of the role of such teachers was to prepare teams for inter-school sport. In boys’ schools (many of which became co-educational about...

Will the Experience of Covid Change School PE?

Posted Friday, 20 November 2020

In a time of unprecedented turbulence, and social change, little is unimpacted. Physical Education in schools is no exception. Many schools, and teachers, are critically evaluating the place and purpose of this as a compulsory experience for all pupils within the timetable. One reason is undoubtedly the absence of the...

'The Best: How Elite Athletes are Made' by Mark Williams and Tim Wigmore

Posted Wednesday, 18 November 2020

This book is an unlikely alliance between a sports scientist and a journalist. It aims to provide an explanation of various factors surrounding high performance in sport, and combines research evidence and anecdotes to do this. This is sometimes an uneasy combination, but for the most part it packages science...

Choice and Compulsion in School Sport

Posted Friday, 13 November 2020

There is an historic assumption in pretty much all schools that pupils should play culturally significant games. That range of sports is relatively small, and the rationale is largely invisible. When pushed, the sector produces a range of reasons, some more substantial than others, why team games enjoy undisputed primacy...

What’s Next for Extra Curricular Sport?

Posted Friday, 6 November 2020

It’s been a game of snakes and ladders for school sport over the last 8 months, and there is no suggestion that it will be ending any time soon. The latest throw of the dice relates to activities during lockdown. Friday’s confirmation from the DfE that sport could continue in...