We are currently running this conference at Millfield School in Somerset. To book a place on the course, click here or call 0208 863 0304
The day is aimed at supporting Primary School PE with the focus on competition in schools. Delegates will have the opportunity to access fun practical activities and strategies to prepare children positively for lifelong participation and competition.
Using our new Learn to Compete, Compete to Learn programme, this day conference held in conjunction with Somerset Activity and Sports Partnership aims to ensure that every child and young person learns how to compete and develop the key skills associated with competition.
‘Learn to Compete, Compete to Learn’ provides a simple but innovative way to promote and embed “healthy competition” in all young people. It provides fun, practical solutions to teaching the building blocks of competition, ensuring all young people are equipped with the skills to compete positively. It outlines a fresh new way to approach the teaching of competition whilst supporting you to provide every child and young person with a fun, fair and positive environment in which to learn to compete in sport and life.
‘Learn to Compete, Compete to Learn’ will challenge your perceptions around competition. It explores how to use competition effectively as a fantastic vehicle to include, challenge and support every child and young person and will provide you with a groundbreaking resource to support you in your delivery.
“Loved it! I learnt a lot about personalising and running competitions that are inclusive and are personally and socially challenging.”
Dominique Briggs, Primary PE coordinator, Holy Trinity C of E School.
Learn to Compete
‘Learn to Compete’ includes 12 skill based activities that enable every child and young person to access competition in different ways according to their needs. Although they are very much stand-alone activities, each one is aligned with one of the Stations from our ‘FUNS for everyone’ programme, providing further opportunities for you to develop the Fundamental Movement Skills – Balance, Coordination and Agility – in your children and young people.
‘Learn to Compete’ uses our brand new Competition Spectrum to explore how to truly personalise competition for children and young people, shifting responsibility to them and giving them choices about how they compete. Whether in a skills festival, skills section of a lesson or coaching session, the Spectrum allows each young person to choose how they “compete” in order to improve.
In addition, the Competition Spectrum enables teachers and coaches to isolate different ways to compete, exploring and supporting young people to acquire a menu of competition strategies.
The Competition Spectrum
Children and young people compete in different ways at different times. The Competition Spectrum acknowledges this and can assist practitioners to cater for individual needs and/or isolate aspects of competition to challenge young people further.
It has options for:
- Competing against oneself, without an opponent, with the sole aim to improve
- Indirect competition against an opponent without affecting their performance
- Direct competition against an opponent with varying degrees of social and physical interaction
Delivered effectively, it shifts responsibility and sees learning and development as success, with winning and losing part of competition’s ability to support this.
The Competition Spectrum shows the broad range of competitive opportunities that young people can choose to explore and be supported to develop.
“The Competition Spectrum allows for ALL young people to compete without conflict… it has become an extremely useful teaching tool…”
Alison Totill, Head of PE, New Bridge School.
Compete to Learn
‘Compete to Learn’ includes 12 fun, competitive games that can help every child and young person develop a healthy and positive approach to competition.
Drawing on the multi-ability* approach outlined in our ‘Raising the Bar’ and ‘ACCELERATING Abilities’ programmes and resources, each innovative game draws out the Personal or Social skills that are key to competing in a positive way. These include taking turns, supporting others, playing fairly, perseverance and acknowledging winning and losing. These skills are presented in the form of Personal or Social learning journeys that link directly to National Curriculum levels.
All the games allow the most able young people to experience losing and the least able to experience winning, establishing a more rounded and resilient young person ready to compete in a healthy and positive way.
*(Morley, D. & Bailey, R. (2006) Meeting the needs of your most able pupils: Physical Education and Sport. London: Fulton.)
“I have been given the skill to use competition to develop life skills in a fun, challenging and rewarding way.”
Annabel Chelinski, SSCo/PE Teacher, Plumstead Manor
Creative formats to include and challenge more young people
Creative formats look at more inclusive ideas that can be utilised when structuring and delivering competition. They offer fun and creative solutions to engage all young people fairly in competition. Applicable to lessons and club environments, they span intra and inter school competition formats and include:
- Continuous knockout formats
- Knockouts to seed players or teams into groups of similar ability
- Time and distance banding where runners, throwers or swimmers compete against other young people at a similar level
The section explores how these formats can be used to provide opportunities for “non team” type players to compete in external structured competitions, enabling a positive experience for more young people to compete.
“Considering I have been working within competitive school sport for a number of years I have taken so many ideas away to improve my delivery”
Joanne Newman, School Games Organiser