Many primary schools outsource their PE provision to providers as their own staff lack the confidence to deliver high-quality provision.
Working as a Physical Education consultant, I have supported many Trusts in West Yorkshire and North Yorkshire and I have seen some of the best practices and some of the worst. Like most industries, there are fantastic providers who care deeply about your school and the progress of your students and unfortunately, there are also many poor providers whose interest is not the school or its students.
Here are a few things to think about before bringing in a specific provider: 1. Staff qualifications and experience:
Are the staff who are delivering the sessions sports coaches, PE educators or Qualified teachers? What is their experience?
How do the coaches engage with your students? Unfortunately, many providers use inexperienced sports coaches to deliver curriculum PE. They lack the knowledge and understanding to deliver well structured, differentiated lessons. Some struggle with behaviour management and are unaware of how to use assessment to demonstrate learning throughout a block of work or even during a lesson.
TOP TIP: Ask the provider to provide details of relevant experience and training. Does the provider send a detailed profile of each member of staff into the school before they start?
2. Do they provide regular CPD for their staff.
Regular professional development is vital in keeping updated with changes in the curriculum. It builds confidence and ensures staff are competent at delivering. TOP TIP: Speak to the organisation and ask about their staff training. How do they invest in their staff? 3. Are the external providers following your PE curriculum? Do they understand and follow your Intent and implementation?
Having a bespoke PE curriculum for your school will ensure that all students will be challenged and will engage in a broad PE curriculum.
Ensure that the provider is able to deliver your PE curriculum and follow up on this throughout the year. Be wary if they inform you that you don’t have to deliver or include dance (dance is stated as something that must be delivered in the PE national curriculum). In one case study, we asked a number of schools in North Yorkshire to observe the Coaches delivering PE lessons and to also ask the students once they had finished their PE lessons. 70% of PE lessons were not following what should have been delivered.
TOP TIP: Ask for details of how they have supported schools in the area. Ask about their knowledge of the PE curriculum, how it should look and what it is based around. What is their knowledge of curriculum maps? Do they know what would happen in a Deep Dive?
3. Ask for an overview/plans, scheme of work and assessment. Is your provider giving you an idea of what is being delivered for each block? Can they show you how the lesson will be differentiated in those plans? Do they show regular assessments?
TOP TIP: Can they provide examples of data from other schools? 4. Do you have regular half termly/termly observations of Staff. Regular meetings to discuss all things PE, School Sport and Physical Activity? Does your provider observe their staff regularly and do they invite you in to observe with them? Do they provide regular meetings with an account manager or a consultant that can support you through Deep Dives, updates on the curriculum and various other topics? This is vital to ensure that both you and the provider know that what is being delivered is of good quality. I'm a firm believer that a provider should always be going above and beyond to ensure that you feel supported and confident with all things PE related.
TOP TIP: Ask to see observation templates, details of observations on staff.
5. Are they part of a network or organisation of other like-minded providers?
Like other industries being part of a network of high-quality providers generally means that standards are raised and providers are accountable for their actions or risk being thrown out of the network.
TOP TIP: Discuss how they link with other providers to ensure that standards are kept at their highest.
6 Are they accredited by the Association for PE or are they Ofsted Registered?
To be registered for either a provider must hit certain standards and maintain these.
TOP TIP: Before meeting with a provider look to see who they are accredited with? If they aren’t there a reason?
At Kanga, we meet all the above criteria and much more.
We provide PE educators and qualified teachers to deliver Curriculum time PE. We provide the same member of staff each week to ensure consistency. All our staff receive regular training from our senior leadership team of qualified teachers.
To find out more on how Kanga can support your school contact Andrew andrew@kangasports.co.uk.
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