This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This web site reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
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A collection of student stories and initiatives about sport.
Case Studies
Students who successfully balanced school and sport.
Initiatives
Best practice to promote sport at schoolThis section offers access to a collection of toolkits to promote sport at school.
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Physical Education Teachers
They are the main point of reference for students at school
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Teachers
Teachers of all subjects can contribute to promote sport at school
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School Directors
Their support is a key element to promote sport at school
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Resources
A database of resources for teachers, PE teachers and school directors for the promotion of sport at school.
Sporting events are organised in each partner country
Sport Events
Access the page with the sport events informationGuidelines for policy makers willing to raise awareness on the importance of promoting sport in schools
Sport and School
Promotion and integration of all sports into curricular activities
Education for Ethical Based Sport
The importance of an ethical approach to sportEvents
The Not Only Fair Play project has been promoted through conferences and articles.
Conferences
The Not Only Fair Play project was presented at a number of events in order to report both activities carried out and the results achieved.
Press Review
The Not Only Fair Play project partnership made contacts with web sites focusing on the fields of sport and education.Partnership
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Contractual Partners
From this section it is possible to access a description of each contractual partner of the Not Only Fair Play project.
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Schools
From this section it is possible to access information about the schools involved in the Not Only Fair Play Project in the 9 European countries involved.
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Associated Partners
A number of associated partners officially joined the project in order to ensure the project sustainability by continuing to use the project deliverables over the next years.
This section of the Not Only Fair Play portal provides administrative information for the project contractual partners and for the European Commission, and is password protected.
Teachers
Homepage > Toolkits > Teachers
Teachers of all subjects can contribute to promote sport at school
How to integrate sport and healthy lifestyle approaches into the students' educational pathways
Teacher of All Subjects
4. Using Sport as a Context for Learning
This chapter provides examples of where and how core subjects have successfully planned and delivered lessons, using physical education, sport and physical activity as a ‘context’ for learning, further increasing learner engagement.
Learning Objective
• To encourage school/colleges/local and national agencies to increase the opportunities for learners to activiley participate in Physical education, Sport and Physical Activity.
• To further encourage schools/colleges to develop a shared planning and scheduling of teacher training (for teachers from other subject areas), to raise their awareness of how PE, sport and physical activity can develop life skills/ and the acquisition of cognitive, logical, mathematical, relational, self-esteem, respect for the rules, team work skills.
• To further develop and intergrate learning and teaching through the ‘context’ of physical education, sport and physical activity.
• To encourage teachers/lecturers from other ‘core’ subjects to use physical education, sport and physical activity themes throughout their delivery.
• To develop content and/or learning and teaching practices, supporting the further engagement of learners.
• To provide a resource that supports the strategic planning and implementation of further Physical education, Sport and Physical Activity opportunities for all learners.
Similar to other whole-school improvement strategies, using physical education, sport and physical activity to improve whole-school standards works best when:
- Senior leadership, plays a role in the planning and implementation of the work;
- Pupils and staff involved are carefully identified;
- PE and other subject departments work collaboratively to develop strategies and high-quality resources; and
For this to be successful, we must ensure that physical education, sport and physical activity strategies are appropriately linked into an educational strategy.
The Youth Sport Trust (YST) has been working with schools/colleges in the UK to understand how PE and sport can be used to improve whole-institution standards in a replicable and sustainable way. Through doing this, they have developed a framework that schools/colleges can use to determine which types of strategies might be most suitable for use both in different school/college contexts and for different groups of learners. The initial work was mostly focused in 500+ “sports colleges” (schools that specialize in PE) between 2005 and 2010.
The YST recommends four key whole-school improvement strategies:
• Relevant contexts
It is generally accepted that teaching topics in real-life contexts can improve learner engagement and learning. Physical education, sport and physical activity contexts are familiar and interesting to many young people, and can easily be brought into the teaching of concepts in many subjects. For example, using real-life data from sporting events to illustrate mathematical concepts, or producing written reports on the events to develop literacy. The use of sporting contexts is a straightforward way to use sport across the curriculum. It requires little effort by the school/college to incorporate the ideas into standard teaching schemes, but is highly successful in improving engagement of learners in lessons, which is a key factor in supporting achievement.
• Using the positive values of sport
Physical education, sport and physical activity can build personal attributes that are important for the holistic development of learners. These include confidence, ambition, self-esteem, aspiration, having respect for rules, being able to cope with winning and losing, forming positive relationships, determination, courage, etc. If these qualities are present, young people are more likely to feel secure in taking risks in their learning, attempting more challenging work, and therefore improving their ability. Schools/Colleges have found many innovative ways to ensure that these personal values developed through physical education, sport and physical activity are recognized, nurtured, and celebrated throughout the life of the institution. This strategy is most effective when it is also used to build a positive ethos and culture throughout the school/college.
• Building on and benefiting from the generic skills developed through physical education, sport and physical activity
Physical education, sport and physical activity also develop skills that are relevant in other areas of the curriculum. These include observational skills, analytical skills, leadership, teamwork, communication, and motor skills. It is not unusual for learners to regularly demonstrate these skills in a physical education, sport and physical activity context, but not in other curriculum areas, which could be seen as a waste of talent and certainly does not support raised achievement. Explicitly developing and building on skills developed in physical education, sport and physical activity in a wider range of circumstances is more complex than the other strategies because it requires schools/colleges to develop skills in a coordinated way, rather than each subject determining its curriculum in isolation. However, institutions that have done this have reaped the rewards in terms of increased skill and confidence levels in learners, as well as reducing the amount of teaching time for duplicate ideas between subjects.
• Building on successful teaching approaches used in the PE
Good-quality physical education, sport and physical activity instruction is often characterized by approaches (pedagogies) such as:
• Good use of mentoring and coaching techniques;
• Substantial group and team work opportunities;
• High-quality demonstrations;
• High numbers of practical learning opportunities;
• High use of competitive situations;
• High use of games-based activities for developing skills; and
• Non-threatening use of target setting and monitoring progress.
All of these strategies are appropriate in the classrooms of other subjects, but can be missing from more “traditional” styles of teaching often seen in weaker subject teaching. Therefore, the fourth strategy is supporting the sharing of practice between physical education, sport and physical activity teachers and other subject teachers. This strategy brings about long-term, sustainable change in teaching practice that leads to empowerment of teachers to try new ideas confidently, and to learners becoming more involved in contributing fully to their learning.
• To further encourage schools/colleges to develop a shared planning and scheduling of teacher training (for teachers from other subject areas), to raise their awareness of how PE, sport and physical activity can develop life skills/ and the acquisition of cognitive, logical, mathematical, relational, self-esteem, respect for the rules, team work skills.
• To further develop and intergrate learning and teaching through the ‘context’ of physical education, sport and physical activity.
• To encourage teachers/lecturers from other ‘core’ subjects to use physical education, sport and physical activity themes throughout their delivery.
• To develop content and/or learning and teaching practices, supporting the further engagement of learners.
• To provide a resource that supports the strategic planning and implementation of further Physical education, Sport and Physical Activity opportunities for all learners.
Similar to other whole-school improvement strategies, using physical education, sport and physical activity to improve whole-school standards works best when:
- Senior leadership, plays a role in the planning and implementation of the work;
- Pupils and staff involved are carefully identified;
- PE and other subject departments work collaboratively to develop strategies and high-quality resources; and
For this to be successful, we must ensure that physical education, sport and physical activity strategies are appropriately linked into an educational strategy.
The Youth Sport Trust (YST) has been working with schools/colleges in the UK to understand how PE and sport can be used to improve whole-institution standards in a replicable and sustainable way. Through doing this, they have developed a framework that schools/colleges can use to determine which types of strategies might be most suitable for use both in different school/college contexts and for different groups of learners. The initial work was mostly focused in 500+ “sports colleges” (schools that specialize in PE) between 2005 and 2010.
The YST recommends four key whole-school improvement strategies:
• Relevant contexts
It is generally accepted that teaching topics in real-life contexts can improve learner engagement and learning. Physical education, sport and physical activity contexts are familiar and interesting to many young people, and can easily be brought into the teaching of concepts in many subjects. For example, using real-life data from sporting events to illustrate mathematical concepts, or producing written reports on the events to develop literacy. The use of sporting contexts is a straightforward way to use sport across the curriculum. It requires little effort by the school/college to incorporate the ideas into standard teaching schemes, but is highly successful in improving engagement of learners in lessons, which is a key factor in supporting achievement.
• Using the positive values of sport
Physical education, sport and physical activity can build personal attributes that are important for the holistic development of learners. These include confidence, ambition, self-esteem, aspiration, having respect for rules, being able to cope with winning and losing, forming positive relationships, determination, courage, etc. If these qualities are present, young people are more likely to feel secure in taking risks in their learning, attempting more challenging work, and therefore improving their ability. Schools/Colleges have found many innovative ways to ensure that these personal values developed through physical education, sport and physical activity are recognized, nurtured, and celebrated throughout the life of the institution. This strategy is most effective when it is also used to build a positive ethos and culture throughout the school/college.
• Building on and benefiting from the generic skills developed through physical education, sport and physical activity
Physical education, sport and physical activity also develop skills that are relevant in other areas of the curriculum. These include observational skills, analytical skills, leadership, teamwork, communication, and motor skills. It is not unusual for learners to regularly demonstrate these skills in a physical education, sport and physical activity context, but not in other curriculum areas, which could be seen as a waste of talent and certainly does not support raised achievement. Explicitly developing and building on skills developed in physical education, sport and physical activity in a wider range of circumstances is more complex than the other strategies because it requires schools/colleges to develop skills in a coordinated way, rather than each subject determining its curriculum in isolation. However, institutions that have done this have reaped the rewards in terms of increased skill and confidence levels in learners, as well as reducing the amount of teaching time for duplicate ideas between subjects.
• Building on successful teaching approaches used in the PE
Good-quality physical education, sport and physical activity instruction is often characterized by approaches (pedagogies) such as:
• Good use of mentoring and coaching techniques;
• Substantial group and team work opportunities;
• High-quality demonstrations;
• High numbers of practical learning opportunities;
• High use of competitive situations;
• High use of games-based activities for developing skills; and
• Non-threatening use of target setting and monitoring progress.
All of these strategies are appropriate in the classrooms of other subjects, but can be missing from more “traditional” styles of teaching often seen in weaker subject teaching. Therefore, the fourth strategy is supporting the sharing of practice between physical education, sport and physical activity teachers and other subject teachers. This strategy brings about long-term, sustainable change in teaching practice that leads to empowerment of teachers to try new ideas confidently, and to learners becoming more involved in contributing fully to their learning.
Online Resources
- Dundee Academy of SportWorking with schools
- Sport New ZealandSport in Education Curriculum Resources
- Dundee Academy of SportUsing Sport as a Context for Learning
- Math’s and SportMillennium Mathematics Project
- University of CambridgeArsenal Collection of Math’s and football activities
