The teachers and support staff at Lee on the Solent Junior School have found The PE Suite to have a significant impact on the quality of teaching and learning in P.E. This has been the case across the whole curriculum, but particularly with dance and gymnastics, two areas which teachers did feel they lacked confidence in delivering prior to the introduction of The PE Suite.
The children also love learning, finding the videos really engaging. The colourful and vibrant imagery and the fact that children are learning from other children has given them the real incentive to want to take part in lessons and enjoy P.E.
The PE Suite has been found to be effective because it facilitates the learning of the children to a much greater depth than otherwise normally achieved in P.E.
This is due to providing the opportunity for the children to use the videos in such a way that they can analyse their own attempts at learning with the modelled examples to enable a rich learning environment whereby they can both self-assess and peer assess learning.
The barrier of having to model every skill has been removed for teachers, as the video demonstrations provide modelled examples which allow the children to learn from other children giving the biomechanical and anatomical advantage of copying examples that are similar to them. The modelled examples break down the skills and learning to make it easy for children using freeze frame and slow motion. The differing camera angles also optimise the quality of the modelled demonstrations.
The PE Suite has not just been used in a way where children have simply copied the video demonstrations. Children have also used creative flair by using the modelled examples in gymnastics and dance as a stimulus and starting point and then adapted them to create their own sequences and motifs. The level of quality of the initial starting point of learning with high quality sequences and motifs means that as the children adapt them and make them their own, the level of learning is far higher than it was prior to the introduction of The PE Suite.
“THE VIDEOS ARE REALLY ENGAGING AND MAKE IT REALLY CLEAR FOR THE CHILDREN TO UNDERSTAND EXACTLY WHAT THEY NEED TO DO.
I REALLY ENJOY TEACHING P.E. AND I AM LUCKY TO HAVE A GOOD BASELINE KNOWLEDGE OF A LOT OF SPORTS, BUT FOR AREAS I AM LESS CONFIDENT IN TEACHING SUCH AS GYMNASTICS FOR EXAMPLE, IT ENABLES ME TO KNOW EXACTLY WHAT TO DO, BREAKING DOWN THE SKILLS INTO KEY STEPS AND ALSO SHOWING THE PROGRESSION IN HOW CHILDREN CAN PUT THE SKILLS TOGETHER TO FORM SEQUENCES.”
MR MCPHERSON, NQT
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