PRIMARY SCHOOL GYMNASTICS

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2 PRIMARY SCHOOL GYMNASTICS

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4 PRIMARY SCHOOL GYMNASTICS Teaching Movement Skills Successfully Lawry Price ~ David Fulton Publishers London

5 David Fulton Publishers Ltd The Chis wick Centre, 414 Chis wick High Road, London W 4 5TF David Fulton Publishers is a division of Granada Learning Limited, part of the Granada Media group. First published Copyright 2003 Lawry Price British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanicat photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers. Typeset by Keyset Composition, Colchester, Essex Printed and bound in Great Britain by Ashford Colour Press, Gosport, Hants

6 Contents Acknowledgements Introduction Vll IX 1 Using These Teaching Materials 1 2 A Rationale for Primary School Gymnastics 3 3 Motor Development 5 4 Ensuring Continuity and Progression in the Work 7 5 National Curriculum Physical Education 10 6 Developing the Work 13 7 A Checklist for Health and Safety in Gymnastic Activities 21 8 Gymnastics Teaching Material for Reception, Year 1 and Year Gymnastics Teaching Material for Years 3 and Gymnastics Teaching Material for Years 5 and Further Gymnastic Themes 102 Appendix 1 Appendix 2 Resources Index Record Sheets for Assessment of Pupil Progress The Content of Primary Gymnastic Activity: Movement Vocabulary

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8 Acknowledgements The teaching materials presented here are a personal contribution to effective teaching and learning in gymnastic activities for the primary school. In producing these I wish to express my sincere thanks to a number of different people for helping me to put these teaching materials together. First, thanks go to all those teachers who have inspired me to think and adapt my own personal practice, and who have offered support and help in my teaching of gymnastics over the years. These include early mentors, fellow physical educationists and current practitioners who strive to provide the best possible experience for their charges through well planned, effectively delivered and enjoyable (and therefore worthwhile) activity. As one, they have appreciated the importance of this area of the curriculum as fundamental to learning in PE and the resultant benefits that children gain in acquiring greater motor competence. Particular thanks go to the teachers and children of Dundonald Primary School in Merton, who worked hard to add the photographic element to these materials. Colleagues whose own teaching materials have provided reference points include authors in the field as well as a gallery of teaching colleagues who have willingly shared their practice and ideas for teaching gymnastics. I am heartened by the most recent publications in the field, particularly those that have plugged some gaps for early years' provision and prompted a more structured approach to PE for children in these important formative years. My thanks are also extended to David Fulton Publishers for presenting the opportunity to publish these materials, and particularly to Helen Fairlie, who has supported me and displayed great patience throughout the project. Finally, thanks go to the children I have taught (including my own!), who are the real inspiration and motivation behind the production of what I believe to be teaching materials that can support, guide, enthuse and convince fellow teachers that here is the essence and key to learning in PE in the primary school setting. I firmly believe that if gymnastic activities are taught well then the benefits to other areas of the PE curriculum will naturally follow. If a sense of challenge, adventure, fun and enjoyment is prompted at the same time, then what should result are worthwhile and meaningful outcomes for all involved in the process, teachers and children alike. Vll

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10 I ntrod uction I first qualified as a teacher in 1977 (a year in a period when teaching vacancies were not numerous) and deemed myself fortunate to secure a teaching post in a London LEA five-form entry 9-13 middle school. I was appointed as 'teacher responsible for PE and boys' games' and one of the biggest challenges in my fledgling career was to provide a meaningful gymnastics curriculum across the school. My own training had included a great deal of movement input, including ample opportunity to tryout the ideas and teaching strategies through teaching practices at a range of schools (primary and secondary). Faced with the reality of planning, teaching and assessing gymnastics across four year groups, and convinced as I was that the activity area was the cornerstone of the PE curriculum, I set about confronting the challenge. A starting point and reference base was necessary. I turned to a particularly reliable resource that I had discovered during my training, Don Buckland's book Gymnastics: Activity in the Primary School (1969). Here was what I needed to establish principles, organising strategies and features that I could adapt to my own teaching. I realised that it was crucial to develop and progress the gymnastic learning activities to cater for the 9-13 age range. Reference to Don's book, among others, stood me in good stead for many years and helped to serve a multitude of children's physical movement needs during that time. There have been many additions to the world of books and resources to support teachers in their gymnastics teaching since the 1970s. The implementation of the National Curriculum for Physical Education in 1992 spawned a most welcome new supply of such materials. Since then, further revisions to the National Curriculum have seen a similar response from a range of professionals in the field. What is significant is that the non-statutory guidelines produced for the National Curriculum for PE in 1992 promoted a list of 'key gymnastic themes', which are all evidenced in Buckland's work and are presented here, in modified form. Now engaged in initial teacher education, I have been motivated through the producion of these materials to promote what I feel remains the essence of PE activity within the primary school setting. I am utterly convinced that the basic skill competencies that children need to master are encapsulated within a well designed, continuous, progressive gymnastics curriculum. The control, coordination and discipline learnt from gymnastic activity provide the basis IX

11 from which all other areas of movement draw, including such important elements to daily life as locomotion, general stability and manipulative skills. What I have attempted to do here is to help teachers to develop their own knowledge base by providing a structure to their gymnastics teaching. I have adapted my teaching experience, reading and research to today's agenda, and hope that this material will provide others with the inspiration I received from earlier materials. They are carefully laid out so that there is a progressive feel to the work suggested here, with the potential to drop in to particular themes. It is intended that this book will be particularly useful to newly qualified teachers, but also provide supplementary ideas for the more experienced who need additional activity material. I have designed the material presented here so that teachers may use it for reference, read it in order to plan the gymnastics curriculum and/ or in order to stimulate sharing and debate amongst colleagues. By adopting such an approach primary teachers will all help to keep the teaching of gymnastic activities alive. I believe the following guidelines are essential for successful practice supporting gymnastics teaching in our primary schools: plan units of work, themes and individual lesson activities thoroughly; expect children to be enthusiastic and receptive to gymnastic content and have high expectations of their achievements; be prepared to repeat and consolidate previous work in a variety of different ways and through different teaching approaches; set different or alternative tasks in floorwork and when the work moves on to apparatus; keep the work active and participatory with minimised instruction; create a positive learning environment by adopting and implementing good working routines, which need to be taught, learnt and applied - they don't just happen; continuously assess performance to inform on-going planning. Finally, only through practice and accrued experience does one's own teaching improve. This takes time, but can only happen if we confront the challenge that gymnastics teaching presents us with. We owe children their right to move with increasing confidence, skills, control and precision. x

12 Using These Teaching Materials Drawing on my own teaching experience, as well as that of teachers whom I have worked alongside over the years, has brought home the key message that teaching gymnastics to primary school aged children presents a unique set of challenges. These often focus on ideas for practice, progression in the work and how to transfer the work covered on the floor (and therefore low-level apparatus) on to the more demanding large apparatus work. Supporting teachers' own development as effective practitioners in the area, as well as meeting their desire to provide meaningful and real learning opportunities for their children, has prompted this teaching resource. The teaching materials presented here aim to meet such needs, are prompts for ongoing work in the area and ultimately satisfy the remit of a gymnastics curriculum for primary aged children. When help and support are called for in the teaching of primary school gymnastics it helps greatly if there is a basic framework in place in which to set potential work. Knowing what actions and movements to expect from children is a starting point, but an awareness of the dynamics involved is equally important if the work is to progress sequentially and in line with the growing bodies that primary children present us to work with. Picking out a number of progressive themes that cover key essentials can ensure the relevance and appropriateness of activity offered. This book presents a thematic approach to learning through gymnastic activities. This is not 'new' but is a restatement that the aim of gymnastics provision in our primary schools is to teach movement by focusing clearly on the body, its constituent parts and how these work together with the natural actions that young children perform daily in their everyday movement, play and recreation. The starting point is to build on what children do quite naturally in their everyday lives, through their play and their natural inclination to move through their immediate environment. The materials are divided for ease of reference into three keyage phases: Reception, Year 1 and Year 2; Years 3 and 4; Years 5 and 6. 1