Teacher Led Pe In Nursery

[Guest]

Hi,

I work in a nursery attached to a primary school. The nursery offers a 2 and a half hour session per child to be taken in the morning or afternoon. The PE co-ordinator in the reception class has recently been on a course and has informed me that I should teach formal PE lessons for 30 minutes each day. I feel that this is totally inappropriate when the children have continuous provision of indoor and outdooor learning and there would also be an imbalance between teacher led and child initiated activities. Also within this 2 and half hour session I also have to prepare toast and snacks for the children and there would be insufficient time to do everything else I have to do such as observations etc.

What do you think of formal pe lessons for 30mins each day in nursery?

Sue

[Beau]

Hi Sue,

 

I'm not a teacher but my initial reaction is that this is nonsense! I think we all understand the importance of encouraging children to be active. However, I don't see why physical activity has to be part of an adult led activity. Far better that children have access to active activities and make the choice freely.

 

I'm going to move this out of 'Profiles' too.

[Gezabel]

Hi Sue

Formal PE sessions in nursery

 

I am not a teacher either but I agree with Beau. In our pre-school we do have group physical activities but normally these are at the request of the children - parachute games is a particular favourite at the moment.

 

If it were me I would be tempted to ask for more details but have to say I don't understand where this could apply in EYFS. The very word 'formal' makes me shiver

[hali]

thats ridiculous

[Guest heleng]

Our nursery class (within a school) has one 'formal' PE a week that lasts for 20-30 mins. The reason they do this is to get the children used to going into the hall and to practice the skills needed to change themselves. Our school also has healthy schools status and each year gp has to show they are providing a minimum 2 hours of PE a week, the Foundation Stage is covered because we have items the children can access at all times (bikes, balls, bean bags, ropes etc) as part of the continuous provision.

[Guest]

quote "The PE co-ordinator in the reception class has recently been on a course and has informed me that I should teach formal PE lessons for 30 minutes each day."

 

Maybe you could ask her where this is stated as a requiement, explain how you follow the EYFS and show her the sections of the EYFS which relate to your "Physical Education" provision, this would at preschool age include all aspects such as gross motor, fine motor, health and well being, outdoor play etc etc. Take this as a good opportunity to introduce the reception class staff what the EYFS looks like for the relevant ages and share with her the ideas YOU USE for this part of what is an Holistic (adult and child led, multi-activity) curriculum model of 'PE' within the EYFS framework.

 

Peggy

[Guest]

I work in a school nursery class and we take advantage of using our school hall once a week for 'PE' sessions - although depending on the cohort sometimes we would leave this until later in the year.

I do remember being asked once by the PE coordinator to add up the number of hours of PE we did each week - even though our coord understood preovision was different in EYs this was something she had to do - I think we provided a list of all the continuous provision for physical development (including fine motor etc) and when this was available to children.

I wonder where the half an hour a day comes from - do any of the rest of your year groups manage to fir in half an hour a day?

[Guest]

I am Nursery teacher in a school setting and reluctantly have to follow PE co-ordinators advice to " make sure they sit in a line whilst waiting to use the apparatus, 1 at a time and make sure they are doing what you have asked them to do- following the instruction, not rolling if you have said jumping etc" apparantly, OFSTED will look favourably on these PE lessons, myself, I think they are a wasted opportunity for PD and children are learning to turn take, PSED and follow instructions CLL rather than it offering PD provision. What do others think?

[Guest]

Our PE co ordinator has never said anything to us re this exposure to formal PE EVERYDAY!

 

We have the hall once a week......... sometimes we use it sometimes we don't

 

We have constant access to outdoor areas........

 

We activate everyday.

 

Formal PE everyday?

 

WHATEVER NEXT??????????????????????????????????????????

[Guest]

Hi - I work in a reception class and am foundation stage leader and would be a bit miffed if our PE co-ordinator ask us in the foundation stage to do this. We too have healthy schools status and I am the healthy schools co-ordinator - in our file we have a copy of the cont. provision provided by Nursery and Reception to show that we offer physical development on a daily basis. If like us the children have free access to the garden and the equipment out there they are probably getting more! Nursery and Reception do have hall slots - I use mine with my Reception class as they love PE and enjoy it, but Nursery only use the hall for activities as they feel the need. We use the Teddy Pegs awards too and I get most of my observations for teddy pegs steps from my outside observations.

[Guest]

what are the Teddy Pegs?

[Guest Wolfie]

I agree with everyone else..formal PE for nursery children?? Ridiculous!

[littleantics]

Hi everyone

 

Read this with interest. I agree formal PE is not part of the EYFS. As an assessor when I go into schools, pre-schools and nurseries and as part the National Occupational standards (Children's Care Learning and Development) the candidates do have a section where we have to benchmark and monitor their practice for children in relation to providing 'warm up' and 'cool down' excersises for both indoors and outdoor activities. But this is in relation to their age and stage of development. PE (if it really needs to be called this for this age group!) is about getting children to be aware of their bodies and how it works. Simple Head shoulders needs and toes - slowly and then fast, jumping, running, moving from side to side, stretching up high, perhaps balancing on one leg, touching toes etc., all this could be made fun to music. They can feel their heartbeats before they start, during and after, great for beginings of body awareness. If repeated they eventually clock on to what their hearts are doing, beating slowly or faster. Cool down can again be gentle stretching up high to the side, down low etc., Then a lovely way to end is to lay down and listen to some soft music. - Covers ELG's really well to include effective listening. Great for non-participant observers to benchmark for learning journeys and profiles.

 

Also someone mentioned parachute games - fantastic, great for gross motor skills and upper body. Children at this age should get plenty of time outside, climbing, triking, throwing balls, running jumping, if encouraged by well informed practitioners. - The whole idea is to make it fun.

 

Sitting in a dingy hall waiting in line is quite hard for some small ones to cope with and can often get them branded as hyperactive, fidgety, not listening etc., -

 

I agree with others, talk to your PE co-ordinator and enlighten them about the EYFS and how its done for children within this age group.

 

Good luck

[catma]

How utterly stupid and depressing. Stand your ground, tell her there is no requirement under the EYFS for formal PE - if she can find- it you'll do it.

 

In all my years as a nursery teacher I never took them to the hall and have been through OFSTED at least 4 times. My last reception classe did go into the hall as we had no dedicated outside then (pre EYFS!!) so we used that but it was not sitting in lines waiting. The new Ofsted guidance for FS (Sept 08) makes no reference to PE lessons so again let her evidence her statements and then discuss!!

 

I'm curious re the "warm up - cool down" activities - how would you do this with free flow?? There's no knowing when children will go in or out??? Do you mean for adult directed activities only???

CX

[Guest]

that seems so silly by the time you got changed it would have taken your whole session time! I suppose i could see a point when the children are in the summer term maybe just to go and visit hall to see what it was all about for september. 30 mins to me though surely isn't a 'PE' time i think it just relates to physical activity so thats your continuous provision/parachute game, ring a roses, hokey cokey, beans game, heads and shoulders (there was a physical activty book take 10 sent to our school that we use for dip in ideas for 5/10 mins also active kids Val sabin has some good ideas in)

 

I also was wondering where mozart's pe co-ordiantor was told 'make sure they sit in a line whilst waiting to use the apparatus, 1 at a time and make sure they are doing what you have asked them to do- following the instruction' this to me was the old way of working i have not taught like this I've seen fellow teachers and i remember being taught like it. The idea though is that the pe session is continually active ?? OFSTED will not like lining up and sitting down they will want to see all children moving and being active. You can have stations for gymnastics but children start in different places on the apparatus or have the stations et up and children move freely around. If they start off like this then it works well children learn about awareness, space etc if children are using an appartus they are given ideas for the floor space or we talk about how to move from apparatus to appratus in a different way.

[Guest]

Thanks for this thread- I feel better reading your replies, but am still stuck with the advice from my PE co-ordinator. It came after she observed me teaching Nursery PE and I was graded unfavourably for having 2 children on the same piece of apparatus at the same time, even though it was safe, I was also told that the lesson had to have just 1 focus and because Id put out bean bags to throw and catch and a crawling tunnel and 1 other holding activity so the children weren't stood in lines, the observer couldn't tell whether we were doing games or apparatus skills.

I can't speak for her as I don't know where she got the advice from, but I have to say, my PE lessons look like something outof the 1950's! However, I have to agree they are totally safe and controlled and the children do really enjoy it.

[littleantics]

Hi

 

Yep warm up and cool down activities are usually adult led - one of the few things we really do that is still adult led, as part of getting the children to find out about their bodies etc., - The children really love it.

 

Also some areas where I assess they do not have access to outdoor areas - and although they may go on a 10 minute walk, they rarely get much physical play - hence the fact some have to clear the pre-school hall/setting and undertake designated excersice time where warm up and cool down is essential for them.