Physical Education

Hello bloggers!

In this blog I will be exploring how physical education can be used to promote well-being in primary education.

First of I think it is important that we determine what we mean by ‘well-being’, well-being can be defined as a state of being comfortable, healthy or happy, in this blog I will be discussing well-being in the physical and emotional way.

When we talk about well-being and physical education we automatically think of the physical side and how physical education promotes children to look after their bodies and keep fit, but physical education can also have a massive impact on the brain and mental well-being.

We don’t tend to think of children having mental health issues but this is becoming an ever-growing problem in our society, it is known that routine kills creativity and bores the brain, therefore whilst going to the same old gym to practise physical education may keep the body fit, the mind will suffer, doing the same thing over and over bores children and this leads to children being

Being outside along with practising physical education releases serotonin and dopamine which make children feel good mentally and actually want to partake in activates, a change in scenery is essential in stimulating the brain and therefore reinforcing engagement. highlights the importance of outdoor activities and says that being outside with fellow students aids development of social and interpersonal skills, although why being outside feels good doesn’t need an explanation, it just does and that’s what important, although this leads me to my next point which is that learning outdoors is a fantastic way to take advantage of learning cross curricularly.

Cross curricular learning is the process of combining two or more subjects together in the same lesson to break the routine of traditional lessons whilst getting children exciting and engaged, it can also trick children into thinking that they are not learning when in fact they are learning in a far more effective manor, cross curricular learning doesn’t tend to have strict learning outcomes, you reflect on what you have learned at the end. Donaldson sees these changes and cross curricular learning is being implemented far more as a result.

The Donaldson report states that the curriculum should enable children to apply in unfamiliar contexts what they have learned (Donaldson 2005) and learning cross curricularly outside is a perfect way of doing that, children could be jogging along a path whilst keeping an eye out for certain plans or species, children could be doing warm up stretches whilst seeing if they can listen out for certain things in nature, or children could count how many times they see a certain type of tree whilst exploring a forest.

Whilst I have talked about the mental benefits we also cannot forget about the physical benefits, childhood obesity is becoming a global epidemic, the UK government published that in 2015 one in five children in reception is overweight or obese (22.6% of boys and 21.2% of girls) and that one in three children in year 6 is overweight or obese (34.9% boys and 31.5% girls) It can be difficult for some children to keep fit because some children live in busy areas which means there isn’t a place they can go on their own to exercise, so schools and the facilities provided by schools are crucial in making sure children keep fit and healthy.

Whilst we have discussed the benefits of physical education and generally being outside, it is important to relate back to the main question of this blog, how can well-being be promoted through physical education? well I believe that taking children out of the traditional classroom setting and placing them in an environment where they are being stimulated and what they view as a lesson is being challenged, and then explain to them the benefits and why it is important to keep fit and healthy and planning lessons that the children will not forget and make them excited to partake in the future; make sure the child is comfortable both physically and mentally.

References

Donaldson, G. (2015) Successful Future: Independent review of curriculum and assessment arrangements in Wales. [Online] Available at: http://gov.wales/docs/dcells/publications/150225-successful-futures-en.pdf (Accessed 16th April 2018)

GOV.UK (2015) Childhood obesity: applying All Our Health Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/childhood-obesity-applying-all-our-health/childhood-obesity-applying-all-our-health