Making Physical Literacy Finally Visible Within England’s Physical Education Curriculum: The Importance of Teacher Training.

Abstract

The chapter describes England’s Physical Education curriculum content in light of the current and ongoing national teaching curriculum review. This curriculum consultation process presents the Physical Education subject and its teachers, a wonderful opportunity to shape children’s future knowledge and practical activity. Physical Literacy, previously absent from all curriculum documents, is now being considered as a foundational principle to support England’s Quality PE provision. However, for this to be achieved in practice and for Physical Literacy to be fully embraced, teacher training programmes’ content and delivery mechanisms will require reviewing and enhancement. The chapter then explores
what this is starting to look like in England and some of the challenges that it is presented with. To conclude we consider what will be needed to facilitate children’s positive PE experiences underpinned by the Physical Literacy concept and the vital role of the new teachers joining the profession.