Dudley Schools PE Bulletin

Welcome
Welcome to the first Dudley PE Bulletin courtesy of the Dudley School Sport Network. Here you will find important and general updates regarding PE and School Sport. The bulletins will be available each half term and will be a place to discover what’s coming up as well as celebrating success.

Please ensure you check the dates for your diary section at the bottom of the bulletin as here you find dates for Heads of PE/ PE coordinator meetings, School Games deadlines and any upcoming CPD opportunities.

We hope you find this bulletin useful and if you have any questions, comments or feedback please do not hesitate to contact the Network coordinator Luke on Luke_Philpotts@blackconsortium.co.uk

COVID Update
On the 4th November the Department for Education published their updated guidance on education and childcare settings from the 5th November 2020. The PE and sport specific guidelines are:

It is important that children continue to remain fit and active and, wherever possible, have the 60 active minutes of daily physical activity recommended by the Chief Medical Officers. Schools have the flexibility to decide how physical education, sport and physical activity will be provided whilst following the measures in their system of controls.

Sports whose national governing bodies have developed guidance under the principles of the government’s guidance on team sport and been approved by the government are permitted. Schools must only provide team sports listed on the return to recreational team sport framework. Competition between different schools should not take place, in line with the wider restrictions on grassroots sport. Pupils should be kept in consistent groups and sports equipment thoroughly cleaned between each use by different individual groups.

Outdoor sports should be prioritised where possible, and large indoor spaces used where it is not, maximising natural ventilation flows (through opening windows and doors or using air conditioning systems wherever possible), distancing between pupils and paying scrupulous attention to cleaning and hygiene. This is particularly important in a sports setting because of the way in which people breathe during exercise.

External facilities can also be used in line with government guidance for the use of, and travel to and from, those facilities. Schools are able to work with external coaches, clubs and organisations for curricular activities where they are satisfied that it is safe to do so. Where schools are offering extra-curricular activities (that is, before and after school clubs) they should only do so where it is reasonably necessary to support parents to work, search for work, or undertake training or education, or where the provision is being used for the purposes of respite care.

Schools should consider carefully how such arrangements can operate within their wider protective measures. Activities such as active miles, making break times and lessons active and encouraging active travel help to enable pupils to be physically active while encouraging physical distancing.

The full guidance can be found here.

On the 10th November joint guidance was released helping to clarify what extra-curricular sport is permitted under the government's new lockdown guidance. This can be viewed here.

The Association for Physical Education has produced a frequently asked questions document regarding the national lockdown until the 2nd December.

To access the document please use this link.

Youth Sport Trust Update
It is clear from the evidence that many children’s daily physical activity levels dropped significantly while schools were closed due to COVID-19, resulting in a decline in both physical development and fitness.

Young people’s emotional wellbeing and mental health has also suffered, with many yearning for time with their friends and to have structure and routine again in their day. It is more important than ever for schools to harness the power of play, sport, physical activity and physical education to help students rebuild their functional capacity, belonging and happiness.

However, social distancing, sharing of equipment and managing changing areas present challenges. Early insight suggests that schools are prioritising other areas of the curriculum to ‘catch up’ on lost school time, and very few have found practical ways to resume after-school clubs.

With all students now returning to school for the 2020/21 academic year, the Youth Sport Trust have developed guidance, resources and ideas to support the return to Physical Education and school sport and to support home learning. Supporting Primary, Secondary and Special schools these Physical Education resources include;

• PE Response to COVID-19 curriculum ideas and teaching tips and guidance
• PE Learning cards and PE Homework resources for Primary Schools
• Curriculum Mapping and #ThisIsPE home learning resources
• SEND PE response guidance, Inclusion 2020 DfE funded resources, #ThisIsPE specific SEND resources to support home learning and PE delivery

For Sport and Competition we have a number of tools and frameworks to support schools managing bubble led leadership activities, extra-curricular clubs to support mental and emotional wellbeing.

These resources are constantly being re-developed and added to as the current climate changes.   These resources can be accessed for free here.

School Games Competitions & Calendar
This academic year the way we work is very different for everyone. Due to the current pandemic all competitions will follow the Virtual format. It has been great to see the amount of entries to these competitions has reached the thousands but it would be great to see more schools engaging. So far we have hosted Virtual competitions in the Active Mile and Skipping.

The current competition is Multi-Skills with Sports Hall Athletics coming up before the Christmas break. The competitions are a great way to keep students active and can easily be completed within lesson time. SGO’s will be sharing the calendar of events for the spring and summer term, with all events in the spring term following the current Virtual format.

The format for summer competitions will be decided closer to the time and will follow the DfE guidelines.

School Games Mark Framework Launch
All schools will find out more about the new framework in their next School Games Update on Wednesday 11 November.

The interactive self-review tool will go live on the School Games website in approximately three weeks. Your SGO will be available to help and support you through the process so please do not hesitate to contact them if you are unsure.

• Dudley South – Katie Jones - kjones@windsor.windsoracademytrust.org.uk
• Dudley North – Luke Philpotts - Luke_Philpotts@blackcountryconsortium.co.uk
• Dudley Central – Hannah Barnes – hbarnes@ellowes.dudley.sch.uk

Active Black Country
Black Country Rainbow Hour:
ABC would like to encourage all Dudley schools to sign up and pledge their support to the Black Country Rainbow Hour. The campaign encourages all schools to commit to and provide all pupils access to one hour of wellbeing and physical activity each day.

The campaign is supported by a free half termly Rainbow Book (next edition due week commencing 9th November) which is available for schools to download providing 40 activities ideas (across 7 Rainbow Strands) for staff to implement at school or share with those learning remotely from home.

Pupils are now also able to collect badges by logging and submitting their Individual Rainbow Trackers once they have reached specific milestones.

Further information and all materials and resources are available to download from the official webpage.

For schools already participating please continue to share with us what your school is getting up to and remember you could feature in our next promotional video or other promotional opportunities as part of the campaign like two schools this half term that were part of BBC Midlands today feature recently. www.blackcountryrainbowhour.co.uk #blackcountryrainbowhour

Primary PE and Sport Premium Update:
A range of the National Partners have worked together to produce ‘Top Tips’ guidance for the use of the Primary PE and Sport Premium funding for this academic year.

The latest national Primary PE and Sport Premium reporting template has also now been released by DFE for schools to use.

Schools should note the that due to disruption caused by Covid-19 the Department for Education (DfE) has given permission for schools to ‘carry over’ any underspend from the academic year 2019/20 into this year 2020/21, but this must be spent and reported on by 31st March 2021.

Healthy Schools Programme: 
Leah Goode has recently joined the ABC team and will be leading the Black Country Healthy Schools Programme moving forwards. Developed alongside the 4 Black Country Public Health teams the Healthy Schools Platinum award will recognise schools who have adopted a whole school approach to embedding physical activity and food and nutrition.

The award builds on the national Healthy Schools Rating that schools can achieve through completing the Active Lives Children’s Survey and it is anticipated will be launched from January 2021.

For further information and details please contact Leah Goode: Leah_Goode@blackcountryconsortium.co.uk

WOW
Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) and Living Streets – the UK charity for everyday walking - are working with schools in West Midlands to help reduce congestion and pollution outside the school gates, while increasing safety and improving physical and mental wellbeing of pupils.

Walking to school and its countless benefits have become more important than ever with government actively working with schools and local authorities to encourage families to walk to school whenever they can during this time. WOW is Living Streets' year-round walk to school challenge to encourage more families to be active on their journey to school, resulting in a 23% average increase in walking rates and up to 30% fewer cars at the school gates.

The WOW package usually costs around £500 for an average sized primary school but can be offered FREE of charge to your school for the 2020-21 academic year, thanks to funding from the Department for Transport.

WOW is a badge incentivised scheme where pupils are rewarded with collectable badges each month for travelling actively to school with measures in place to protect everyone’s health. The WOW package includes:

• A different badge each month for all children who walk at least once a week, until July 2021 (11 to collect).
• Access to our fun and interactive online Travel Tracker where pupils will record how they travelled to school each day. The Travel Tracker also encourages friendly competition between classes – who will top the active travel leaderboard each month? The online system will allow your schools to monitor modes of travel and shifts towards active journeys.
• Further support to promote walking including an introductory virtual launch assembly to kick start the challenge, along with support for other activities which may include setting up a Park and Stride, School Route Audits to identify barriers to walking in your local area or events and competitions to promote walking; all delivered in a safe and Covid compliant way.

More information on the WOW challenge can be found here in the Living Streets booklet.

There are a limited number of funded places for schools to get involved in WOW and these places are being offered on a first-come-first-served basis. To secure a place or discuss this opportunity further please contact the Project Coordinator for the West Midlands – sameena.parvaz@livingstreets.org.uk or 07714 616 562.

Dates for your diary

• Friday 13th November – Deadline for Dudley Multi-Skills Virtual Competition
• Friday 20th November – Deadline for #BattleOfTheBlackCountry Multi-Skills Virtual Competition
• Monday 23rd November – Start of Dudley Sports Hall Athletics Virtual Competition
• Tuesday 24th November – Secondary Heads of PE meeting (4-5pm)
• Thursday 26th November – PE Coordinator meeting (4-5pm)
• Monday 30th November – PE Coordinator meeting (10-11am)
• Friday 4th December – Deadline for Dudley Sports Hall Athletics Virtual Competition
• Friday 11th December - Deadline for #BattleOfTheBlackCountry Sports Hall Athletics Virtual Competition