Learning through sport - Play with Purpose

I recently worked with one of Australia's leading sport development officers, Mitch Hewitt from Tennis Australia, and John Williams from the University of Canberra, to professionally develop sport development officers in the ACT on the assessment of games and sport in PE (thanks to the Physical Activity Foundation: PE Pulse for organising this opportunity). The Sporting Schools Program provides a vehicle for sport in Australia to access schools, both for incursion type experiences and longer curriculum experiences. However, this funding 'won't last forever'. Therefore, two 'key ideas' in this workshop were that to create a demand for sport programs in PE, sports need to solve two 'problems' for the teacher: content that meets the PE curriculum expectations at different bands/year levels, and providing valid and reliable assessment of student achievement that teachers can use in their reporting to parents and other stakeholders.

At this point, I will cla…