Central Europe EUPEA Online Workshop Advocacy for Physical Education

Eight IPPEA members participated in the Central Europe EUPEA Online Workshop Advocacy for Physical Education based on the outcome of a completed Erasmus + project ACTIVE SCHOOL COMMUNITIES and underpinned by the following website https://www.supportrealteachers.org/how-to-advocate-for-your-program.html The blended (face to face and skype link) event took place Thursday 31^st January 2019 at St. Patrick’s Campus. It was organised by Susan Marron IPPEA committee and EUPEA Central Europe vice representative in conjunction with Elinor Steele SATPE (Scotland) and EUPEA Central Europe representative. Each participant indicated in advance by email a PE stakeholder they wished to advocate for in PE. A pledge was made before leaving the workshop and based on the face to face and online discussions to progress with this stakeholder to enact an advocacy strategy.

What Next…? Each workshop Association Coordinator in each country will remain in contact with the workshop participants to assist in ensuring the ‘pledges’ are enacted. The Association workshop Co-ordinator will communicate to Elinor in May/June [27^th May- 7^th June 2019] on the Association’s progress, in this case the IPPEA Committee and the members who participated. All workshop participants will receive an email from their workshop coordinator of the outcomes. The outcome/matter the IPPEA committee have to enact, following the workshop discussion, is advocacy with school principals on the role of the generalist class teacher and interactions with games coaches in the PE programme. More to follow… #advocacyinPE or @EUPEAtweet

PExpo 2019 - Primary Schools

The fifth annual Theory of Physical Education Exhibition (PExpo) wll take place Wednesday 6^th March 2019, at Dublin City University, Glasnevin, Dublin 9. For the first time both primary and secondary students will be demonstrating their knowledge and understanding of Physical Education. The primary school theme is: What we have learned in Physical Education…through the Head, Heart and Hands? Primary teachers are being asked to plan and record a unit of work (150 minutes maximum) demonstrating children’s learning in Physical Education. The pupils learning will be documented through children’s diary entries. Teachers will display the children’s learning on the PExpo day by creating a bulletin board display which includes a cover page and samples of the children’s work. Read more https://www.pexpoireland.com/

The Irish Primary PE Association Annual Conference will take place on Saturday 9th of March, 2019 in the Watershed Kilkenny. The theme for this year’s conference is ‘Learning with the head, heart and hands in physical education’ and will have a strong emphasis on highlighting how learning can be promoted in the psychomotor, cognitive, and affective domains within physical education. Learning with the head is about learning facts or strategies (cognitive). Learning with the heart is concerned with how you get along with others (affective). Learning with the hands deals mainly with the doing part, the essential skills needed to participate in the activities in Physical Education (physical). Practical workshops which address this relating to all strands of the PE curriculum will be presented along with a short address from Sarah Buggy Irish international athlete and primary school teacher. Booking and further details available through www.irishprimarype.com

Other international conferences and meetings planed for the first half of 2019:

4th symposium CEREPS in Prague, the Czech Republic was communicated. The term – 30.6. – 3.7. 2019. The organizer - Prof. Dr. Ludmila Fialová, Charles University, Faculty of Physical Education and Sport in Prague.

International Society of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity (ISBNPA) organizes an international conference. Term 4.-7. 6 2019 in Prague. See an on-line invitation: https://ftk.upol.cz/en/video-gallery/

PE in Finland

Results from the monitoring system for functional capacity (https://edu.fi/move/english) for 5th and 8th graders from year 2018 were revealed in January 2019. In 2018, it was the third time for 5th graders and the first for 8th graders to perform these tests. Totally, more than 93,000 children participated in the functional capacity tests. Recent results show that there are not many changes in the functional capacity of 5th graders. Among 8th graders there is a concern with their mobility results, especially among boys. These results highlight the importance of reducing the time spent with their mobiles and playing videogames.

Finland’s first sport policy report was released in autumn 2018. In this report the main action was to increase physical activity in primary and lower secondary schools by increasing physical education (PE) step by step. In Finland, the time allocation for PE is less than the average in Europe.

Curriculum reform for upper secondary schools is still in progress and it is expected that the first drafts of the new curriculum will be seen in March 2019. In the new curriculum, the time allocation for PE is staying at the same level as before.

Lund University; Clinical and Molecular Osteoporosis Research Unit Department of Clinical Sciences

DOCTORAL DISSERTATION

Jesper Fritz; Physical Activity During Growth – Effects on Bone, Muscle, Fracture Risk and Academic Performance

Physical activity (PA) enhances bone mass, bone structure and muscle strength, traits associated with low fall and fracture risk. Since the greatest effect of PA on musculoskeletal health occurs during childhood, increased PA for all children could be a strategy to improve these traits. Since PA may also influence brain development, cognition and concentration, it has been postulated that physical activity may enhance academic performance.

The Pediatric Osteoporosis Prevention (POP) study is a population-based prospective controlled exercise intervention study with one school as the intervention school and three other schools as control schools. In the intervention school we increased the amount of physical education (PE) per week from the Swedish standard of 60 minutes to 200 minutes. Meanwhile, the control schools continued with 60 minutes of PE per school week.

We included all children (aged 6–8 years) who started first grade in these schools from 1998 to 2012 and followed them for seven years regarding fractures, using our digital radiographic archive (cohort A – 3,534 children). Children starting school between 1998 and 2000 were invited to musculoskeletal evaluations during seven years, using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) for bone parameters such as areal bone mineral density (aBMD), peripheral quantitative computed tomography (pQCT) for bone structure such as cortical thickness, and computerized dynamometer (Biodex) for muscle strength (evaluated by isokinetic peak torque) (cohort B – 261 to 264 children depending on evaluated trait). To evaluate academic performance, we included all children who finished 9th grade from 2003 to 2012 in all of Sweden (cohort C – 1,161,807 children) and in the intervention school (cohort D – 633 children) and evaluated the grade scores and eligibility for upper secondary school programs in both cohorts. We could thus compare the academic results within and between the groups before the intervention was initiated (finished school in year 2003 to 2006) and with the intervention (finished school in year 2007 to 2012).

The incidence rate ratio (IRR) of fractures in the intervention group compared to the control group decreased with each year of the intervention (r=–0.79; p=0.036). Girls in the intervention group gained more spine aBMD during the seven-year study period (p<0.05) and had higher cortical thickness (p<0.05) after seven years intervention than girls in the control group. Both girls and boys in the intervention group gained more muscle strength than their respective control group (p ranging from <0.05 to <0.01). With the intervention, the proportion of boys eligible for upper secondary school increased by 7.3 (1.4, 13.2) percentage points (pp) and the overall grade points increased by 13.3 (3.1, 23.5) points among boys.

This thesis concludes that a long-term PA intervention program initiated in pre-pubertal children reduces the fracture risk with each year of intervention, and improves skeletal traits in girls, muscle strength in both genders and academic performance in boys.

The Minister of Education in Italy is a PE teacher!

The Professor Marco Bussetti is an Italian Physical Education (PE) Teacher, a politician, a public manager and from 1 June 2018, the Minister of Education, University and Research in the Conte Government.

He graduated in Sciences and Techniques of Preventive and Adapted Motor Activity at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, with a 110/110 cum laude.

After being a PE teacher for many years, he became Head Master, Coordinator of  PE in his City, Varese and then his Region Lombardy but, his soul has always been linked to PE and the world of sport. His leading thought is: “The school is the most important tool to change the world in a better way”.

The first reform he is trying to lead during his mandate is the launch of the compulsory Physical Education Class in Primary School for at least 3 hours a week (instead of the actual 2 hours a week) taught by qualified personnel, graduates in PE. The reform should start from the higher classes of primary schools.  This proposal would not only be good for pupils but, would lead to the recruitment of thousands of unemployed PE teachers in the Italian schools.

The second reform he is leading is the construction of a new "PE National Curriculum" and, incentives for inclusive good practices in the Italian school regarding PE and sport. Last but not least, there will be more investment to renovate the sport facilities in  Italian schools. Obviously, the expectations of the PE Teachers in Italy are very high so let’s hope for the best!

Words but without Actions.

A reader of the French press and statements by the Minister of Education and Sports, might think that positive measures are being taken for sport. Journalists use the word sport to refer to including physical education and sports. We had alerted the Minister of Education who had told us that he made a real difference and that it was more understandable for parents.

The SNEP is committed to a definition of physical education that is a practical study of physical, sport  and artistic activities. The word sport does not necessarily refer to high performance sport but to the more global aspect of the cultural phenomenon. There are continuities and a gap in these forms of activities but there is a common dimension which constitutes the heart of the study in our definition of compulsory school time. These young sports people have different requirements depending upon whether they are at recreation or performance level.

The fact remains that the Minister of Education’s play on the words, speak about sports development, without ever giving any hope for development. They actually hide a very poor definition of sport by considering that it is justified to move without any content and value. Having no requirement on cultural ambition, they consider that eventually any movement or activity, will be good for the youth.

By having this type of injunction, he gives the possibility to all marketing products to move the body without having any ambition for human development. Yet sport and culture have been created by men and women to be able to experience emancipation. As psychologist Bruner Jerome says, “The human brain creates culture and culture in turn transforms it.” The culture of education, 1996

EPS program in France for high schools

An expert group had, however, proposed a programme full of hope for physical education. The SNEP-FSU did not agree with all the propositions but some points were positive for our discipline. Finally, after a consultation without any shared views, the Director of Education decided during a weekend, to change the programmes to produce a text without any ambition for school students. The curriculum divides the physical, sports and artistic activities in 5 large domains without any real coherence. For them table tennis and rugby are in the same group on the pretext that practitioners would have the same emotion in dealing with an emotion of confrontation. The text gives no more expectations or competencies but, asks the PE teacher to determine them. The knowledge is no longer National but will depend upon each school team. This conception could increase inequalities and no longer offers a common framework, no a common culture.

The National Council of the SNEP considered that there were no more curricula and decided to write a PE curriculum to disseminate to all the PE teachers in all Institutions. We will collect their opinions and feedback and then ask the specialist groups of each activity to make a new proposal. A test for the Baccalaureate and for the National Diploma will join this curriculum. A lot of work to do!