Inclusive PE workshop

PGCE and School Direct trainee Physical Education teachers engaged in a wheelchair basketball workshop at the School of Sport and Service Management as part of their induction to teacher training. The day also consisted of awareness training related to teaching pupils with hearing impairments using sign language and guiding pupils with sight impairments.

The programme run in association with Albion in the Community covered both theoretical and practical aspects of teaching pupils with additional learning needs.  The aim of the day was to give the trainee PE teachers a greater understanding of more inclusive approaches to teaching. Many mainstream secondary schools have pupils who have sight or hearing impairments or are wheelchair users; PE teachers need to plan inclusive activities for these pupils.

As part of achieving the professional standards to teach, trainees must have a clear understanding of the needs of all pupils, including those with special educational needs and with disabilities, and be able to use and evaluate distinctive teaching approaches to engage and support.

Course leader and principal lecturer Dr Gary Stidder said: “Wheelchair basketball and sight-impaired football are great alternative activities and can be introduced to sighted pupils and non-wheelchair users in schools. It is also a very good educational tool for PE teachers to educate able-bodied pupils in secondary schools.”