Activity Alliance celebrates World Teacher's Day
Today is the 25th Annual World Teacher's Day – an UNESCO initiative devoted to appreciating, assessing and improving the educators of the world. To celebrate the occasion, Activity Alliance highlights how our Sainsbury’s Active Kids for All Inclusive PE Training programme supports new teachers to develop their skills.
World Teacher's Day (5 October 2019) provides an opportunity for teachers across the globe to come together to celebrate the profession they love. Above all, it recognises the dedication of teachers to ensure all pupils can access and enjoy an inclusive and equitable quality education.
This year’s theme is 'Young Teachers: The future of the profession'. Attracting and keeping young teachers in the profession is a major challenge globally. With access to meaningful professional development opportunities often mentioned as a challenge.
At Activity Alliance, we support teacher development through our Sainsbury's Active Kids for All Inclusive PE Training Programme.
Sainsbury’s Inclusive PE Training is a London 2012 Paralympic Legacy initiative. It provides free inclusion training for teachers, trainee teachers and school staff. It gives teachers the confidence, knowledge and skills to deliver a high quality inclusive PE curriculum for all young people.
Garrie Rogers, PE teacher at Southfields School in Coventry, recently attended an Inclusive PE Training workshop. Afterwards, He told us about how this development opportunity supports him to include all children in his PE lessons.
Garrie said:
"I became a teacher because I wanted to teach a variety of subjects and aid children in becoming well-rounded individuals that have the ability to be successful in the future of their choice.
"Inclusion training such as the Sainsbury’s Inclusive PE Training is needed to boost the confidence of teachers with little subject knowledge. It provides a wealth of ideas to allow children to take control of their learning. I started my career with very little training on providing physical activity opportunities for all children in my classes. Training such as this has boosted my knowledge and confidence to deliver inclusive PE lessons."
"Access to specific training such as the Sainsbury’s Inclusive PE Training most definitely has an impact on teacher motivation and job satisfaction. I believe this training should be a part of all initial teacher training offers across the country, and also offered as a refresher for all teachers after a few years of being in the profession."
Garrie is now one of over 14,000 teachers, trainee teachers and school staff who have attended a Sainsbury’s Active Kids for All Inclusive PE Training workshop. As a result of the programme, an estimated 340,000 disabled children now have access to high quality inclusive PE Lessons.
Garrie explains the impact positive experiences of PE have on young people and how this can influence their sporting habits throughout life:
"Positive experiences of PE at school have a lasting impact on children’s memories of sport and open the door to a lifelong passion for sporting activities."
Activity Alliance manages delivery of the Sainsbury's Inclusive PE Training Programme. This is in partnership with our home nation counterparts, Youth Sport Trust and British Paralympic Association. Sainsbury's has funded the Programme since 2012.
