Programme 358, 2019 Conference of Irish Primary PE Association (20-3-19)

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney

Theme tune by David Vesey

On this week's programme I bring you some interviews I recorded at the 2019 annual conference of the Irish Primary PE Association which was held in the Watershed, Kilkenny on 9 March. First I spoke to Dr. Liam Clohessy, who is chair of the Association and Cameron Stewart who is a member of the Scottish Association of Teachers of Physical Education. Among the topics we covered were

• Adapting games for use in PE
• Using PE to develop leadership, resilience and fair play
• Why physical education is more than physical activity
• Time allocated to teaching physical education
• The place of physical education in Scotland
• Motivating children who are reluctant to engage in physical education class
• Benefits and drawbacks of specialist teachers for physical education

Cameron recommended Joey Feith's website and Liam recommended the websites Move Well and Move Often and the PE section of the PDST website.

Next I spoke to Dr. Frances Murphy from Dublin City University. The topics we discussed included:

• Evaluating the Irish Primary PE Association today
• Strengths and challenges of PE in Ireland today
• The benefits of integrating physical education with other school subjects
• How physical education can contribute to addressing obesity among children

Frances recommended checking out the Primary Schools’ Sports Initiative resource.