%20Text%20(Violet).png)
I write blogs very regularly – once a week, in fact – and I hope that weekly visitors to this page will recognise that I try to write with meaning and I try to speak to PE teachers directly in a personal and authentic way. Well, this week, I hope, can be the epitome of this intention, as I want to share something with you that is meaningful and impacting for me.
In recent weeks, you may have heard rumblings about something called The EverLearner PE Teacher Academy. “The new place for PE teachers to do their CPD”, they say. Well, I want to clarify for you all what is about to happen and, more importantly, why I have taken this step.
My mission in my work is the following:
To radically improve the PE achievements of all students and transform the PE-teaching sector into the best-trained and highest-performing classroom teaching network in the world.
Everyone has a mission, right? “They’re ten a penny”, I hear you say. “It’s just another intention statement”, the cynic cries out. No! This is my life’s work. This is my heart. This is what I truly care about every day, and the very reason I do what I do.
I want you to focus on the second half of the mission:
“...transform the PE-teaching sector into the best-trained and highest-performing classroom teaching network in the world.”
I believe that the PE teaching sector is uniquely positioned to disrupt the assumptions that occur in education, in schools and in classrooms, and to do so in the most positive of ways. For this reason, with the incredible support of my brilliant team, I am building..
The EverLearner PE Teacher Academy
The academy is a space where all PE teachers can learn deeply and at their own pace about five paradigms of classroom PE teaching. They are:
| PE Curriculum |
| PE Subject knowledge |
| PE Pedagogy |
| PE Cognitive Science |
| PE Course design and assessment |
Take a look at at some sneak peeks from the pedagogy area of the PE Teacher Academy (this is still in development so holding text is in place for now):
The courses will be available to PE teachers 365 days a year and can be learnt using any device, from a phone to a console to a tablet to a computer, or even a smart TV.
Here are some of the other characteristics of the Academy:
✅ Absolutely PE-specific CPD
✅ Hundreds of PE courses to choose from
✅ Based on the most up-to-date research and thinking on classroom PE teaching – if something changes, we change our course!
✅ Each PE course lasting one hour, on average
✅ Taught PE material within an educationally designed video player
✅ Tiered PE quizzing for preparing for assessment and certification
✅ Assessment and certification via checkpoint
✅ Capacity to study up to three PE courses simultaneously
✅ Record of PE achievement
✅ PE CPD log
Here is what it is not:
❌ Generic to teaching as a whole
❌ Fad-based
❌ Occasional
❌ Expensive
❌ Travel-dependent
❌ A way for one colleague to set work for a PE colleague – assignments will be disabled for the academy, although recommendations will be possible. But a PE teacher can also choose to share their record of achievement if they wish.
I candidly believe that the academy can be the vehicle PE teachers need to become magnificent classroom educators. I am not for one second saying that you, the reader of this statement, is not this already, but I am addressing the realities of how things are structured at the moment:
👉 Trainee PE teachers receive zero or near-zero training in classroom PE teaching.
👉 ECTs and more experienced teachers are often thrown into classroom teaching with little support, training or guidance.
👉 Classroom PE teaching is a significant source of PE-teacher accountability.
But most importantly, this:
Classroom PE teaching is a skill set. It can be learned with the right guidance and the right resources when they are available to those wishing to learn at the time that they need it.
So, colleagues, I have these questions for you:
1. What would it mean to you if you and your team were the cauldron of high-quality, impactful and truly educative skills in classroom (PE) teaching?
2. What would it mean if your PE department became, quite literally, the highest-skilled classroom teaching department in your school, region or county or, hopefully, all three?
3. What would it mean for you?
4. What would it mean for your students?
5. What would it mean for your course enrollment, retention and achievement statistics?
6. What might happen to your added value scores?
And finally, I want to make a declaration to you… A guarantee:
I promise you that if the PE teaching sector backs me by engaging with The EverLearner PE Teacher Academy, I will stop at nothing to continue to bring you the absolute best there is in classroom PE teacher CPD. I promise you that, in the coming months and years, you and your PE teams will be able to learn EVERYTHING and ANYTHING you wish about classroom PE teaching in a way that suits you.
To use a metaphor:
Join me in the town square. I will be there at the break of light every single day with support, assistance and clear guidance. Join me in the conversation and –I promise you– I will be there for you and your teams. Remember, this is my life’s work, and I will stop at (almost… you know… the criminal, unethical stuff is to be avoided) nothing to achieve it:
To radically improve the PE achievements of all students and transform the PE-teaching sector into the best-trained and highest-performing classroom teaching network in the world.
If you'd like to find out more about our PE Teacher Academy, you can register for updates by clicking the button below:
Thank you for reading.
James