Following the announcement on the 4th January 2021 that England is entering a further national lockdown we are working to update this page and anticipate that some of the 3rd-party sites that we link to will be doing the same. So, please bear in mind that in the meantime some of the information currently on this page may not meet the requirements of the lockdown.

Page last updated: 15/1/21

Support for schools in Merseyside around  COVID-19 

The COVID-19 outbreak has undoubtedly made school look a whole lot different at the moment. But one thing that hasn’t changed is the fact that physical activity is just as valuable, if not more so, for children’s physical and mental wellbeing right now.

With that in mind, we’ve pulled together a range of carefully chosen resources to help both teachers still delivering in school and parents who are home-schooling to keep children moving.

As life’s complicated enough at the moment we’ve kept the focus on easy activities that can be done in bite-sized chunks to break up the day, plus all of the physical activity content has been chosen to be relevant to the PE curriculum. There’s also information about healthy eating, ways to keep children safe online and more.

Going forward we’ll be looking at other ways to help schools react and adapt to the changes that COVID-19 is bringing, so please bookmark this page, so you can visit for updates as things evolve.

Here are our latest picks
  • A Liverpool primary school teacher will lead a live workout challenge for pupils across the city next month. The high intensity 30-minute workout, which will be streamed live on Friday 5 February via Zoom, is suitable for pupils from reception up to Year 6 and requires no equipment.
  • The new #WalkingFromHome activity booklet for families is here and it features 14 sets of activities for families with primary school-aged children.
  • The Chance to Shine ‘Cricket at Home’ series has been developed to support children to stay active if they are not in schools. Each session features a clear and easy to follow instructional video with a supporting written guidance document. The sessions are all linked to PE National Curriculum Learning Outcomes and feature individual and pairs activities.
  • The Youth Sport Trust has updated coronavirus resources;
    • Whether you’re a teacher in school or teaching remotely, or a parent or carer supporting home learning, here you will find free resources, guidance documents and digital support to help you with PE, sport and physical activity during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • School Games Physical Activities Directory – Activities to help reverse the effects of COVID19 Primary Schools.

KEY STAGES 1 & 2
COVID-19 UPDATES:

The government document
‘Guidance for full opening: schools‘ states:

 

“The curriculum should remain broad, so that the majority of pupils are taught a full range of subjects over the year, including sciences, humanities, the arts, physical education/sport, religious education and relationships and health education”

 

 

 

 

 

Key take-outs from government guidance in relation to physical education and activity in schools:

  • Each employer should interpret and instruct you on how staff should work to remain as safe as practicable in your own/each setting
  • Pupils should be kept in consistent groups, sports equipment thoroughly cleaned between each use by different individual groups, and contact sports avoided.
  • Outdoor sports should be prioritised where possible, and large indoor spaces used where it is not, maximising distancing between pupils and paying scrupulous attention to cleaning and hygiene.
  • External facilities can also be used in line with government guidance for the use of, and travel to and from, those facilities.
  • Activities such as active miles, making break times and lessons active and encouraging active travel help enable pupils to be physically active while encouraging physical distancing.
  • Where any equipment is shared, for example when throwing a ball back to a peer, it is important that the equipment is kept as clean as possible by ensuring it is cleaned before and after each lesson using the cleaning agents provided by your school.

Top tips for spending the Primary PE and Sport Premium

The Active Partnership National Team have worked with afPE, Youth Sport Trust and the Department for Education to contribute and endorse the Seven Top Tips for the PE and Sport Premium during Covid. The document has been created to give schools some examples of effective and sustainable use of the funding.

You may find the Association for Physical Education’s guide ‘COVID-19 Frequently Asked Questions‘ useful:

 

Physical activity ideas

Department for Education’s online video collection 

  • Creative and entertaining content that helps staff to safely offer 30 active minutes in a COVID-secure environment. This includes videos from schools and young leaders across the country sharing best practice on how to incorporate being active into lessons, break-times and travel times, content from Sport England featuring their Daily Activators doing the ‘Daily Mile’, inclusive activities for pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and content to encourage more girls to get involved in physical activity.
    Access the collection here

The Daily Mile™ 

  • MSP has been working to give every primary school in Merseyside the chance benefit from doing The Daily Mile™ and the good news is that the vast majority of pupils can still enjoy the benefits whether they are being home-schooled or attending the school itself.

#ThisIsPE

  • Developed by one of the organisations in our wider network, Yorkshire Sport Foundation, the resources available through #ThisIsPE are recommended by the Department for Education. Working with physical educators around the country they are posting two-minute videos every Monday, Wednesday and Friday that will show parents and teachers free, fun and easy to follow PE activities.
    www.yorkshiresport.org/get-active/thisispe/

The FA superkickers:

  • The FA SuperKicks app, has hundreds of fun active challenges as well as
    cool creative tasks. Earn Super Points for trying different challenges and get
    rewarded with special badges.

http://www.thefa.com/get-involved/the-fa-superkicks

twitter.com/FA 

#FASuperKicks

YST PE Home learning:

  • PE activities that can be done individually or in pairs/small groups with
    a focus on the development of physical competence and actively
    learning the importance of personal skills to support social, emotional
    and mental wellbeing.

https://www.youthsporttrust.org/pe-home-learning

YST Support for schools

  • You will find a range of resources to support the widening of provision in your school with some year groups returning from 01 June. The resources should be used in line with Government and statutory guidance and are focused on the principles and practicalities of delivering PE and sport under current restrictions.

https://www.youthsporttrust.org/coronavirus-support-schools

GoNoodle

  • GoNoodle engages 14 million kids every month with movement and mindfulness videos created by child development experts. Available for free at school, home, and everywhere kids are!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2YBT7HYqCbbvzu3kKZ3wnw

RLWC 2021 Education Hub

  • The RLWC2021 Education hub provides not only resources to support delivery of rugby league across our primary and secondary schools, but also provides a vast array of cross-curricular lesson plans to educate our primary age children using the excitement surrounding a world class sporting event happening right here in England!

https://www.rlwc2021.com/education 

British Dodgeball

  • This competition guide has been designed to provide teachers with simple guidance that enables them to run intra-bubble dodgeball competitions for the whole class. We hope it helps teachers to offer pupils the experience of a dodgeball competition whilst there may be an absence of inter-school competitions due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

https://www.britishdodgeball.org/resources/

Beth Tweddle Gymnastics

  • This is a 10 week scheme of work, aligned to Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 outcomes across Science, PHSE and Physical Education, and is centred around the development of physical literacy and our Beth Tweddle Values.

https://bethtweddlegymnastics.co.uk/national-curriculum

KS2 Ultimate Frisbee Intra – school competition guide and videos!

  • Click the link to be inspired by the amazing videos

SEND activities and resources

Activity Alliance

  • Activity Alliance is sharing the top ways to adapt activities so more people can move more while at home. The STEP tool is one of the most effective ways to use household items to be active.
  • Free inclusion training to teachers and school staff, so they can deliver a high- quality inclusive PE curriculum for all young people. 

Help Kidz Learn

  • HelpKidzLearn is a collection of software for young children and those with learning difficulties to play online. The software is split into five sections: Early Years, Games and Quizzes, Stories and Songs, Creative Play & Find Out About.

Sensory App House

  •  Sensory App House creates apps for stimulation, relaxation, fun, digital art and speech therapy.

Boccia England

  • This is a series of skill-based challenges, with each student completing the challenge, contributing to their school or college score. There will be three rounds, with each round consisting of four activities. If you do not have boccia equipment, then don’t panic. The activities can be completed using other PE or home equipment (i.e. tennis balls, bean bags, socks).

https://www.bocciaengland.org.uk/news/new-virtually-boccia-challenge-launched

Guidance & online safety links

Association for Physical Education guide: 

Public Health school zone

Cyber security resources and guidance

NSPCC safeguarding advice for remote teaching

Mindfulness and Healthy Living

Cosmic Yoga

Change for Life

Healthy Futures:

  • Sign up for a weekly food and activity log, plus daily exercise videos to keep children active. Healthy Futures signup.

Anna Freud:

Some final things to bear in mind:

• There may be a lag between headline announcements in the media and detailed government guidance being published.
• Organisations interpreting the guidance may then need a few days to do this, so you may need to be patient and keep checking back on their websites.
• Everyone’s situation is slightly different, so you may need to cross-reference several sources of information to get the complete picture that applies to you.
• MSP is providing this information in good faith and aims to keep this page as up-to-date as possible, but because of the fast-moving nature of the situation, it’s possible that information may inadvertently become out-of-date. Many of the links we provide offer ‘page last updated’ information, which can be useful to help you know whether you are looking at current guidance.

Contact us

 For more information please email;

Grace Perry on g.perry@merseysidesport.com

or Amy Fisher a.fisher@merseysidesport.com

 

 

 

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