Moor Park teacher awarded for designing a new ‘skills-based’ inclusive PE curriculum with support from Blackpool FC Community Trust

Claire Singleton was recognised for her five year effort to create a new PE curriculum for pupils at Moor Park primary school.

Miss Singleton, a teacher at the Bispham school, started working on the project with help from The Blackpool FC Community Trust in 2017, and has moved classes away from sport based sessions to make PE more relevant to their pupils.

She said: “The award was really unexpected. I’m really proud of this new curriculum because it really suits our pupils at Moor Park.”

PE classes now focus on teaching transferable skills that children can use in other areas of life.

There is less focus on playing particular sports, and it has made lessons more inclusive for pupils with special educational needs.

She added: “It’s all skill-based, rather than sport-based. We teach them about strategies and tactics they can use in everyday life, so it’s much more holistic. For example, we look at attacking and defending principles. We might use a netball to learn about how we can invade space and get to a goal, but we aren’t having a game of netball.”

They also teach pupils about the benefits of physical activity, and how it affects physical and mental health.

Miss Singleton said the new curriculum has also made it easier for less sporty members of staff to teach physical education.

“Some teachers might have panicked before if they didn’t know the rules of basketball or how to do gymnastics, but as this is skill based it doesn’t matter about sport. Now they can use any equipment to meet the learning outcomes.”

Miss Singleton was presented with a Nike Strike football, and a framed, limited-edition five-year anniversary illustration, at a special school assembly.

The awards were given to mark the five year anniversary of the Premier League Primary Stars - a program that links schools with local football clubs to use the popularity of the sport to help children engage with learning and sport.