ABSTRACT
Over the last thirty three years as a teacher and lecturer I have observed and experienced the marginal role that primary physical education has played in schools, within the physical education profession and in higher education. During this period the physical education literature has consistently emphasised the low status of primary physical education (Pollatschek, 1979; PEA, 1987; Williams, 1989; Shaughnessy and Price, 1995; Carney and Winkler, 2008; Griggs, 2010), especially in relation to the core subjects of English, mathematics and science (Pickup and Price, 2007). In recent years, however, there are signs that primary physical education is gradually beginning to receive more attention around the world (Xiang et al., 2002; Armour and Duncombe, 2004; Ha et al., 2004; Marsden and Weston, 2007; Morgan and Bourke, 2008; Quay and Peters, 2008; Petrie, 2010). This change in fortune is particularly noticeable in Scotland where, following the publication of a national Review of Physical Education (Scottish Executive, 2004), the number of primary school children receiving two hours of curriculum physical education increased from 5 per cent to 55 per cent in a four-year period (Scottish Executive, 2006; Scottish Government, 2010). In addition, the Scottish Government has supported a considerable increase in physical education CPD (continuing professional development) opportunities for generalist primary teachers by commissioning both the universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh to create and deliver postgraduate master’s-level certicates in primary physical education to help class teachers develop a specialism in primary physical education. Available to all registered teachers in Scotland these programmes have attracted in excess of 1200 teachers from all 32 local authorities which, in a country with just over 2000 primary schools, is beginning to help primary physical education move from the margins of education.
