ABSTRACT
Learners bring to Key Stage 2 vast movement ability and knowledge, developed from their infancy, Early Years and Key Stage 1 experiences. For most children, much of their junior school education can be considered as the ‘skill hungry’ years, coming between the rapid growth periods that preceded their arrival in junior school and prior to the approaching adolescent growth spurt. Basic movement patterns will have been established, along with coordination and control, and learners can readily call on their extensive movement vocabulary, wide range of physical skills, increasingly mature movement memory, and knowledge of movement quality. Through games activities, they will have found out about object control and will have gained skills in manipulation of a wide range of games equipment, as well as those aspects of locomotion and stability that facilitate games playing. From their earliest days in school, learners will have created sequences with game-like content, will have found ways to progress the achievement of specific games skills such as footwork, catching, throwing, striking and kicking, and will have played games created by themselves and others. They will have found ways to manage and share the working space safely, to take responsibility for themselves, and to work alongside and with other learners, in pairs and small groups. They will have learnt about questioning, and about evaluating and recording their experiences and progress, and about how to cooperate and compete and build their motivation and confidence as they travel along their physical literacy journey. This chapter is therefore intended to build upon these achievements, and to promote creative teaching and learning for children aged 7-11 years through games playing.
