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Student Name
Student Number
Title - Focusing on a major policy or strategy document in the field of sports
development or coaching
...
Critically review how this chosen policy or strategy has
been reflected by a specific sports development or coaching programme
...


Introduction
The English National Curriculum was revised in 2000, with new literacy and
numeracy strategies being implemented
...
(Casbon and Walters, 2004, DCMS, 2008 and Department for Education and
Skills, DfES survey, 2000)

There has been a growing concern over the last 40 years at the decline of sport and
physical activity within modern lifestyles especially among young people
...
As well as the number of schools not delivering two or more hours of high
quality PE to students, it is thought that team sports are taking precedence over
physical activity and PE curriculum
...
There is a clear trend showing increased participation among young people
across Western Europe
...
Sir John Wolfenden chaired this committee and presented the
Wolfenden Report
...


Historical
The government decided to embed PESSCL strategy to increase participation rates in
physical activity, improve the quality of PE and School Sport (PESS), improve fitness
levels, tackle health issues and improve performance and gain success in sport at
international level by ensuring talented athletes have a clear pathway to elite sport
...


The government believed that “two hours of physical activity a week, including the
National Curriculum for Physical Education and extra-curricular activities, should be
an aspiration for all schools” (National Curriculum for England – Physical
Education, 2000)

PESSCL was launched by Tony Blair on 2nd October 2002 and the government also
decided to expand the Specialist Schools programme to include Specialist Sport
Colleges, this was meant to improve the infrastructure for School Sport along with the
development of the School Sports Co-ordinator Programme
...
Bloyce and Smith (2010) suggest that
PESSCL was aimed at bringing together programmes already in place to provide a
more co-ordinated, effective and efficient way to improve the provision and
experience of PESS to young people
...
”
The state of play in 2003 was that 25% of 5-7 year olds, 40% of 7-11 year olds, 33%
of 11-14 year olds and 14-16 year olds had achieved this
...


It is also stated in Learning through PE and Sport (2003) that PESS within and
beyond the curriculum can improve pupil behaviour, attainment, attendance, selfesteem, concentration and commitment
...


Where is the evidence to suggest these pupil traits needed to be improved and how are
they going to be measured? For example do English children need their self-esteem
boosted or is self-efficacy a better trait to improve? (Coalter, 2007)
Self-esteem can create bullies, reduce coachability/teachability and creates ‘know it
alls’ therefore having a negative effect on behaviour and attitude to learning
...
This is supported by Kirk (2005) who measures physical self worth,
known as self-efficacy and not self-esteem in his research
...


Programmme theory is the logic behind the programme or strategy and the research
which it is based on
...
Programme theory is also crucial so that the

organisation and deliverers understand their programme, how it works, what its
proposing to achieve can be measured and creating clear visions and not fuzzy
snapshots
...
”

Coalter, (2007) suggests the key elements of programme theory are identifying the
key components, having clear success mechanisms and processes, then having a
relationship between the mechanisms and outcomes
...

Do the DCMS and schools understand the strategy and how it should be implemented
to achieve their aims? The essay aims to answer this
...

In the five years before PESSCL PE and youth sport in England had been getting
increasing amounts of money for their initiatives, this will continue as PESSCL in its
first three years received £459 million to transform PESS and £686 million to

improve school sport facilities which means over £1 billion being invested
...
(Casbon and Walters,
2004)

How are they going to measure it, and equally how will they deliver it, will they
measure across all schools, and continually monitor and evaluate to ensure this is
being delivered? Is the government suggesting that the current PE being delivered is
not high quality?
Casbon and Walters (2004) suggest the ten high quality outcomes led to the
realisation that no data was being collected to assess the quality of PESS in schools,
partnerships or clubs
...
So how are these going to be measured, do they all
need improved and how will PESSCL achieve them?

For example one of the characteristics you will not see in young people participating
in high quality PE is hesitancy in their performance, however if PE is not delivered
through a child-centred approach by teachers and offering an activity they want to do
then you may see a lack of desire and hesitancy in their performance
...
Could hesitancy and lack of desire be caused along with some children having
less confidence because PE is structured around traditional team games and teachers
focussing on the more talented pupils
...
Activities
should be made attractive to boost fitness levels and health not just running laps of
pitches as cross-country but use spin, circuits and boxercise
...
They included Specialist Sports Colleges (SSC) where a secondary
school could become a SSC, with a unique ethos, receive additional funding and focus
on the curriculum area PE and sport
...
How will
they measure whole school standards and what exactly are they? (Learning through
PE and Sport, 2003, and Casbon and Walters, 2004)

School Sport Partnerships (SSP), is where secondary and primary schools combine to
enhance PE and school sport provision
...
The
partnership receives £270,000 each year and runs an extra-curricular sport and dance
programme amongst all the schools
...

SSP aim to help all schools pupils to get a minimum of two hours a week of high
quality PE and sport
...
(Learning through PE and
Sport, 2003, and Casbon and Walters, 2004)

Step into Sport is a programme to encourage, recruit and train young people to
become leaders and volunteers, to help within SSP’s and local clubs
...
Is volunteering a thing of the past, are volunteers becoming fewer and
fewer? Is it due to hassle attached to volunteering including indemnity insurance,
child protection courses, the need for coaching qualifications, a level 2 award to work
on your own with children, time, planning and effort spent, hassle from parents,
police checks the list could go on and is coaching becoming or has it become a
profession? Is volunteering sustainable come 2015 and 2020, as teenagers are likely to
coach and gain payment rather than volunteer once they have gained a coaching
qualification?

Gifted and Talented programmes, a working strand, are set up to identify, develop and
support pupils with talent in PE, sport or dance through quality teaching, coaching,
raising aspirations and improving performance as well as academic studies
...

The programme aims to provide training for teachers and resources to help support
the athletes
...


Do their aspirations need improved, have they been measured and compared with
other elite sporting countries? Is high self-esteem needed and is it a positive or is selfefficacy better
...
If the schools, clubs, NGBs create the strong links, there would be a
better chance of the children joining
...

The majority of schools had a whole school (90
...
4%)
policy for developing talent, although schools used a wide range of strategies for

identifying and developing the talented pupils in PE
...
7% of schools had both
a whole school and departmental policies for identifying and developing talent, 6
...
(Bailey et al
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7%)
...


OfSTED (2004) stated that talent identification should not just be based on current
performance, but on potential to achieve a high ability
...
5% of heads of
department identify on current performance levels, 94
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9% on club sport, and only 20
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This is certainly a
concern, a very elitist approach which takes away the opportunity for pupils aspiring
to the Gifted and Talented programme and who are late developers, this could lead to
drop-out of PE and Sport
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(Bailey et al
...
(2009) suggest that many of these school policies identify and develop
talented pupils lack policy direction and programme theory
...


The impact of the programme was interesting, 58
...
2% believed there had been no benefit in terms of

motivation, confidence and improving self-esteem, although this is hard to measure
and prove
...
(2009) states that tracking improvement was not easily
quantifiable, but believed the programme had helped break down participation
barriers for girls
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They seem to rely on their own narrow range of experience
of performance at a high level and feel better qualified to identify athletes in their own
sport, so pupils in their teachers sport are more likely to be identified, this is a concern
and weakness
...
, 2009)

Bailey et al
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Secondly, only a
third of PE departments use levels of criteria, such as skill tests to identify talented
pupils, they just use performance levels
...
Finally, if schools used this criteria of
current performance in school sport and a talented athlete whose activity is not
offered in school sport or may not participate in club sport due to finance or transport
may be excluded
...
(2009) makes further suggestions to aid the implementation of the
programme, including more funding to provide better support, facilities, staff training
and transport
...
Finally to identify pupils earlier and a greater number to
justify coaching sessions
...
It suggests that schools
will guide the pupils into NGB affiliated clubs, this is crucial because the clubs must
be accredited and implementing good practice and safeguarding young people
...

Coaching is seen as a vital component to enable and support a lot of these
programmes and deliver extra-curricular programmes
...
Coaching task force was introduced from
2003 to boost Coach Education, this has increased the number of coaches available to
schools
...
Will these coaches be assessed before
entry to schools to ensure they will deliver high quality sessions and meeting the
target? (Learning through PE and Sport, 2003)

Professional development aims to give teachers the expertise and resources they need
including videos, workshops, interactive training and a mentoring system
...

This was delivered by re-designing the curriculum for PE, so pupils were learning
more through progress and achievement, offering skill and health enhancing activities
at break or lunch time to improve behaviour and attitudes, to use time before and after
school to enhance pupils self-esteem and attendance and to find better ways to
develop teachers
...


The swimming programme aimed at increasing opportunities for young people to try
swimming or take lessons
...


OfSTED (2002) stated that 80% of pupils could swim 25 metres by the end of key
stage 2 and this programme was delivered through two pilot top up schemes which
were to get the remaining 20% to reach this target
...
Can every elite athlete in every sport swim 25
metres, is it more beneficial for these pupils to try another physical activity?

Political
The New Labour government was voted in during 1997 and it “put sport on a
broader social policy agenda” (Coalter, 2007:14) due to the benefits of participation
...
New labour made a link between sport and active
citizenship
...

They were in favour of trade unions but the working class abused the system and the
economy collapsed
...


New Labour created the “third way” a mixture of previous old labour, far left
traditions and far right conservative thoughts
...
The labour
traditionalists were not happy as traditional values were disappearing
...
It also started a cross-cutting regime to get all departments working
together, social justice, health, education, DCMS were all linked to achieve the wider
goals
...
”

There has been a shift from passive welfare where benefits and services were a right,
to now an ‘active citizenship’ where these benefits or services are rewards
encouraging people to be active and responsible citizens
...
This made
them into active citizens, helping reduce crime, decreasing unemployment and
therefore decreasing handouts
...


Communities with a higher social capital are those with better infrastructure, more
active citizens, lower crime rates, better health and less child abuse
...

However, New Labour placed importance on “evidence-based policy making, value
for money, welfare effectiveness and outcome evaluation of various forms of public
investment
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The SSPP focuses on gender equity issues, and the programme is having a
positive impact by extending the range and provision of extra-curricular activities and
increasing the number of young people who are physically active, however this is
only a snap-shot
...
Kirk (2005) suggests that teachers lack awareness of girls interests, if
they offer activities for girls they are more likely to participate
...
Firstly it is important to have the
programme at local facilities to attract socio-economically deprived background
children
...
Thirdly, to increase activity levels
in the four target under-represented groups, girls and woman, ethnic minority youth,
disabled young people and children from socio-economically deprived backgrounds
...
To gain high quality PE, teachers assumed they should provide more of
the activities that form the NCPE eg, competitive sports
...
(Flintoff, 2008)

Local professional clubs were proactive getting their coaches working with children
in schools, these sports were the traditional team sports, rugby league and union and
football, but are these sports going to deliver the aims of PESSCL? Are more children
going to participate through these sport clubs? These clubs did have girls team,
however it was difficult to get the girls included at these clubs
...
However, he suggests schools

should function as multi-sport clubs for KS1, 2 and 3 children to reduce costs, offer
early quality experiences in a range of sports and activities and integrate the school
and community
...


More talented girls sports like hockey and netball rely on volunteers which meant
delivery at weekends or evenings and they couldn’t get into schools during school
hours which made linking more difficult
...
(Flintoff, 2008)
Kay (2000) cited in Kirk (2005) suggests children’s participation at clubs or in the
community is determined by social class, as white middle class children are overrepresented
...
Parental support is also seen as a determining factor
...
Kay’s (2000)
research suggests trends increasing the divide between rich and poor, as single-parent
families are increasing and predicts challenges to PESSCL increasing the participation
among social groups who are already under-represented within and outside of school
or extra-curricular
...
The team was all boys and the girls participation in the club decreased

significantly
...
Girls thought
that they were ‘getting in the way’ and ‘not good enough’
...

Flintoff (2008) suggests that there should be clear targets for including girls and other
under-represented groups and that they were starting to see that the need is there to
move on from the dominant sports, as primary link teachers are now receiving inservice training for dance and gymnastics as well as individual activities like
orienteering and cycling
...


Many co-ordinators felt, despite their best efforts, that it was unlikely that some pupils
would ever take an active part
...
They concluded that it was difficult to
attract pupils who had not traditionally been included in PE and sport, girls were part
of this group
...


Flintoff (2008) suggests the following sociological impacts of PESSCL, SSPP’s has
provided more opportunities for children and girls to participate in physical activity
within and beyond the curriculum however opportunities developed were limited due
to the competitive team nature of extra-curricular provision and inter-school

competitions, this had done little to include the majority of girls and boys
...

There was also very little evidence of equity issues from the co-ordinators and that
very few activities targeted pupils from under-represented groups
...

Flintoff (2008) suggests that competitive team sports, a masculinised discourse, has
been a feature of PE for many years and without strong policy support, the change
will be difficult to sustain
...
However, it must be noted that some
partnerships have provided some targeted provision for girls, but it is limited and
Flintoff (2008:408) concludes “As the SSPP is extended to include every school in the
country, it remains to be seen whether or not the programme can offer positive
experiences for all
...
(2002) and Dagkas and Stathi (2007) suggest that the increased
accessibility of high calorie food, computer games and transport has increased the
sedentary lifestyle among young children/people
...
The Department of Health
(2004) reports that the increase in health-related diseases, increase of obesity among
young people and the increase in sedentary behaviours affect young people’s
participation in physical activity and shows that physical activity on a regular basis is
very important
...


Kirk (2005) suggests secondary schools programmes had limited impact in
transferring knowledge learned in school into adult life
...


Bloom (1985) cited in Kirk (2005) states that athletes who reach the top go through
three phases the early years, middle years and the later years
...

Cote and Hay (2002) cited in Kirk (2005) suggests a simple pattern, the sampling
years (7-12 age group), where young people participate in a range of activities which
are fun, maximise enjoyment and the emphasis is on playing not training, this delivers
FUN, develops technique and tactical understanding, known as deliberate play
...
The aim is to improve current levels of performance and intensity
of training
...
Kirk (2005) suggests KS3 is too late to introduce
pupils to deliberate play as PESSCL tries, early years are critical and provides
research against early specialisation
...
If they
gain deliberate play therefore quality early experiences, it has a positive impact on
motivation and self-perceptions of competence and hence participation
...
Kirk
(2005) suggests deliberate play explains and affects the motivational profiles of the
children
...
Between 8to12 they
realise that they may be unable to complete tasks regardless of effort
...
A pupil with
lower perceived ability may not want to play football with other pupils with high
perceived ability, but many participate in a recreational activity, what PESSCL is
trying to achieve
...
He also
suggests from data collected since 1970’s tell a consistent story, that the majority of
adults do not participate in activities they experienced at school
...


Kirk (2005) suggests it’s too early to say whether PESSCL will be able to readdress
the problem due to the lack of PE qualified teachers in lower and upper primary
schools
...


Kirk (2005) suggests several interventions for PESSCL, firstly suggesting the use of
Teaching Games For Understanding approach (TGFU), to ‘play the game’ rather than
skills and drills
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Schools Sport Coordinators
need to allocate somebody to deliver this
...
TGFU also delivers modified games in the approach such as Kwik
Cricket, Tag Rugby which create a better learning environment
...
Being physically
larger and stronger will give an advantage in sports skills
...
This is where schools, through PESSCL
need to deliver recreational activities
...
(See Model Below),
PESSCL aims firstly to increase the participation levels of all pupils in PE and the
amount of time each pupil spends taking part in high quality PE
...
It is aimed through high quality
PE that pupils will gain early quality experiences in primary schools and then learn to
play and practice in KS2 and KS3
...
The other pathway would be Long-Term
player/athlete Development Pathway onto Training to Train stage then Training to
Compete stage and then finally training to win and high performance elite sport
...


(Irish Sports Council, 2006)
Critical Analysis on the Implementation and Impacts of PESSCL
Smith et al
...

Another assumption Smith et al
...

Smith et al
...
e
...


Kirk (2005) suggests there are several structural problems with how PE and sport are
available to young people that PESSCL does not address due to the absence of
research and programme theory in the strategy
...


Structural problem one, is the importance of early learning experiences for life-long
involvement participation, it is thought this will trigger a rethink of PESSCL and
aspects of Game Plan
...

Structural problem three is that primary schools are unable to deliver quality
experiences because of no PE specialists and PE teachers in secondary schools come
too late to impact on the majority of children in their motivation or perception never
mind ability
...
Secondly, volunteer coaches in clubs are facing larger, mixed ability groups
who have mixed interest and motivation towards a particular sport
...


Impacts made by PESSCL
PESSCL is said to have achieved its target a year early by achieving 86% of all 5-16
year olds participating in 2 hours of PE a week by 2007 and this was extended to 90%
in 2008
...
So has the strategy been that successful? Were all these
children receiving high quality PE, or was this just being assumed and therefore the
data is biased and unreliable
...
(Bloyce and Smith, 2010 and DCMS, 2008)

Also, who was collecting the data, external researchers or schools submitting data as
during Casbon and Walters’ (2004) research through questionnaires to Heads of PE
departments, results showed that PESSCL was based on assumptions for example that
the provision was planned and focused therefore the PE was high quality
...

This could lead to less funding and pupils going to other schools
...


However, it is suggested that participation levels have increased since PESSCL in
2003 but not necessarily meeting the target or as high as data presents
...
If you were
to measure the impact of PESSCL on attainment and attendance in particular, you
would need to monitor their PE participation and attendance for those year 7 children
in 2003 until the end of year 11 in 2007 and then compare against their GCSE exam
results
...

Bloyce and Smith (2010) suggest that SSP’s have helped improve primary school PE
more than secondary school PE, not surprising due to the previous lack of provision,
specialists and opportunities
...


Bloyce and Smith (2010) suggest PESS is being used to achieve governments nonsport objectives, and that some secondary schools involvement in PESSCL had little
impact on the management of PE, as there was a tradition of independence and were
unwelcoming to new ways
...
This is great provision for girls,
non-sporty or ethnic groups
...

Bloyce and Smith (2010) allow secondary schools to identify and recruit the talented
pupils from feeder primary schools, ensuring competition between secondary schools,
but is this a positive and deliberate or an unintended outcome?

Non-policy Goals
(Coalter, 2007:108) states there is “mixed, inconsistent and largely non-cumulative
evidence about the positive educational impacts of physical education and sport
...
(Coalter, 2007 and Bloyce and
Smith, 2010)

Only 43% of headmasters and 52% of Heads of PE thought attendance had improved
slightly by PESS and 45% of headmasters and 46% of Heads of PE thought
attainment had slightly improved due to PESS
...


It has been suggested that there is no significant relationship and a lack of robust
evidence between being part of a SSP and improved attainment sources in exams
...


Although teachers, others involved in SSP, PESSCL and government claim and
publish all these benefits of PESS there is very little empirical research and evidence
...
(Bloyce and Smith, 2010; Coalter, 2007)

Conclusion
The PE and Sport Strategy for Young People (PESSYP) was launched in 2008 to
build on the assumed success of PESSCL and £783 million was invested over the first
three years
...


YST in 2010 is merging with Sport England due to the 2012 Olympics, which will
lead to less funding or a possibility of all funding being withdrawn due to the 2012
Olympics and also what impact will the change of government have on funding? Will

the decrease in funding impact on the sustainability of PESSYP and existing PESSCL
programmes
...
As outlined
in the essay there are several sociological, theoretical, structural problems and
implementation issues
...
, Morley, D
...
(2009) ‘Talent development in physical
education: a national survey of policy and practice in England’, Physical
Education & Sport Pedagogy, 14(1): 59-72
Bloyce, D
...
(2010) Sport Policy and Development: an Introduction,
Routledge: London And New York
Casbon, C
...
(2004) The English approach to collecting information
on the quality of Physical Education and School Sport (PESS) in English Schools
and its impact on young people and whole school improvement, Australian
Association for Research in Education
Coalter, F
...
and Stathi A
...
, Scratton, G
...
(2002) ‘The contribution of secondary
school Physical Education to Lifetime Physical Activity’, European Physical
education Review 8(1):69-84
Flintoff, A
...
(2008) Understanding Physical Education, SAGE Publications
Hargreaves, J
...
(2005) “Physical Education, Youth Sport and Lifelong Participation:
The importance of Early Learning Experiences”, European Physical Education
Review, 11(3): 239-255

Office of Standards in Education (2002) OfSTED Annual Report, OfSTED
Office of Standards in Education (2002) OfSTED Annual Report, OfSTED
Department of Culture, Media and Sport (2008) Playing to Win: A New Era for
Sport, DCMS
Smith, A
...
, Green, K
...
, (2007)
...
SAGE Publications
...
H

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