Story added: 7th February 2024

Fern's Story

Norwich-based Fern Hinton was early in her career as a teacher when the school she worked at initially requested the assistance of the Foundation to help Fern with the delivery of her PE lessons. We were happy to oblige, and introduced Fern to our Primary Stars Coordinator, Zac, who helped her to bring more structure to her teaching.

Fern who is currently completing her post graduate certificate in education (PGCE) admitted that so far in her learning there has been very little focus on physical education and sport, meaning she felt unsure and unconfident on how to engage primary school students in physical exercise.

Fern was introduced to Zac, the Primary Stars Coordinator here at the Foundation, who worked closely with Fern over a six-week period to help her develop a further understanding on how to deliver PE lessons to young children, and how to ensure they stay engaged and focused, whilst also having fun.

It was decided that Fern would teach tennis to her Year 4 class, so, with the help of Zac she developed a six-week block of lessons that she could deliver to her students that involved both tennis and other similar ball-themed games, like football and netball, which could be adapted to fit Fern’s way of teaching. The six-week programme also taught Fern how to involve the intrinsic parts of teaching sport in her lessons, such as the progression of important life-skills like teamwork, and the development of confidence and character building.

Fern’s teaching over the next six weeks featured a mixture of individual and collaborative teaching, with Zac assisting where necessary. At the end of each lesson, Fern would be offered constructive feedback on her teaching styles and was also given time to reflect on how she could progress her students learning even further in the coming lessons.

The positive impact that Fern was having on the children was noticeable almost straight away with Fern also commenting on her own development, and how her confidence had grown following her training.

“I feel more confident in planning my PE lessons and through demonstrations I feel I now have a larger bank of activities to include in my future teaching. The support has given me multiple ideas on how to assist with my planning of the PE lessons. For example, the guidance with transitions and equipment use has completely changed how I plan my lessons and has made the teaching smoother and more routine.”

One element of teaching that Fern used in her lessons that particularly impressed her observers was her ability to use students as examples for the rest of the class when demonstrating a specific physical activity. By using a member of her class as a ‘role model’ she was furthering class engagement and inspiring her students to put full effort into her lessons.

Overall, Fern has been really impressed with the support that the School Team at the Community Sports Foundation have provided her and is now far more confident in the delivery of her PE lessons. Fern believes that the six-week course and the assistance from Zac has allowed her to explore a new way of teaching and opened her eyes to a new way of improving the progress of the young people in her class.