56 | 57
2 Supporting, not replacing or displacing
The role of an FA Skills Coach in schools is to support and work alongside the class teacher rather than replace or displace them.
1 Get to know the children: ask the teacher
Before you start planning a football-themed PE lesson it is crucial to gather as much information about the children, the teachers and the school that you are going to be working with.
Learning about the previous experience of the children, their individual needs and diff erences and how your work may link into current, previous or forthcoming activity areas is crucial. Similarly, gaining an insight into any school policies, procedures or pre-existing behaviour management techniques can prove priceless when it comes to both planning and delivering the lesson.
Having this knowledge helps in making more informed judgements on the types of activity to plan and the methods to use in order to best engage learners during each lesson.
If the class has had previous football based PE lessons they may have covered techniques and skills that can be built upon during this next block of work. Importantly, coaches should learn of any children who have special educational needs. This will allow you to plan for diff erentiation and set up engaging activities for each individual around a similar theme.
To learn about all of these things the best person to consult is the class teacher as they are with the children every day. Whilst some primary school teachers may not be confi dent in delivering PE, they will have expert knowledge of the children within their class.
Primary school teachers typically receive between 6-10 hours of PE specifi c training during their teacher training programme and our aim is to build upon this and give those who need it more confi dence in delivering football-themed PE lessons. The adopted approach is to work alongside the class teacher and collaborate for the good of the children.
For this reason, the FA Skills Programme Service Level Agreement for each school states the need for the class teacher to be present at each lesson. Sharing lesson plans and asking the class teacher to input into lessons is crucial to successful partnership working ensuring the methods and techniques used are sustained when the coach moves onto the next school.
3 Plan in the medium term
A typical week for an FA Skills Coach includes between 10-12 hours of physical education curriculum delivery and another eight hours delivery in FA Skills Centres and supporting FA Charter Standard Clubs.
Twenty hours of delivery may not sound too heavy but the required planning for each lesson is a crucial, but also time consuming, part of the process. FA Skills Coaches work with each class for a period of between 6 and 12 weeks, which constitutes a medium term block in the programme.
At each lesson or session the coaches will be working towards a medium term plan, focusing on the overall aims of the agreed block of work, as well as a short term lesson plan outlining the aims of that particular lesson.
Planning in the medium term will help you to have an overall view of objectives, learning outcomes and a vision of where to progress the learning. Reference points for planning in the medium term include the National Curriculum and also The FA’s Four Corner Model.
Overleaf is an example of the medium term objectives set out for a school class in Birmingham.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92