A - HOW TO USE THE MANUAL

The manual is divided into three sections:

1. The Teaching Guide
2. The Teaching Material
3. The Appendix

A1. The Teaching Guide

The first reaction when receiving a teaching manual is to turn straight to the teaching material. However, we would advise you to read the Guide as it contains a wealth of helpful information:

Section 1

• (A) How to use the manual and its wider resources.
• (B) Highlights safety in athletics.
• (C) Identifies a range of organisational strategies for safe practice and maximum participation.
• (D) Presents questions to help children understand why they need to warm-up and cool-down and the benefits of a healthy lifestyle.

Section 2

• (E) Clarifies expected minimum standards of performance . what you should expect your children to be able to do.
• (F) Seven self and peer assessment sheets for Key Stage 2
• (G) Identifies assessment for years 1 & 2, 3 & 4, 5 & 6.

A2. The Teaching Material

All the long, medium and short-term planning for athletics is contained within the manual.

a) The long-term planning is inherent in the complete Athletics scheme, with exploration, acquisition, development, practise, refinement and appropriate challenge and competition built into the programme structure. Reinforcement, repetition and moving on, are all woven into the progressive and developmental scheme.

The long term planning addresses a balanced coverage of running, throwing and jumping in the following ways:-

RUNNING:-

• Running for speed
• Running for distance
• Running over objects
• Running in a team

THROWING:-

• Push throw
• Pull throw
• Fling throw
• Heave throw

JUMPING:-

• Jumping for height
• Jumping for distance
• Combination jumping for distance

b) The medium-term planning is clearly set out at the beginning of each unit in the form of the learning objectives, unit framework and expected learning outcomes. These follow National Curriculum requirements and Q.C.A guidance and learning outcomes. They summarise the knowledge skills and understanding being addressed throughout the unit.

c) The short-term planning comprises the lesson plans. These are very detailed and follow the structure of:-

• Warm-up
• Skill-development
• Challenge
• Cool-down

Practices, challenges and competitions are all designed to motivate the children as they develop their knowledge skills and understanding of Athletics.

To access the teaching material

Turn to the material for the appropriate year group and you will find you have two units of work (11 lesson plans) and 2 class competitions - ("A", team competition and "B", individual competition, plus recording sheets) available to you.

Each lesson plan is contained on one side of A4 for ease of use, with diagrams in the margin to visually clarify some of the tasks.

On the back of the sheet you will find some of the material from the lesson in card form. This can serve several purposes:-

• (i) as a quick reference to access the core teaching material of the lesson.
• (ii) as an effective teaching strategy for developing independent learning e.g.
  • (a) As a problem-solving activity for the children.
  • (b) As an evaluation and peer assessment tool.

A3. The Appendix

The Appendix is divided into two broad sections:-

SECTION 1:- Warming-up activities:-

• (a) Mobilisation of joints-exercises.
• (b) Pulse-raisers and problem solving.
• (c) "Alphabetashapes" and "Alphabetapairs".

SECTION 2:- Core principles, skill development and challenges

• (a) Sprint starts
• (b) Sprint techniques
• (c) Sprint challenges
• (d) Estimating distance/duration
• (e) Running longer distances
• (f) Fling throw
• (g) Push throw
• (h) Pull throw
• (i) Throwing for distance
• (j) Throw for accuracy
• (k) Jumping-high
• (l) Jumping-long
• (m) Jumping-combination
• (n) Hurdles
• (o) Relay take-overs
• (p) Relays

To access material from the Appendix...

SECTION 1

Section 1 contains a large collection of exercises and ideas for mobilisation of joints, aerobic activity and stretching.

• (a) Joint mobilisation exercises
• (b) Pulse-raisers and problem-solving activities.
• (c) "Alphabetashapes" and "Alphabetapairs"

Any of these could also be used as a source for stimulating and informing the children's own warm-ups and cool-downs e.g. Alphabetashapes/Alphatbetapairs displayed on a wall, along with mobilisation exercises will encourage children to create their own starting activities (e.g. words associated with athletics, combined with gentle aerobic activity.)

SECTION 2

• (a) core principles, skill development and challenges

If you feel your class needs more practice and analysis in a particular athletic skill, you can turn to the appendix (section 2), look up the skill (e.g. sprint start) and there will be core principles of the event, and a number of skill development cards from which to choose, as well as related individual and group challenges in which to apply the skill.