Introducing primary athletics

If you are a primary teacher with little background in sport or physical education, don’t be put off from teaching athletics due to misconceptions about needing a high level of technical knowledge.  Remember that, throughout the ages, children have, quite naturally, developed running and jumping games that are the forerunners, in both the historical and the developmental sense,  of formal athletics and that, therefore, this a great place to start the teaching process.

So, for primary schools,  think running, jumping and throwing and keep activities simple, focusing on personal challenge – how fast? how high, how far?

The other major consideration is the space and equipment that you have available.  We are not thinking eight lane track here, more school hall or playing field, with some generic PE equipment.

We are going to look at sprinting, hurdling, high jump, standing long jump, standing triple jump, vortex throw and soccer ball chest push.  For each event we will look at teaching points, scoring and organisation.

List of events