Online ticket sales end 08.03.19. Tickets will be available at the door on the morning.

The theme for this year’s conference is ‘Learning with the head, heart and hands in physical education’ and will have a strong emphasis on highlighting how learning can be promoted in the psychomotor, cognitive, and affective domains within physical education. Learning with the head is about learning facts or strategies (cognitive). Learning with the heart is concerned with how you get along with others (affective). Learning with the hands deals mainly with the doing part, the essential skills needed to participate in the activities in Physical Education (physical).

Conference Schedule:

9.00 – 9.45: Registration, Tea/Coffee

09.45 - 09.55. Welcome from IPPEA Chairperson

Participants choose one workshop (subject to availability) from each time slot.

Session 1: 10.00 – 11.10

• I’m In Too ‘Inclusive PE’

• Fun and easy introduction to badminton

• Teaching games for understanding

• Creative Dance Tales- The Wolf and Peter Workshop

• Hop, Skip and Jump into Athletics

Session 2: 11.20 – 12.30

• I’m In Too ‘Inclusive PE’

• Fun and easy introduction to badminton

• Teaching games for understanding

• Creative Dance Tales- The Wolf and Peter Workshop

• Hop, Skip and Jump into Athletics

12.30 – 1.00 Lunch

1.00 – 1.30 AGM

1.30 – 1.45 Keynote Address: Sarah Buggy International Athlete and Primary School Teacher

Session 3: 1.50– 2.50

• Co-Operative Games

• Rolling in Gymnastics

• Teaching Social Skills in PE

• Are my physical education lessons meaningful for my class?

• Sports Days Revisited

Session 4: 3.00 – 4.00

• Co-Operative Games

• Rolling in Gymnastics

• Teaching Social Skills in PE

• Are my physical education lessons meaningful for my class?

• Sports Days Revisited

Post Conference Social 8.00 p.m. Kilkenny

Workshop Descriptions

Title: Rolling in Gymnastics

Presenters: Catherine Knight, Tomás Mannion, Margaret Foley (PDST advisors)

Blurb: Rolling is an important element of the Gymnastics strand of the PE curriculum. This workshop aims to develop teachers’ confidence and competence to safely teach a wide variety of rolling techniques and progressions within gymnastics at all class levels. The workshop will also look at a selection of gymnastics warm up activities, rolling games and sequences.

Title: Fun and easy introduction to Badminton

Presenters: Peter Lavin (Mainster NS, PDST Associate) and Aoife Ní Dhomhnaill (An Modhscoil, PDST Associate)

Blurb: This fun and practical workshop offers teachers lots of easy to use games with and without the badminton racquet. No experience of badminton needed and activities are suited to all class levels. Games offered can be played both indoor and outdoor without the need for both a net and a lot of equipment. Fun and enjoyment is the main theme of this workshop while helping children to improve their fundamental movement skills through the sport of badminton.

Title: Creative Dance Tales- The Wolf and Peter Workshop

Presenter: Susan Marron (IPPEA committee member and Institute of Education, DCU)

Creative Dance Tales is storytelling through dance. The IPPEA workshop will be a practical creative dance work shop where you will be directed to explore some of the characters from the story using an online digital tool box. The resource was designed to promote creative dance as part of the physical education curriculum, to contribute to learning through the head, heart and hands.

Title: Co-Operative Games

Presenter: Éanna Casey (Rehins NS, Ballina, Co. Mayo, PDST Associate)

This workshop will explore the three varying factors to progress and/or regress the level of required challenge to the pupil in co-operative games. 1) Head or task – difficulty level used motivate pupils to complete a task as part of a team. 2) Hands – the varying level of tactile response required to solve group tasks in PE. 3) Heart – present varying levels of physical difficulty depending on class level and/or physical capabilities of pupils. This workshop is highly inclusive, active and designed to support pupils in their learning about the importance of teamwork.

Title: Are my physical education lessons meaningful for my class?

Presenter: Maura Coulter (Institute of Education, DCU)

Participants will be introduced to the Meaningful Physical Education approach, which is a way to help teachers prioritise the personal meaning children make and take from their physical education experiences. There is evidence to suggest that the personal meaning of physical activity engagement is the key to lifelong participation. Main features and characteristics of the Meaningful PE approach will be briefly presented, including teachers presenting their own experiences of experimenting with the approach in their classrooms. The session will also entail participants working collaboratively through pedagogical case studies, where authentic situations capturing ideas about Meaningful PE are presented.

Title: Teaching social skills in physical education

Presenter: Liam Clohessy (Chairperson IPPEA, PDST PE Advisor, Bunscoil Rinn an Chabhlaigh)

This workshop will explore how social skills such as teamwork, communication, leadership, commitment and communication can be explicitly taught as part of your physical education class. Practical strategies which explicitly focus on developing the affective domain of learning within PE will be presented to help children to ‘learn with the heart’ in PE. Using the example of Fair Play, participants will engage in sample activities to develop their knowledge and proficiency in fair play behaviours.

Title: Hop, skip and jump into Athletics

Presenter: Caitríona Cosgrave (IPPEA committee member, Scoil Áine GNS, Dublin 5)

This workshop will explore Athletic activities across the three strand units of running, jumping and throwing and how they can contribute to the development of children’s learning in cognitive, emotional and social realms. Fun and practical stations along with the use of simple assessment tools will be highlighted! Come join us in the fresh air!

Title: Sports Days Revisited

Presenters: Missy Parker (IPPEA committee member, UL), Ciarán Costello (IPPEA Committee member, Scoil Mochua Celbridge) and Kevin Patton (California State University)

Looking for something different for your sports day this year? Tired of the same old competitive format and activities? Why not come along to this workshop which outlines fun, alternative co-operative games that emphasise participation by all. Minimal equipment is required to carry out these activities and participants will get to try out these fun games on the day. Practical advice on how to lead the inclusive sports day in your school will be offered as well as information about participating in the 2019 European School Sports Day

Title: I’m In Too ‘Inclusive PE’

Presenter: Caitriona Corr (Cara Centre)

This practical workshop will focus on creating an environment that motivates children with disabilities to engage in the school’s physical education, physical activity and sport programme Caitriona is a Sport Science graduate and an experienced Cara tutor of Disability Inclusion Training and Autism in Sport. The workshop will specifically address the concerns of children with an intellectual disability, children with autism and wheelchair users

Title: Teaching games for understanding

Presenter: Cameron Stewart (Scottish Association of Teachers of Physical Education)

Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) is a teaching approach based on the concept of teaching kids games by playing games. Primary children love to play, so this approach naturally taps into their inherent desire to play and move. Through TGFU, all of the games are broken down into their simplest form allowing full participation by all. During this workshop, I will explain the TGfU concept in a practical manner which will include many examples of games and layering techniques. I will also discuss how TGfU would look in the curriculum.