What is Movement Education?

Movement education is a focus on teaching students to develop motor skills through

physical movement.

What are Fundamental Movement Skills?

• There are 5 fundamental movement skills required to be taught in NSW schools. They are:

• Throwing• Catching• Kicking• Jumping • Running

Movement Under the Syllabus

Under the NSW K-6 syllabus students are required to:”develop the ability to; move effectively in response to a variety of stimuli; participate regularly in a range of games and sports; demonstrate mastery of fundamental movement skills such as throwing, catching, kicking, jumping and running; create and perform sequences of movement with variation of movement quality” (Board of Studies, 2006).

Movement Education and the Literature

• Under modern literature movement education is praised as:

• “Movement skills are core to the physical, cognitive and social development of a child” (Lubans, Morgan, Cliff, Barnett, & Okely, 2012).

And• The mastery of Fundamental Motor Skills is the

“precursor to their application in sport, conversely a lack of proficiency in a key reason for attrition from organised sport”(Miller, 2006).

What This all Means

• Simply put students need to learn the fundamental movement skills to participate in sporting activities, these activities then allow us to teach students core social skills such as how to work in a team, physical skills such as how to run, jump and climb and cognitive skills where students learn problem solving, being able to look at a situation and think of the correct outcome or action.

My Philosophy on Movement Education

• You can’t teach someone how to swim, run or dive simply by explaining how something is done. Explanation, demonstration and practice all come into effect when it comes to learning how to move.

How Does this all Affect your Child?

• This means that your child will received a balanced approach of theory and practice with stable, safe mentoring ensuring that they as the student will get the best education across all disciplines where they’ll learn the skills they need to succeed, from science and mathematics to sport and drama.

References

Board of Studies. (2006). Personal Development, Health, Physical Education K-6 Syllabus. Sydney: Board of Studies NSW.

Lubans, D. R., Morgan, P. J., Cliff, D. P., Barnett, L. M., & Okely, A. D. (2012). Fundamental Movement Skills in Children and Adolescents. Sports Medicine, 1019-1035.

Miller, J. (2006). PRIMARY SCHOOL-AGED CHILDREN AND FUNDAMENTAL MOTOR SKILLS – WHAT IS ALL THE FUSS ABOUT? Armidale: University of New England.

NSW Department of Education and Training. (2000). Get skilled: Get active. Ryde: NSW Department of Education and Training.