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Enhancing Quality in Primary Physical Education
Start date: Dec 1, 2015, End date: May 31, 2018 PROJECT  FINISHED 

Background of EQuiPPE project: P.E. is recognised as the most effective means of providing children with the skills, attitudes, values, knowledge and understanding that are essential to participation in society. It is critical to the development of physical literacy and civic engagement, academic achievement and good physical and mental health (UNESCO, 2015). Despite the UNESCO Charter for Physical Education and Sport, Article 4’s recommendation that personnel professionally responsible for physical education and sport should be appropriately qualified, a high proportion of primary P.E. in Europe is taught by generalist rather than specialist P.E. teachers (Onofre et al., 2012). There is a clear need to support generalist teachers to develop their professional skills and practices in order to improve the quality of P.E. It is recognised that: • Schools experience a number of challenges in providing high quality P.E. including finance and staff training; • Many primary teachers are predominantly generalists rather than specialists and not trained specifically in the delivery of P.E. The overall aim of the project is to develop an online Continuing Professional Development (CPD) package for primary P.E. teachers across the EU. The EQuiPPE will provide teachers with knowledge, information and materials that increase confidence and improve practice. Via input from the partners, teachers, and wider networks of relevant policy makers and professionals the project will ensure that the package reflects the needs and preferences of teachers with respect to CPD for P.E. This will impact the policy areas of teacher education and development, teaching methods and curricular content. T Objectives To address the project aim the EQuiPPE project has the following objectives: 1. To identify examples of good practice from each partner country concerning the use of CPD and teacher education with respect to the provision of primary P.E; 2. To liaise with academics, national and European teacher education networks to identify and develop a competency framework for high quality P.E; 3. To collaborate with local school networks to ensure appropriateness and acceptability of the package; 4. To engage in dissemination and exploitation activities that promote the practical utility of the CPD package; 5. To develop the following intellectual outputs: 1. Intellectual Output 1 (O1): Needs analysis report; 2. Intellectual Output 2 (O2): EQuiPPE online materials; 3. Intellectual Output 3 (O3): EQuiPPE online portal; 4. Intellectual Output 4 (O4): EQuiPPE pilot evaluation report; 5. Intellectual Output 5 (O5): EQuiPPE multimedia content. Number and profile of participants The EQuiPPE project consists of 5 partners from Northern (UK), Eastern (Czech Republic, Romania), and Southern (Greece) Europe. These include 4 Higher Education Institiutions (HEIs) and an In-Service Teacher Training Centre (Poland). Main activities: The project is arranged into 6 main activities: The project’s activities are broken down into six main activities, five of which are intellectual outputs (O). These are outlined in the table below together with the names of partners responsible for each activity according to their strengths and experience. 1 Project management and implementation 2 Needs analysis survey report 3 Development of EQuiPPE online materials 4 Development of EQuiPPE online portal 5 EQuiPPE pilot evaluation report 6 EQuiPPE Multimedia and materials Methodology A mixed methodology will be deployed to develop the intellectual outputs of this project. This approach combines different types of evidence to provide a more complete response to the need to enhance quality in primary P.E. This will involve the use of quantitative and qualitative data to inform the development of the final EQuiPPE online package via activities undertaken in each of the main activities, excluding project management and implementation. Results and impact In the short to medium term (0 to 2 years) the following results are anticpated: • enhanced quality of primary P.E. in the partner countries and across the EU; • improved teacher confidence and skills; • increased knowledge and understanding of the importance of physical literacy to a child’s development. Longer term, the impacts of the project activities are expected to accrue benefits for a wide audience including: • Better prepared and educated primary P.E. teachers; • improved physical literacy, confidence, physical and mental health, and educational attainment for primary school aged children; • greater access to high quality CPD resources via a freely available online CPD package for primary P.E. teachers; • Improved policy, research and practice through the development of information and evidence concerning the current situation and challenges in primary P.E.
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