Professional Learnings NSWPPA Educational Leadership

NSW Department of Education Sports Unit: Part 2 of 4: Movement, Learning, and Inclusion: The School Sports Unit's Mission

• NSW PPA Professional Learning

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Physical activity isn't just about fitness—it's a powerful tool for learning, inclusion, and creating positive school environments. This compelling episode takes listeners behind the scenes with the NSW Department of Education Sports Unit, revealing innovative approaches that benefit every student.

Anthony Moyes opens with a passionate explanation of how the Sports Unit supports students with disabilities through four key programs. Despite one in five students having some form of disability, many schools mistakenly believe they don't have eligible participants. Moyes shares how over 500 schools now participate in boccia and ten pin bowling competitions, benefiting thousands of students across NSW. His team travels extensively throughout the state, bringing participation opportunities directly to regional areas and creating pathways for students who might otherwise miss out.

The conversation shifts when Michael Kirwan explains the science-backed approach to meeting the mandated 150 minutes of weekly physical activity. Rather than viewing this as yet another curriculum requirement, Kirwan reveals how schools can seamlessly integrate movement throughout the day. The unit's hugely popular "10 at 10" energizer sessions and "Thinking While Moving" resources have transformed classrooms across the state, with research confirming that physical activity—especially early in the day—dramatically improves student engagement, behavior, and learning outcomes.

What stands out is the practical, barrier-reducing approach both specialists advocate. From comprehensive online resources to face-to-face professional learning, the Sports Unit has created systems that make quality physical activity accessible for every teacher, regardless of their sporting background. The upcoming Sport and Physical Activity School Health Check (version 3) promises to further strengthen this work, with special attention to high potential students while maintaining core inclusivity principles.

Don't miss the next episodes featuring James Boyer on the fascinating brain research behind physical activity and Peter Carty's inspiring story of inclusion through sport. Subscribe now to continue this journey through the transformative power of school sport and physical activity.

Link to NSW School Sports Unit:

https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/curriculum/school-sport

Links and References:

To view our Professional Learning Offerings, visit:
https://www.nswppa.org.au/professional-learning

To view our latest offerings, visit: https://www.nswppa.org.au/catalogue






Drew :

Welcome back to Professional Learning's the New South Wales PPA Educational Leadership Podcast. It's great to have your company. This podcast aligns to the values of the New South Wales Primary Principals Association, that is, the values of principal wellbeing, principals as lead learners, as well as supporting principals to lead school operations. If you enjoy this podcast, don't forget to subscribe for further updates. Now let's get into today's latest episode.

Drew :

Welcome to our special four-part series with the New South Wales Department of Education Sports Unit. We've created this as a special yes, four-part series as there is so much content and information to share. We look forward to sharing this four-part series, which is approximately 30 to 35 minutes depending on the episode. And if you're listening and thinking, how does the school sport unit align with professional learning? Well, it's a great question. The short answer is there is a lot. There is so much evidence-based research science around the brain, alignment with your school excellence framework, well-being, benefits of sport and retention, supporting student with disabilities, as well as practical and sound advice based around current policies, just to name a few. So, with all that, we look forward to sharing this four-part series, as I said, of approximately 30 to 35-minute podcast episodes. References to all of the material shared will be in our podcast notes to explore further.

Drew :

In part two of this podcast series with the Sports Unit, we'll hear from Anthony Moyes and Michael Kirwan and the impact of their work in New South Wales public schools. Let's start now. Anthony Moyes, welcome to our podcast. It's great for you to be with us today. Thanks very much for having me. And, anthony, can you tell our listeners what is your role in the Sports?

Anthony:

Unit. So I'm a Disability inclusion officer with the sports unit. So my role with my colleague Peter Cardy is to be getting students in public schools with disability, getting them involved in sport and physical activity.

Drew :

Yeah, and such an important role and, I'm sure, many obstacles though, overseeing that. So, for our primary listeners, who are educational leaders and principals, could you give some advice to support and navigate us through that space that you lead?

Anthony:

Yeah, definitely so we know that there are many students with disability in schools. We know that the numbers are somewhere around one in five, maybe even one in four students have some form of disability in school. So it's a really important program for us to be involved with, and so we run four main programs throughout our year, throughout our calendar, to try and encourage schools, principals, teachers, schools in general, to get their students with disability involved in sport and physical activity. And so those four main programs are what we call Come and Try Athletics, which we run in Term 1, which is a real participation program. We run multi-sport days in Terms 3 and 4, which are again participation opportunities, and they're what they sound like. They are opportunities for students to try multiple sports in a day.

Anthony:

And then we run two programs that are actually both participation but they're also competition. They offer an opportunity for students with disability to represent their schools. And those two sports are boccia, the sport of boccia, which is a Paralympic sport, that we run in term two, and then in term three we run a ten pin bowling competition and, as I'm sure you're aware, ten pin bowling very inclusive sport. A lot of people with disability in the community are involved in that sport. So it was an easy competition for us to set up to again offer an opportunity for students with disability to represent their schools.

Drew :

Yeah, those sound all fun and exciting programs to be to be involved in. What are the numbers looking like at this point in time?

Anthony:

Some of the numbers that I can mention from this year, both with with Botcher and Tempin Bowling, we hit over 500 schools involved in each of them, which was really encouraging. It was a bit of a goal of ours to try and get that many schools involved. We know there's a lot of schools still left, though that are not engaging with the program, so I'm hopeful that there's some principals listening to this who are potentially thinking they could get their schools involved. But yeah, lots of um, lots of numbers out there, um, lots of participation numbers. Our multi-sport days where we run 30 or over 30. This year we ran it was, yes, a couple of thousand students in total. We just went through the the numbers recently. It was over 2 000 students engaged with that, from kind of probably infants, but more like year two, through to all the way up to year 12. So, yeah, quite a wide scope for the number of schools and students involved yeah, so again that those sounds terrific.

Drew :

But all like in anything, always areas to expand and improve and as you said at the start, was one in five students and then turning that into 500 schools is terrific. Yeah, what are the main obstacles you're seeing from your perspective?

Anthony:

well, sometimes we we find when we reach out to schools or we have discussions with with teachers around them getting involved in one of our competitions For instance let's take Botcher as the example We'll have a teacher or another member of staff say, oh, we don't have students who would be eligible for that. And so I think sometimes there's a bit of a mindset that if they're not a student in a wheelchair or a person with an obvious kind of physical impairment, they think, oh well, we don't have students for that competition. But, as I mentioned, the numbers are so large and we accept any student with disability for all of our programs. It's not like the representative pathway where they need to have a sporting classification. If schools identify students as having an impairment, then we are happy to include them in our competitions. So we challenge principals and teachers to get involved because we just think that across the state, really every school can access our competitions and our programs, all our programs.

Drew :

So is that done at a local level, Like if you go back to the example of pathways, for example, athletics, carnivals, cross-country swimming is it a similar pathway or is it a different pathway for these events?

Anthony:

Okay. So we travel a lot. Peter and I spend a lot of time in the work vehicle so we really do go out to the state, to all the different regions. So in Term 1 next year when we go to come and try athletics do our come and try athletics program we'll be travelling as far north as the Tweed up to Kingscliff, we'll be going out to Dubbo, we go out to Tamworth, we're going down to Nowra next year to run come and try as well. So we are travelling and we're getting out there, so that we're going to the regions and then it's up to schools to come to us. But we're facilitating it and trying to reach out to as many areas of the state as possible With our competitions where the students with disability are able to represent their schools. Again, we hold regional competitions. So for the botcha competition in term two we'll have around 25 local regional finals and from that teams and schools that win those days will be eligible to come through to a state final in Sydney.

Drew :

I'm just thinking of the logistics to this exercise. Yeah, so such a great program, but I'm sure there'd be some logistics behind that.

Anthony:

So we've got a large contact list of teachers in schools who have put their names forward to be the kind of contact I suppose the champion for the students with disability in their schools, and so, yeah, we've sent that information email out in the last little while and all those dates are hopefully being considered back in schools. And a couple of our events the Botcher and Tempin Bowling competitions terrific cost wise there.

Drew :

Is there any cost involved?

Anthony:

there is a minimal cost for for the participation days that come and try athletics and multi-sport. It's a five dollar participation fee. It certainly doesn't cover the cost of the program but it helps to offset some of the costs involved mostly with venues. They are expensive for us to run the program and so that that helps there a little bit. And then with the competitions there's a $50 team entry, a little bit like first state knockout competitions for able-bodied competitions yeah, yeah, yeah.

Drew :

Terrific in terms of if we go into the professional learning side of things. Are there any professional learning opportunities that schools or school leaders could be involved in to support this fantastic initiative?

Anthony:

Yeah, definitely. There are a few different ways that we provide professional learning. We get asked by schools or by zones or by principals to do actual formal kind of professional learning webinars or sessions. We usually do it via Teams because it's easier to get more people to those sessions. So we're very happy to present to any groups of people who are wanting to find out about our different programs. So that's one way that we support teachers and schools. So that's one way that we support teachers and schools.

Anthony:

Any time that we hold events we feel like that can be the most valuable professional learning Things like multi-sport days, where we have multiple sports coming into a basketball stadium and a group of students with disability and their teachers travel around and rotate around and go through six or seven sports in the day. Teachers are getting really valuable insights into how they can be modifying and adapting sport to make it more accessible for their students and we're very hopeful that students sorry, teachers take that back to their schools so that they can engage their students back at school in those sports. And there's that kind of little legacy piece every time we hold events like multi-sport days.

Drew :

Yeah, that's terrific in terms of one of the best practices and research shows. Going to watch a classroom in practice, watching a practitioner in practice, and what I'm hearing is you're encouraging that for educators to come and see that from a professional learning perspective, which is terrific.

Anthony:

Yeah, for sure, and we get a lot of feedback from staff in that regard and they often, I suppose, admit to being a little bit surprised when they see a student who they didn't think they would engage in a certain sport. And the student does so and they realise, oh okay, there's something here. This is a sport that we can be doing back at school. It doesn't require a lot of space or a lot of equipment, but we can be running this back at school and engaging some of our more challenging students, shall I say.

Drew :

Well, that's terrific, shall I say. Well, that's a terrific. I see that as a calling for people listening in to say these Anthony and Peter go out to the field, so to speak, offer these fantastic programs On top of that, a professional learning opportunity that colleagues could come and see. And I think that's the obstacle. People want to do it right, and I'm sure you hear that and principals want to do it right, but seeing'm sure you hear that, and principals want to do it right. But seeing that, just seeing what it actually what does right look like so yeah, for sure that's terrific.

Drew :

Any other tips and advice for colleagues listening in?

Anthony:

I just I would encourage principals to make it as easy as possible for their staff to engage with our programs. We've got some schools where clearly the barriers to involvement are minimised and they just they get involved in everything they can and we just they're the first people to register for things and we just know that whatever processes they have at school to enable their students to get to things and whatever those processes, they must be great because the staff are so quick to engage. I hope that, yeah, I hope principals are encouraged to think about whether our programs are suitable for their kids. We certainly think they are and hopefully they can remove any barriers that might be in place to getting their students with disability involved.

Drew :

Yeah, yeah, Well said, Anthony. And you go back to that start of our conversation where you said colleagues, think about this. One in five students have a disability, so just think about that and think of the wonderful work that the sports unit is doing. Anthony Moyes, thank you again for your time. No worries, thanks for having me. Our next guest in this podcast series is Michael Kirwan, Sport and Physical Activity Advisor for the New South Wales School Sports Unit. Michael Kirwan, Sport and Physical Activity Advisor for the School Sports Unit. Welcome to our podcast today. Great to have you.

Anthony:

Yeah, thanks for having me.

Drew :

Yeah, it's exciting In terms of for our listeners. Michael, can you tell us what is your role in the sports unit?

Michael:

Yeah, so specifically my job is to help teachers or principals and teachers to meet, exceed and deliver quality sport and physical activity to meet what's the recently released sport and physical activity procedure. So it just moved over from the sport and physical activity policy. Now the procedure sits within student health and wellbeing, so that's specifically for primary school. So every student K to six needs to have 150 minutes of physical activities. That's moderate to vigorous physical activity, we kind of call it. They should be huffing and puffing for 150 minutes a week and students in three to six should have one hour of weekly sport. So it's about meeting that policy and doing it well, I guess is my job is to support schools to do that.

Drew :

Yeah, that's a challenge. It's also lots of benefits to that.

Michael:

How long has this program, this 150 minutes, been around for? Well, you're going to test my memory there. So it did move from 120 to 150. I'm going to guess that was around 2014. It moved so increased that 30 minutes. That was a response to auditor general.

Michael:

Uh, it comes from research that our, our students, our kids in australia, um, uh, they're, they're falling well short of the recommended. So our, our department of health, also the world health organization, they recommend kids are physically active for 60 minutes a day. All the research to show that only about one in three kids in Australia are physically active for that much. So that increase that happened, like I said, about 10 years ago, was in the response to that, just that general lack of activity from our kids. Obviously that's more pressure on school. So I had to do 30 minutes extra physical activity school day didn't increase any time, didn't have any other decreases in any other obligations. So that is part of the.

Michael:

Our challenge with primary schools is to where do we find that extra 30 minutes? Um, we know our kids need it, um, and we'll probably get into some of the reasons they need it later, but part of our professional learning and our resources is to help schools to meet that extra 30 minutes in what's already a very busy school week and curriculum and also preparation time for teachers. So we're trying to help teachers with all those things.

Drew :

Yeah, well, let's go there. Well, how do they I mean, it sounds in theory, like anything in theory sounds terrific. 150 minutes, lots of and we'll go into that further of the benefits. But what have you seen as let's call it a gold standard in what you've seen, that schools are able to successfully deliver the 150-minute requirement?

Michael:

Yeah, so okay. So the gold standard I'll go into what I kind of think of as gold standard from a practical point of view, but also the research-informed gold standard. And there are a lot of schools doing a lot of schools are doing this really really well. So let's say you've got that 60 minutes of school support which high schools mix up when that is, of schools are doing this really really well. So let's say you've got that 60 minutes of school sport which high schools mix up when that is. But I'm pretty sure it's still Friday sport for primary schools everywhere in the state. That looks different, whether it's in the morning middle session or in the afternoon, whether they're playing against other schools or not, but generally Friday sport is still a thing. So that's that 60 minutes.

Michael:

So obviously we do spend a lot of time and we have resources for making that sport quality sport. But to actually meet the minutes it's the time outside of that sport session, so that can be your physically active PE lesson, which we don't. That's within a KLA. We have a great curriculum team there to help with that. So our focus is probably two parts. The big one is embedding energizers, which we call brain breaks, or some people call them brain breaks. We call them energizers just because we think it's better positive language and actually describes more what that does for the student's brain. We can get quite sciencey a bit what happens in there and the benefits of that. So embedding energizers and like I know my background as a primary school teacher that we would have lesson transitions, we would have ways we'd have routines that were not traditional learning lessons. However, I didn't make them physically active enough. So if we can actually make those transitions, those ad hoc games, those times when you do finish a lesson 15 minutes early, they're the best times to embed physical activity.

Michael:

I would say gold standard best practice would be getting those energizers in early. We've got some resources called the 10 at 10s are hit sessions. Um, we trying to muscle in. We say we're muscling on. You know fruit break, um. The evidence says that earlier that the physical activity has is it's going to be the is has the biggest impact on students engagement and their learning um, as well as other factors. Um. So relationships with their peers, relationships with their teacher, the earlier they have the physical activity, the benefit from that perspective. Obviously all physical activity is good for you physically, but to get the best learning benefits is to have that early. So best practice is to have that scheduled. 10 minute energizer could be five minutes, 10 minutes a couple. Start the first session, start the day with one break, one up, finish before recess, after recess, um, and, like I said, we've got the 10 of 10s which are hit sessions that they can just be shown on a smart board. They go for 10 minutes. There's a learning link. We go through a range of sports. We have some links to Australian sporting, to successful athletes.

Michael:

We didn't know what we were doing. When we made them, we didn't know how successful we'd be. The feedback's been really good. So it's not like when I first made them or when we first made them, I didn't go around tell everyone how good they are. We kind of went around saying, well, we've made these and then, fortunately, schools have told us how good they are and how much the kids have liked it and we would like to make some more. So we've got 30 at the moment. Um, we'd like to make some more in future because, yeah, they've been really popular and we've had requests for more. So, like I said, we did that as a suite of tools to help teachers to embed physical activity throughout that school day and it's been really successful for us. So that's great. So that's just one. The 10 of 10.

Michael:

But I find teachers have their own games and transitions and there's not a lot. Once you get in the mindset of how can I make this game of bingo, how can I make this other ad hoc game, how can I just put a bit more physical activity in that, maybe put some squats in there, some bodyweight exercises, some sit-ups, some push-ups, some star jumps Once you start thinking in that space, well, what can I do to make what I do more physically active? It's actually really easy and you're going to see the benefit. The evidence says you're going to see the benefits from the kids learning benefits, behavior benefits. So that's what research says and that's what the teachers say as well. Also, all the feedback we've had so far is that it actually increases take-up time. So when you do go from an energiser to a more traditional lesson, that the take-up time between the two lessons has actually improved. On embedding some physical activity there, did I answer that? I think.

Michael:

I might have gone too far. Yeah

Drew :

, no, that's terrific in terms of just understanding what 150 minutes could look like and you've unpacked that as an example of utilising the 10 at 10 and principals listening who may also, you may want to explore that as well, for your own physical benefit as well. That sounds like a terrific opportunity to explore the resource. Incorporate that, because principals are busy busy people as well, but getting a lot of there's often a stagnate at their desk looking at emails and sitting, so funny you say that drew, because we've one of our resources which is the sport and physical activityivity Health Check for Schools.

Michael:

We have a section in there for staff involvement and, yeah, staff being involved, modelling physical activity, is part of a school-wide approach to having quality sport and physical education. And I did miss one. You know, outside of that traditional sport session or PE lessons is the having some parts of your formal English and maths lessons being physically active. We've got a whole bunch of activities. It's under the Thinking While Moving banner or brand, which was a research trial that came out of University of Newcastle quite a while ago, and we've got a bunch of resources on how to make English so English, particularly spelling lessons, spelling and grammar lessons physically active. We've got a huge mass resource now, a teaching resource with activities for all the. They're not strands anymore, they're focus areas. That's the right term. It's changed from strands to focus areas across all the focus areas, across all the stages. I've got indoor games, outdoor games, so they can be done as a Tuesday. That's our thinking.

Michael:

While moving math lesson, make the whole lesson physically active. That's one way of doing it. Other way of doing it would be just to pick one. Really great for if you're doing some revision on a topic consolidating what's already been learned. Really great for if you're doing some revision on a topic consolidating what's already been learnt and just on a learning perspective, one of the biggest impacts on physical activity for your learning is on working memory. So the evidence says that if you are going to introduce a new topic, it's a really good time to get physically active just before you introduce a new topic, because that's when your brain is going to be most receptive to learning new content.

Drew :

Backed in colleagues by evidence and research. That's terrific in terms of the gold standard. What I'm hearing is it's just something. The 150 minutes could be incorporated in your day-to-day practice, so to speak. So, yes, there is certain physical or activities planned in a school week. However, what I'm hearing is this could just be part of the everyday and then it doesn't become another job, so to speak, to ensure to meet those requirements.

Michael:

Yeah, definitely. I think, once you have that lens of that, two things is that our kids aren't, unfortunately, that they're not getting the physical activity outside of school that they used to do or what the data says that they used to get, so they're less physically outside of school. Our kids need it for health benefits, learning benefits, wellbeing benefits. So if you just have that lens that we need to get our kids moving and they're allowed to be huffing and puffing and sweating in the classroom, it's good for for them, it's good for their learning, um, it's not a distraction, um, and if you look at just even transitioning around the school, like, instead of necessarily walking, can you be doing some lunges, you know, is there a chance to take that extra part? You know, go that little bit further, um, go around the basketball court, you know, rather than across it.

Michael:

Is there? Is there chances to get our kids more physically active through the school day? And, like you said, it's gonna. It's better for all of us as well, not just our kids. And if you have that lens of approaching, you know, all movement as a chance to be physically active and getting a little bit of huffing and puffing and a little bit of resistance, training on our muscles and exercising a few things that we're not using enough, then you're going to see. All the evidence says um, both from academics and from people in the classroom, that the more physically active the kids are, the better they are um. The easier they are to teach, the happier they are yeah, yeah, yeah, fantastic.

Drew :

So let's go to any success, so far that you can, any stats or numbers that you can share with us today.

Michael:

Stats and numbers so I can go through our most popular resources that we have. So, like I said, the 10 at 10s, the viewing on that. They're getting hundreds of schools across the state using them every day. I like to call that our sport education teaching resource. They're getting hundreds of schools across the state using them every day. I'd like to call out our sport education teaching resource. So that's specifically a site to support primary schools deliver quality sport for that sport session.

Michael:

I know we're talking about physical activity across the school day, but what's been our most popular resource has been the sport education site. So that's got a series that covers all the sports in the representative pathway, so the traditional sports like cricket, um australian football, football, um hockey, and it shows how they can be delivered at school, um in a way that doesn't require teachers to have specific qualifications, um, they're all designed for teachers to deliver. We're very passionate about teachers delivering sports sessions as opposed to getting people from outside the school to come in. So they're written for teachers to deliver. They need minimal equipment, high participation. It's all done for you.

Michael:

The lessons each lesson is set for you. They're in five-week programs that can be done. They work in a gala day very distinct to what you would do in a PE lesson, like separate to what you would do in a PE lesson. That's our most popular resource and schools are using it, both just following it as a five-week program and schools also because activities can be chopped and changed. Schools are also just embedding that. So I know some schools have got some really good systems for their weekly sport. So they're just getting the activities out of it to supplement what they're doing and to improve what they're doing. So their skill development activities they're about high participation. They're about high participation, lots of touches of the ball, developing skills, teamwork, not sitting on the sideline watching someone else do it, a way to modify it. So we're looking at small-sided games, different skills and drills that are fun to play as well as developing skill and they're also really easy.

Drew :

Like.

Michael:

I said, any teacher can deliver them. You don't have to be a sports, an elite sports person, uh to to be able to do it. So that's from that's been our most popular resource. So that's that's specifically to support schools and I always chuck in um if you are coaching, if you have teachers that you like.

Michael:

I know I got given a um. I got given girl softball. Didn't know a lot about girl softball, definitely didn't know how to to train and prepare my team, so that was for weekly sport. But I know a lot of teachers get given a knockout team throughout the year. You're going to get some really so, even though it's made specifically for that weekly sport, that participation side, you're going to get some really good activities on how to train your kids, how to. If you do, if you have got a a weekly sport team, a weekly pet lsa team or a knockout team, you're going to get some really good ideas on how to prepare them because, particularly you want to do a bit of work with them. You don't have a lot of time. You might have 40 minutes at lunchtime, half an hour after school or before school, so it's going to be a way to do a really short, sharp and meaningful session that you don't need a lot of equipment for.

Drew :

That's going to help your team get ready for the next knockout game, yeah, so I guess that's what teachers or leaders are looking for is making sure they do it and they do it right, without injury or repercussions as a result, and what I've heard is this resource has. It's an online resource that you could access and get professional learning in terms of making sure you can deliver the sport and making sure you can maximise the participation rate for the students, and also making the ultimate is making sure it's an enjoyable experience for students.

Michael:

Just from that compliance point of view, so that they're designed to be delivered at school. So, with the idea that you're not going to have a full-size hockey field to do hockey, it also means if it's delivered at school, you don't need safety equipment, you don't need to get specific return permission from parents, and if it's delivered on site obviously depending on if it's the usual place that you're delivering you don't need to do a specific risk assessment as well. It's just another lesson that students do, and you know sport is business as usual. You don't do a risk assessment to deliver a maths lesson. These are designed that you don't need a risk assessment to deliver these sport sessions as well.

Michael:

Obviously, if you're taking them off-site, that's different because you've got travel and you're in a venue that's not familiar to you. But generally, if you're delivering these at school, that's obviously one less thing to think about, and one less barrier for that's the big one is removing barriers for teachers, and the great thing about it is not only are we reducing barriers, but all the evidence, the sporting bodies are also going that way. Modified sport, modified equipment, skills and drills that have a game sense to them are also the best way to engage kids and develop their skills and their love for sport and physical activity as well. So it's really good that all those things come together, removing barriers, and it's better for the kids as well.

Drew :

So it's it's really good that all those things come together, um removing barriers, and it's better for the kids as well. Yeah, look, it sounds like a terrific uh resource. Where can people listening in? Where can they find these resources?

Michael:

yes, they're all on the school sport unit, our website or web application that we call it um. So we've got the arms of the school sport unit, which I know you've covered in other sessions. So if you go across the top, it's the last tab, the teacher resource hub. They're all in there. Hopefully it's easy to find. We've spent a lot of time, there's a lot in there and we've spent a lot of time trying to make it as easy as possible. So, teacher resource hub teaching resources.

Drew :

Yeah, terrific, and in terms of if there's still people aren't sure, is there further professional learning opportunities through the sports unit or is it mainly the digital component at this point?

Michael:

So we've obviously got the resources there, but we haven't covered that. But we also have a range of online professional learnings. You can access them through the teacher resource hub as well. There's a PL tab. There's the online learning sessions. So we cover um quality sport, we cover um thinking while moving, which we talked about before. Um and um we got. We got some. Really, the concussion course has been really popular as well.

Michael:

So we've got a bunch of online professional learnings and we also do do face-to-face delivery. Uh and and on the information it's got, it shows what face-to-face learning is available. So school development day is, I know, but we did do a lot of twilight sessions which I know are discontinuing from there. But we can obviously got that hour. So we can still do that hour after school if possible.

Michael:

But obviously with the increase in staff development days, but obviously with the increase in staff development days, particularly at the beginning of the year, we can deliver face-to-face. It's actually really good, it's fun for me, it's very rewarding and it's also the feedback we get and just being there it is good because you put into action that physical activity is good for people, like not just students' well-being but people's well-being. So getting out there and getting physically active with teachers. They do have a lot of fun and sometimes I get they don't want to break up, but it's rare to be at professional learning or deliver professional learning with the teachers. Like, can we do one more? Can we show us this game? Um, we're happy to stay a bit longer. So, yeah, we, we we've got online got. So, you know, we got three prongs, I guess we'll call it. So we've got the resources, we've got the online professional learning and we've got the face-to-face workshops that we can deliver as well yeah, terrific, and and principal.

Drew :

Well-being in terms of is one of our big values, through the association as well, which can translate into the work that is being delivered through the sports, and I just chucked that in.

Michael:

When we do deliver, uh, the, the workshops, the practical workshops, when the workshops where the principal is involved are the most fun and that really does encourage that Again. You know, with a health check, when the principal gets in there they have a good time, it gets everyone on board.

Drew :

So, colleagues, if you're listening, that is a challenge from the sports unit to be involved in those days. Terrific. Any highlights looking forward to 2025 that you could, or tips that you could share with us today?

Michael:

uh, yeah, I'll think of just so I briefly mentioned it the. We've got the, the, it's version three of this the sport and physical activity school health check. So that's the um self-assessment tool. Uh, we've modeled off the school excellence framework to deliver that whole school approach to sport and physical activity. So you introduced that idea of a gold standard, so that's the tool so that every school can deliver a gold standard in sport and physical activity, both for sporting make sure that sport we do is quality. But it's just such a great tool, such a great wellbeing and engagement tool for students to use. So we've got that version three which has been aligned to the latest version of the CEF. It's also had some heavy import or it's been delivered with that focus, the HPGE focus that's coming out next year. So that's the term two start of development day.

Michael:

So we've worked with the HPGE team to just really, I guess, highlight the links between quality sport and physical activity and catering for high potential and gifted students, and that ties into. The other highlight is that we are developing a training to be delivered on that day. So, while we've also got a big focus on inclusivity for all sports and making sure that sport is for everyone, it's a mandatory part of the school day and that should be adjusted so that everyone can be engaged. Part of that adjustment is adjusting it for high potential students. Obviously I think intuitively most people do see sport and physical activity. Obviously, we've got the representative sport pathway. It is such a great way to put students that are gifted to excel and be recognized at school level and obviously reach their potential. So hopefully this tool will obviously highlight what's already happening and bring up some ways that we can make that even better at that school level to blend it in with that HPG focus for next year.

Drew :

Yeah, look, that sounds like exciting work and really meaningful work as well, to support our students and through the principals listening, there's a lot of opportunity, a lot of professional learning. I've hearing through the school support unit. Michael kirwin, thank you again for your time today no worries.

Michael:

Thanks for having me Drew

Drew :

well.

Drew :

That concludes part two of our four-part series. So many good takeaways. Thanks again to anthony moyes, the Disability Inclusion Officer, and Michael Kirwan, sport and Physical Activity Advisor. Now stay tuned for our next episode. James Boyer, the Sport and Physical Activity Coordinator, is also the Principal Education Officer for the New South Wales School Sport Unit and he's joined with Peter Carty, who is the athletics convener for the New South Wales School Sport Unit. There's some really interesting research about the effect of brain with physical exercise that James really unpacks and Peter shares such a powerful story of inclusion through sport. Don't forget to subscribe through your podcast platform and we look forward to your company in our next episode.

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Drew Janetzki

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