072: The PE Umbrella with Ryan Ellis

Todays guest is Ryan Ellis from The PE Umbrella Podcast

Ryan is a primary school teacher and provides P.E teacher training in the UK. His experience also includes football coaching in the USA and he is the founder of The PE Umbrella Podcast.

The 4 Umbrellas make up the backbone of what The PE Umbrella represents and stands for.

“…It was in one of my early interviews with Bob Knipe that we hit on the topic of WHY I chose the name ‘The PE Umbrella’ for my podcast.  My response was simply that PE covers so many aspects of life and skills, it was an Umbrella term for many things.  Bob went one better than me.  He suggested that he had imagined the term as a metaphor.

An Umbrella that children, and later adults would carry with them through their lives, containing skills and knowledge that protect them from the world around them and situations they may find themselves in, as a real umbrella shelters an individual from the rain.

Later, while mulling over this concept, I took it one step further, and instead of an umbrella that simply protects them, it is one they always add skills to, and can choose when to use these skills to tackle the world around them head on!

And so the 4 umbrellas was born.  Each Umbrella representing one of the four domains of learning.

I see Physical Education as being at the forefront of the education & development of all children.  The Physical has never been/nor should ever be in my eyes the sole focus of a great Physical Education program.  Lessons can and should use purposeful questioning that enables the children to reflect on WHAT they are doing, WHY they are doing it and HOW they will know they have achieved it.  Almost every activity has the potential to explore all 4 of these Umbrellas, and the resources at the PE Umbrella explain just how the same activity can lend itself to learning in any of the four domains, whether you choose to focus solely on one or touch upon a number of them, well, thats entirely up to you.  After-all, YOU are the teacher and YOU know your students the best!”

Contact Details

Show Sponsor – National Association for Primary Education

Our aim is to achieve a higher priority for the education of children from birth to 13. High quality learning in the early years of life is vitally important to the creation of an educated society. Young children are not simply preparing for the future, they are living a never to be repeated time of life and the best way to learn is to live.

For more information click here