An extra 60 new specialist primary school PE teachers will be trained up in the north-west, after an international rugby star and a Great Britain Water Polo player were among the first wave of recruits.
Hannah Rudman, 24, who has competed around the world in water polo championships and John Gillam, a former Ireland international rugby league player, have already got jobs in the classroom under the Government scheme.
Forty of the next wave of recruits will be trained by the Ashton-on-Mersey Teaching School Alliance with a further 15 at Liverpool John Moores University. Four will complete the programme at Holy Rosary Primary School, in Sefton.
Water polo star Hannah Rudman was one of the first recruits on the scheme.
The Year 5 teacher at Victoria Park Junior School, in Stretford, Greater Manchester, competed for Britain in Hungary, Portugal, Canada and Italy.
She said:
“The specialist PE teacher training course appealed to me because of its PE focus and its practical approach to learning and development.
The course was intense in the way it was jam-packed with school placements, training days, university lectures and assignments.
John Gillam, a former Oldham Roughyeds and Ireland rugby league player, now teaches Year 5 at Moorlands School in Trafford, Greater Manchester, after signing up for the scheme.
He said:
“I was excited to be a part of the new concept of becoming a PE specialist primary school teacher. Ashton on Mersey gave a life changing experience, which included giving me vast amounts of knowledge, confidence and the ability to become a highly skilled specialist when entering my teaching career.”
Trainees spend half their time studying PE and Sport, although they are not restricted to only teaching PE. They also undergo training in the core subjects, English, maths and science.
They will be trained to support their colleagues to develop their skills and improve quality of PE.
On top of this, the government is investing £450million in primary school PE over three years, and research has shown this has led to children doing more and better sport.
