New activity cards deliver inclusive, challenging, and fun PE sessions

Activity Alliance and fellow Home Nation Disability Sport Organisations are pleased to release these new resources to improve PE and school sport for young disabled people across the UK. The activity cards provide teachers and school staff with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to plan and deliver inclusive and accessible PE sessions.

Created with the PE curriculum in mind, the games and activities are designed to support pupils to be physically active and to lead healthy, active lives. They encourage pupils to use their physical health and fitness, social, creative, cognitive, and personal abilities. Activities for young age groups also feature numeracy and literacy elements. The activity cards cater for all age groups and school development stages, for example Foundation to Key Stage 4 in England. With 25 games and activities across five different categories there's plenty of choice for teachers and pupils. The categories include warm up games, fundamental skills, striking and fielding skills, invasion games, and net court, and wall games.

These new resources follow the announcement of new UK Chief Medical Officers guidelines on physical activity for disabled children and young people. The guidance, which recommends daily levels of physical activity, will support disabled children and young people to improve their physical and mental health throughout their lives.

In 2020, findings from our My Active Future report reinforced the activity gap between disabled and non-disabled children. With only one in four (25%) disabled children saying they take part in sport and activity all of the time at school, compared to 41% of non-disabled children.

Activity Alliance believes a positive experience in PE and school sport plays a critical role in shaping life-long participation and access to sporting pathways for all young people. Since 2012, we have managed and delivered the Sainsbury's Inclusive PE Training programme in partnership with the Home Nation Disability Sport Organisations and Youth Sport Trust. The new activity cards form part of its legacy and will ensure teachers continue to have access to free guidance on embedding inclusive practice into their work.

The activity cards feature guidance and tools from the programme including Youth Sport Trust's STEP Tool. Each card suggests how to use the STEP Tool to make the activity easier or harder for pupils with different abilities, and/or specific impairments. Plus, there's a fun pupil corner section that encourages pupils to challenge themselves and work together to adapt games.

Download these resources here.

(Source: Activity Alliance)