Generation Next: The preparation of pre-service teachers in primary physical education

Since the London 2012 Olympic Games expectation has been placed upon primary physical education to improve teacher competency through a profusion of Government funding and policy. To date, no large scale study has been undertaken to examine the impact of this political change on the next generation of primary teachers. This is the final report of a two-phase research project that has investigated the current context for primary physical education initial teacher education. The data were collated during the academic year of 2015/2016 by partners working across the teacher education, primary physical education and school sport sector. Findings showed that a third of pre-service teachers had no opportunity to teach physical education during their time in school, with further indication that curriculum delivery across schools was largely outsourced to non-qualified teachers. The main barriers that prevented a pre-service teacher's development were: having no opportunity to teach, the use of outsourced providers to deliver the physical education curriculum and poor quality mentoring.