Making Sense of the Big Picture: What the Literature Says

This book uses the example of a partnership journey between universities, schools, the local health industry as well as a number of government organisations which worked to ensure the growth of physical education in primary education. The initiative employed the United Nations (UN) ideals as a model and contextualised them within local schools and communities. What began as a pathway seed quickly grew to involve multi-stakeholder partnerships and therefore explores how the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) may be implemented at a grass roots level.Community partnerships are not a new concept. What is known is that partnerships are contextual, and therefore, no partnerships are the same. Hence, the purpose of this chapter is to investigate what research suggests to enhance successful partnerships. From a ‘futures perspective’, partnerships are ideal for implementing education curricula, and megatrends predict that in the future, education departments need to be prepared for a quality of life with limited world resources and increased significance of social relationships. Specifically within teacher education, literature suggests there are three elements for successful partnerships between schools and universities: coherence and integration, professional experience that links the theory with practice, and new relationships. Successful partnerships that espouse these elements increase the chance of reaching the hybrid space ideal

Quality invasion games: red rover or British bulldog?

Red Rover (Queensland name) and British Bulldog (Victorian name) are conceptually the same game as both require a player to travel across their opponents’ space without being ‘caught’. The call inviting an individual player to leave their starting safety zone in attempt to run to the end safety zone, in Queensland was “Red Rover, I call over”, followed by the chosen person’s name. If the runner (attacking) was caught, the player in the middle (defending their playing space) would say “Red Rover – one, two three, Red Rover – you are he/she”. Victoria had a similar invite and saying when caught, replacing the term ‘Red Rover’ with ‘British Bulldog’. When “Bull Rush” was called everyone not in the middle would attempt to get through the playing zone without being captured. Many would be familiar with either version or a game very similar. Red Rover/ British Bulldog fit within the invasion game category and will be examined as this edition’s quality game

Exploring religious education and health and physical education key learning area connections in primary schools.

This study explored if connections were made by teachers and students in schools between religious education (RE) and health and physical education (HPE) key learning areas (KLA). The research was conducted within three Brisbane (Queensland, Australia) Catholic primary schools of varying enrolment size. It is argued that within Catholic education, the HPE curriculum documents are strongly connected to the RE curriculum material (Lynch 2004). The spiritual dimension of the HPE curriculum is defined in the syllabus as the “sense of connection to phenomena and unusual events beyond self and usual sensory and rational existence; a sense of place within the universe” (Queensland School Curriculum Council 1999, 26). The three strands of HPE: personal development; developing the concepts and skills for physical activities; and promoting the health of individuals and communities can all be affiliated closely with the RE curriculum. Furthermore, under the HPE umbrella, physical education sits alongside health education, outdoor education, home economics, and RE (Macdonald 2003; Macdonald and Glover 1997). In primary schools, physical learning and physical activities are valuable components of the students’ and school culture. Christian spirituality is the essential link between faith and culture (Gallagher 1997). Hence, it is logical that the learning area for "learning in, through and about movement", HPE, may offer opportunities for Catholic schools to develop Christian spirituality usually associated with the RE learning area. As Buchanan and Hyde (2008, 310) share, “religious education is one field of study that can effectively address the complementarity between cognitive, affective and spiritual dimensions of learning”. Qualitative research investigating RE development through HPE learning experiences was conducted. Participants included teachers and students from the three respective schools. The research concluded that well implemented quality inclusive physical activities within HPE lessons increased participant’s connections between the two key learning areas

Investigating a win, win situation: delivering quality swimming experiences for children in local primary schools within the Gippsland region, via teacher education.

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the “commitment to action” designed by ministers of education, which act as stepping stones during implementation of the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians. The reflection conceptualises what these goals look like in practice within the Health and Physical Education (HPE) key learning area. “Swimming and water safety” for both pre-service teachers and children in Primary schools was implemented, which in hindsight provided a win-win situation. Furthermore, a framework enabling sustainable swimming education within the Gippsland rural community was developed. There were barriers to be overcome and amendments identified for possible future improvements; however, the project is strongly supported by the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD) Discussion Paper “A Tertiary Education Plan for Gippsland, Victoria”. The pathway involving collaboration of various stakeholders has begun, a process that can now be reflected upon, reassessed, amendments made and relationships strengthened for the sustainability of swimming and water safety within local rural primary schools in the Gippsland region

Context of Partnerships

This book uses the example of a partnership journey between universities, schools, the local health industry as well as a number of government organisations which worked to ensure the growth of physical education in primary education. The initiative employed the United Nations (UN) ideals as a model and contextualised them within local schools and communities. What began as a pathway seed quickly grew to involve multi-stakeholder partnerships and therefore explores how the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) may be implemented at a grass roots level.Sustainability of partnerships requires problem solving, which considers ‘context’. The context setting within this partnership was Latrobe Valley, Gippsland (Victoria, Australia), but it was also heavily influenced at the time by the Australian national curriculum reform and national HW & PE initiatives. The national curriculum was underpinned by the socio-cultural perspective and explicitly espoused the permeation of a ‘futures perspective’ in health, quality teaching, and teacher education. What began as a pathway seed quickly grew to involve multi-stakeholder partnerships; Australian universities, schools, Australian Registered Training Organisations (RTO), the local health industry (local leisure, and sports centre), Education departments, sport governing bodies at the national level, and a world leading international Initial Teacher Education (ITE) university course in the UK

Global Community Partnership Research

This book uses the example of a partnership journey between universities, schools, the local health industry as well as a number of government organisations which worked to ensure the growth of physical education in primary education. The initiative employed the United Nations (UN) ideals as a model and contextualised them within local schools and communities. What began as a pathway seed quickly grew to involve multi-stakeholder partnerships and therefore explores how the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) may be implemented at a grass roots level.This chapter investigates a successful teacher education programme in the UK, awarded ‘Outstanding’ by England’s Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills. Furthermore, the success of the programme was explicitly contributed by established partnerships with nearby schools. This course, at the time, was not offered within Australia. This study offered valuable insight into a successful primary teacher education programme/course, illustrated good practice, and subsequently, offered possible improvements to the preparation of pre-service primary teachers in Gippsland, Australia

Introduction

This book uses the example of a partnership journey between universities, schools, the local health industry as well as a number of government organisations which worked to ensure the growth of physical education in primary education. The initiative employed the United Nations (UN) ideals as a model and contextualised them within local schools and communities. What began as a pathway seed quickly grew to involve multi-stakeholder partnerships and therefore explores how the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) may be implemented at a grass roots level.This chapter introduces the partnership story, offering guidance to various local and global community stakeholders in understanding contemporary directions and future priorities for Health, Wellbeing, and Physical Education (HW & PE). According to the United Nations (UN), ‘partnerships’ are essential for implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), and subsequently, continued efforts towards equality in health and wellbeing. Hence, the partnership journey is significant as it offers insight to the future of HW & PE. This story is timely as ground level ‘partnerships in action’ forms a present gap in research

Swimming through winter necessary for children’s health and development

If your child is swimming this winter they will be fitter and develop a stronger immune system, making them less susceptible to common winter illnesses. Senior lecturer at Monash University’s Faculty of Education, Dr. Tim Lynch, agrees and said that swimming is possible during winter thanks to the comforts offered by modern indoor swimming facilities

Benefitting from National Initiatives: Tennis Australia ‘Hot Shots’

This book uses the example of a partnership journey between universities, schools, the local health industry as well as a number of government organisations which worked to ensure the growth of physical education in primary education. The initiative employed the United Nations (UN) ideals as a model and contextualised them within local schools and communities. What began as a pathway seed quickly grew to involve multi-stakeholder partnerships and therefore explores how the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) may be implemented at a grass roots level.The purpose of this chapter is to share the continued ‘Friday Sports’ community partnership programme success. The programme again accentuated the vital role pre-service teacher education can play in the development of children’s health, wellbeing, and physical education (HW & PE). This was the second time ‘Friday Sports’, embedded in unit EDF3619 for the university students (pre-service teachers), was offered for local primary schools. Tennis Australia ‘hot shots’ national initiative was adopted as a platform, and subsequently, became the modified sport for all sessions. Data gathered and feedback received suggested that this major amendment was effective

Rips, currents and snags: Investigating the delivery of educational goals for young Australians in the region of Gippsland, Victoria. ​

Monash University (Gippsland campus) is situated in Churchill, Latrobe Valley, located in central Gippsland, eastern Victoria. A large percentage of the Gippsland region comprises of a socio-economically disadvantaged population (Figure 1). In Semester One, 2011 as part of the Bachelor of Primary Education course at Monash, it was decided that a pathway be created to achieve these national ideals and goals through the implementation of swimming and water safety education in Primary schools. Swimming and water safety education represents the specific curriculum to be implemented in rural schools, it is representative of any aspect of the curriculum to be delivered. This paper comprises a narrative memoir by the author of his involvement in the pathway and subsequently the paper sheds light on the barriers, benefits and strategies for implementing such policies in practice