PE, Games, Sport: What Do We Actually Call Our Subject?

Hi, this is my first blog! I want to keep these short and sweet, and hopefully some, if not all, of what I discuss will resonate with others in the PE community.

Labels — or perhaps mislabelling — our subject is something that still heavily grinds my gears.

I trained at the University of Exeter, completing a PGCE in Physical Education with a primary specialism. I am a PE teacher, and yet our subject still seems to have so many different labels, particularly in the independent sector.

The one I probably hate the most is ‘games teacher’.

I’ve had calls from the office asking for someone from the games staff, or heard a class teacher tell students to go and see the games staff when they have a question about PE.

I think it’s a term deeply rooted in the PE — or perhaps sport — provision of Prep and senior schools in the 80s and 90s. But why is it still used today?

Perhaps it’s laziness. Perhaps it’s ignorance. Or perhaps it simply demonstrates a lack of understanding of the learning that takes place physically, and how that learning is facilitated.

I still see adverts for a ‘games teacher’. But what actually is that?

Do you want a sports coach who simply gets children playing a sport? Or do you want a PE teacher who understands the much greater responsibility we have as educators from a pedagogical perspective, and who understands how wonderful our subject can be in helping young people develop in so many different ways?

The other word that is often used incorrectly is ‘sport’.

Can we really use the term ‘sport’ to describe everything a school provides physically — from PE lessons, to extra-curricular or co-curricular provision, to competitive sport?

I’m not sure I know the answer.

But again, I’m not sure I want to be labelled a sports teacher either.

Perhaps that makes me lean towards a bigger question:

Why can’t we use PE to cover all of it, and then break it down into the different areas of provision underneath?

PE. Curriculum. Co-curricular. Competitive sport. Recreation.

Maybe the labels aren’t the real problem. Maybe it’s what those labels make us think our subject actually is.

Like I said… short and sweet!