Changing the Face of Competition in Primary PE

In the second of our blogs dedicated to Sports Day, we asked Primary PE expert, Dr Vicky Randall for her thoughts on competition in a Primary setting and if it is healthy in a child’s development.

In 2013, the revised [and still current] Primary National Curriculum was published in England.  For the first time, ‘competition’ was stated in the ‘Purpose of Study’ and ‘Aims’ for PE:

“A high-quality physical education curriculum inspires all pupils to succeed and excel in competitive sport and other physically-demanding activities.”

and

“The national curriculum for physical education aims to ensure that all pupils engage in competitive sports and activities”  (DfE, 2013)

The simple addition of the word ‘competition’ had a profound influence and perception on what the new curriculum for PE should be.  At the same time, the introduction of the Primary PE and Sport Premium further highlighted that funding could be used to:

“increase participation in competitive sport” (Gov.uk)

With this change in direction for PE also coinciding with a highly successful London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, questions were asked if physical education’s job was now about preparing future Olympians? The notion of which sounds absurd, as by definition not everyone can be an Olympian. In fact, only a fraction of the world's population, 0.0001% to be precise, will ever earn the right to call themselves an Olympian. 

So what was the meaning of placing competitive sport in the curriculum for children as young as five?

The etymology of “competition” comes from Latin and is a combination of the prefix “com” (which translates to “with”) and “petere” (which means “to strive” or “to seek”) (see Shields & Funk, 2011). Thus, a ‘competition’ takes place when opponents strive with each other to achieve excellence. The key word here is ‘with’ and not against. In ‘true competition’, the process of working together is more important than the outcome, thus enjoyment in competition comes from a sense of accomplishment when pursuing goals that are appropriately challenging. 

This definition creates some important considerations for primary PE.

Firstly, competition becomes less about the activity and more about the experience a child has within the activity. In short, it’s not about what we teach, but creating an environment for children to learn.

It is fair that any teacher might interpret competition as winning and losing.  However, there is much to be gained from a broader definition of what it means to compete that avoids children feeling alienated from PE.

One approach is to consciously consider the language associated with competition during a lesson. This might include:

• Personal best: through individual, pair or team tasks. What is your best and can you improve on your best? Are you able to do more than you did before, or keep going for longer?
• Achievement: What have you achieved in this lesson, either as an individual and/or together?  What are you proud of? Can you do something now that you couldn’t do before?  How did you contribute today?
• Goal setting: What do you want to achieve today, next week, next year? What would make you feel excited and proud?
• Challenge: Is there something that you cannot do yet but would like to? Is your challenge physical, strategic, or personal?
• Commitment: Can you keep going even when it is difficult? How can we avoid letting others down who are relying on us? What does it take to meet our goals?
• Determination: How much time and focus can I give to this task or challenge? Can we learn from each other to work something out? How many ways can I/we solve this task? Am I motivated regardless of the outcome?
• Respectful: Can you show admiration and praise someone else for their achievement and success?

Compare the three lesson examples below. All are competitive and aimed at developing the skill of jumping for distance, but each scenario takes a different competitive approach.

Experiment with each technique and identify which one gives you the greatest distance.  Mark your attempts with different coloured cones.  What personal best can you achieve with your preferred jump? Can your partner help you to improve your technique and distance?

The first lesson scenario is a traditional competitive activity i.e. how far, how fast, how long etc?  However, in primary education, children are still growing and developing at varying rates, therefore any closed type of activity like this can give a false indication of achievement and future potential.  Secondly the assessment of the activity is not met with any feedback or feedforward - how and why can I improve?

Thirdly, the two footed jumping option may not be the most effective for achieving distance by everyone in the class.  Across a class of children there will almost certainly be a range of responses (and debate) about which jump produces the greatest distance (see lesson scenario 3).  Limiting children to one form of jump (scenario one) may result in some children not achieving their potential, or understanding how to adapt for what is right for their body.

The second lesson scenario provides children with a more developmentally appropriate measure of success.   The height of children will indicate [crudely] the distance they can jump.  This will of course vary from child to child.  Therefore, a more accurate measure of success (if that is what you are seeking) is to measure how close to their height each child can jump.

In Ofsted’s (2022) Research Review of PE there was clear acknowledgement that competition should be ‘carefully’ and ‘strategically’ considered as a pedagogical approach in PE.

“The way teachers structure competition within lessons is important. The focus should be on pupils’ quality of knowledge application and therefore the task, rather than solely the outcome.”

Competition should never be the sole purpose of any PE lesson, nor should it be used to find out who is the ‘best’.  Instead, a personal challenge with self, with others, or against others, accompanied by time to evaluate and improve is more likely to help children enjoy competitive activities and motivate them to stay engaged for longer.