Physical Education
Vision
Healthy Andersonians who engage in sports for life.
Mission
Promoting a lifelong healthy lifestyle through physical activity and proper nutrition through fun and exciting activities.
Subjects offered by Department
Physical Education
Key programmes of Department
Schools and educators have had to rethink and redesign pedagogical practices since Safe Management Measures (SMM) were put in place due to COVID-19. More than any other subject, the teaching of PE has been challenged by this pandemic. COVID-19 challenged our PE teachers in designing meaningful lessons and ensuring the goals of PE are still intact. With SMMs such as restrictions to groupings, safe-distancing and changes often announced at short notice, the department had to be nimble and flexible in making the necessary adjustments to lessons.
PE lessons continued to be taught using the Games Concept Approach (GCA), with reduced group sizes. Andersonians learnt a range of sports across the major categories of sports (invasion, target, striking/fielding & net barrier). The GCA approach encourages the development of both psychomotor and thinking skills in the learning of a sport. Secondary 1 students learnt Badminton & Gaelic football, Secondary 2 students learnt Basketball & Football, Secondary 3 students learnt Frisbee & Floorball while our Secondary 4 and 5 students learnt Softball. In addition to the cognitive domain, students were also assessed in the physical and affective domains. In the physical domain, students were required to demonstrate motor skills and teamwork which they had learnt during PE lessons. In the affective domain, students were credited or penalised based on positive or negative behaviours displayed during PE lessons. The department also tapped on ICT platforms such as SLS and the students’ personal learning devices to supplement learning.
Adjustments to the various department events were also made in adherence to SMMs. Inter-class games such as Badminton for Secondary 1 students went ahead. For sports such as Softball where many players are required, the competition was done at the intra-class level. To provide students more platforms for healthy living and get them to improve their fitness, the department organised a Fitness Challenge during the June holidays. Students were tasked to train themselves in performing fitness activities, namely push-ups (boys), planks (girls) and squats (boys & girls). Students who managed to achieve the minimum requirements for both activities were rewarded with a bandana. The Annual Cross Country was replaced by the Anderson Virtual Race where both staff and students were encouraged to go for runs or walks during the September holidays and clock as much mileage as possible. A Skipping Challenge was also organised for our lower secondary students. Sports enrichment such as tag archery, roller blading and K-Pop dance were organised as part of post-exam activities. The Wellness Programme continued to focus on students with high Body Mass Index (BMI). In addition to our PE teachers mentoring students in their PE classes, Mr Sivanesan (our Senior Teacher), also coordinated a rigorous programme for the students. Students attended sessions to educate them on healthy living such as proper nutrition, sleep and exercise. During the June holidays, students were tasked to track their sleep and daily physical activities (using FITT principle).
The health leaders, led by Mr Ken Leong and Mr Edward Neo, continued to support the department in the various school sports events and healthy lifestyle programmes. To develop our health leaders, training was provided for them in the areas of health and fitness. They were also trained to carry out and run inter-class sports activities.
The department continued to share good pedagogical practices this year. At the Cluster N3 ICT Symposium this year, Mr Sivanesan and Mr Benedict Low shared on leveraging the ICT tool, Coaches’ Eye, to tap on video evidence / analysis to complement the formative assessment strategies used to provide effective feedback to students. They also shared on the usage of the Blooket App that constantly evaluated, monitored and improved students’ progress. At the same time, an element of fun was achieved because it offers a variety of games to keep students engaged and excited.
At the Professional Learning Fiesta 2021, Mr Indrajit Singh, Mr Sivanesan and Mr Edward Neo shared on how diagnostic assessment can be done for differentiated learning in PE where our PE teachers carefully and purposefully differentiate their lessons after understanding students’ levels of readiness, interests and learning profiles.