1st December 2008

Email this Page |

High quality physical education and school sport are essential investments that must have government support – that is the message from the Northern Ireland Association for Physical Education, launched at the University of Ulster today.

The Association has been established to promote the advancement of high quality physical education and school sport for the benefit of the education, health and development of all children and young people across Northern Ireland. 

The launch, which was attended by local sporting heroes such as Senior Irish Hockey International Emma Clarke and Senior Irish Basketball International Gareth Maguire, took place at Ulster’s new, multi-million pound sports facility on the Jordanstown campus.

Speaking at the event, Walter Bleakley, NI Association Chairman and senior lecturer at Ulster’s School of Education, called for government and community support to ensure that the physical education needs of children here are not neglected. 

He said: "We have ‘healthy schools’ in the sense that legislation is now in place to determine what children eat while they are in school but we need to work towards developing more ‘active’ schools.  Every opportunity should be taken to assist pupils to be purposefully active throughout the school day and not just during PE and games classes. Getting pupils of all ages more active will be one of NIAFPE priorities.

"The aim of the NIAPE is to provide a coherent voice for physical education during the current climate of change in the education sector. 

"We will strive to promote the value and importance of PE in schools by demonstrating the distinctive role that it plays in children’s and young people’s overall education. We will secure the commitment and partnership of all agencies working in the development and provision of PE and school sport and we will be raising the awareness of physical education’s contributions to public health and well being.

"We will also offer support to the high quality teaching that already exists within our schools and provide educationally informed advocacy and representation of the subject within Northern Ireland.”  

The NIAPE has been established from a representative panel drawn from the five education and library boards, the Department of Education, the Curriculum Council for Examinations and Assessment, the health sector, Sport NI, Youth Sport and the university teacher education centre.

For further information contact the NIAPE Chairman, Walter Bleakley on: 028 90366415 or email: ew.bleakley@ulster.ac.uk  

For further information, please contact:

Trina Porter
Telephone: 028 71675511
Email: Trina Porter