You will prepare and submit a term paper on The Changing Role of the Physical Education Teacher. Your paper should be a minimum of 3250 words in length.

You will prepare and submit a term paper on The Changing Role of the Physical Education Teacher. Your paper should be a minimum of 3250 words in length. The programme illustrates the government's attempts to create a collaborative approach between the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and the Department of Education and Skills, as well as other key agencies. The emphasis on such initiatives has gained momentum only since the 1990s. There have been major investments made in the sport in schools, which reflect a commitment from the Blair and Major governments.

The success of this programme rests to a large extent, with the PE teachers who serve as a distribution channel for this initiative. Their new role as School Sport Co-ordinator confers on them, managerial and leadership responsibilities that they have not handled before. How PE teachers perceive their new role, their reactions and reflections will impact the success of the implementation process of the School Sport Partnership Programme.

The challenge that is posed for the PE teacher in the changed scenario is to not just supervise lessons, but also promote physical education to students. If PE staff is to work as a catalyst to ensure the success of this initiative, then they need to be encouraged to adopt a broader view of physical activity behaviour and understand their role in PE promotion. This calls for a study that will generate ideas to help PE staff don on the new role and will provide an insight into PE staff's ability to manage change and successfully accomplish the conferred responsibility of leadership.

To obtain an insight into the perceptions of the PE staff, and understand how the interpretation of the policy by PE staff impacts the realization of School Sport Partnership Programme's objectives, qualitative research is proposed at the Wyre School. The study will be ethnographic in nature, based on interviews and data gathered through observations. The study will also influence my own role as a Partnership Development Manager by offering an insight into the motivations of the team that I work with, which will help in better management of the team to achieve common goals. The final research report will be presented in the form of a thesis.

Review of Literature

Sports Partnership Programmes

The School Sport Partnership Programme is the government's initiative designed to raise standards in schools through improved and coordinated delivery of PE and sport. School Sport Partnerships bring together multiple schools, clubs, local authorities, national governing bodies of sport and other community organisations under one umbrella, to provide opportunities in sport for students. Thus it increases sporting opportunities for young people by linking school PE and sporting opportunities in the community. The philosophy guiding the initiation of this programme is that of social inclusion, which encourages participation in sports of all young people, and especially those who have been under-represented.

It is planned that by 2006, every school in England will be part of one of 400 partnerships.