The connection between physical activity and brain development isn't just anecdotal—it's backed by compelling scientific research that should revolutionize how we think about sport in schools. When students exercise, their brains produce more BDNF enzyme, which supports memory formation, reduces anxiety, and significantly enhances learning capacity. One study showed students who participated in high-intensity fitness before tutoring improved their test scores by over 20%, compared to just 3.87% improvement in students who received tutoring alone.
James Boyer from the NSW School Sports Unit explains that timing matters: "If we do physical activity just before we want to learn something new, it really gets kids ready to learn." This challenges the false dichotomy between academic time and physical activity time, suggesting instead that movement creates optimal conditions for learning.
Meanwhile, the School Swimming and Water Safety Program celebrates 70 years of providing vital skills to 100,000 students annually across 1,400 NSW schools. Beyond safety, these programs deliver profound wellbeing benefits, particularly for students from diverse backgrounds who gain confidence and connection through participation.
Perhaps most moving are the stories of inclusion through the multi-class sports pathway. Peter Cardy shares how a student named Sophie transformed from hiding her limb difference to becoming confident and outgoing through participating in classified sport competitions. Last year saw record participation with 192 multi-class athletes at state championships.
For school leaders, the Sport and Physical Activity School Health Check provides a framework to assess and improve school programs based on five key areas: policy, quality sport, physical activity throughout the day, community engagement, and staff involvement. This isn't about ticking boxes—it's about creating comprehensive wellbeing strategies with direct academic benefits.
Want to transform student wellbeing and learning outcomes? Contact the NSW School Sports Unit for tailored support and access their extensive resources through the teacher hub.
Link to NSW School Sports Unit:
https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/curriculum/school-sport
Links and References:
To view our Professional Learning Offerings, visit:
https://www.nswppa.org.au/professional-learning
To view our latest offerings, visit: https://www.nswppa.org.au/catalogue
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Drew (00:00):
Welcome back to Professional Learning's, the New
South Wales PPA EducationalLeadership Podcast.
It's great to have your company.
This podcast aligns to thevalues of the New South Wales
Primary Principals Association,that is, the values of principal
wellbeing, principals as leadlearners, as well as supporting
principals to lead schooloperations.
(00:23):
If you enjoy this podcast,don't forget to subscribe for
further updates.
Now let's get into today'slatest episode.
Welcome to our specialfour-part series with the NSW
Department of Education SportsUnit.
This is the third episode of afour-part series.
We have created this as aspecial four-part series as
(00:46):
there is so much content andinformation to share with you
and we look forward to sharingthis four-part series of
approximately 30 to 35 minutesper podcast episode.
In this episode, episode three,we hear from James Boyer, who is
the sport and physical activitycoordinator and is also the
principal education officer forthe New South Wales school sport
(01:09):
unit, and he's joined by PeterCardy, who is the athletics
convener for the New South Walesschool sports unit.
There's some really interestingresearch that is shared about
the effect of brain withphysical exercise, and Peter
shares a powerful story ofinclusion through school sport.
So really well worth listening.
(01:30):
And if you're listening andthinking, how does the school
sport unit align withprofessional learning?
That's a great question.
Well, the short answer and it'sreally unpacked in this episode
a lot.
There is lots of evidence-basedresearch, science around the
brain, alignment with yourschool excellence framework, the
well-being benefits of sportand retention, supporting
(01:52):
student with disabilities, aswell as practical and sound
advice based around currentpolicies, just to name a few.
With all of that, let's startnow.
With all of that, let's startnow.
Our next guest in this podcastseries is James Boyer.
James is a Sport and PhysicalActivity Coordinator and is also
the Principal Education Officerfor the NSW School Sports Unit.
James (02:17):
So I'm James Boyer.
My job title is Sport andPhysical Activity Coordinator.
I'm a Principal EducationOfficer in the School Sport.
Drew (02:24):
Unit Fantastic and James, welcome firstly to our podcast.
Great for you to be with ustoday.
Thanks for having me, James.
Let's go through your title andyour role and we can go through
and unpack that further and howit can support principals.
So let's just start with whatis your role and what is your
(02:46):
role within the sports unit.
James (02:47):
Yeah, great, thank you.
So I'm one of the leaders herein the sport unit, so I'm a
principal education officer.
I lead a number of programs,for instance, all to do with
sport and physical activity.
I guess Peter's already gonethrough some of the arms of the
unit and we have therepresentative arm.
Well, I do everything that'sessentially non-representative,
(03:12):
more or less so primarilysupporting schools in sport and
physical activity.
So what does that look like?
We've heard from Michael, who'stalked about the professional
learning and the resources.
So I'm leading that strategy.
The school swimming and watersafety program that's something
that I've taken over at thestart of the year and I know
that many of the principals willbe familiar with that because
we have 1,400 primary schoolsinvolved in it.
It also extends.
We do some funding for stagesix students or stage sorry
(03:34):
stage four students as well.
What else do I do?
So the disabilities programcomes under my banner.
Michael is managing that, butit sort of is my responsibility
as well, and the PremierSporting Challenge at the moment
is currently one of my programsas well.
However, the management of thatis moving next year.
Drew (03:52):
Well, I'm sure you've got some stats to share in terms of
highlights of those programs.
Do you have anything you couldshare with us today for
highlights of those particular?
James (04:02):
programs.
Sure, I mean I mentionedalready we have 1, 1400 primary
schools involved in the schoolswimming and water safety
program.
We're trying to increase that,but we're, you know it's almost
every primary school already, sothere's 1500.
Drew (04:15):
So say that again.
You've got 1400 so far.
Okay.
So with these colleagues thereare 1800 primary, principal,
primary schools and actually1,800 members of our association
.
So the challenge for thoselistening is another 400.
I'm hearing yeah.
James (04:32):
Yeah, so there's definitely room for us to grow
there and I guess I could talkabout that.
There's 100,000 students eachyear that get swimming lessons
through the Department ofEducation.
Through this program thedepartment funds the tuition so
the schools or the students haveto pay for, you know, where
appropriate, pool entry and buscosts, which you know, we know
(04:53):
can be challenging.
But the department is fundingthe tuition and that's either
through what we call a centralprogram where we organize the
teachers, the schools come tothe pool and we bring the swim
teachers they're all Departmentof Ed NESesta trained teachers
or in some areas, particularlyin regional, regional and remote
areas, where we, you know, it'snot really practical for us to
(05:13):
send the staff, we providefunding for schools to deliver a
program we call a school-baseddelivery, where they go to their
local pool and they get localproviders, where we provide the
funding for that as well oh,that's such an important program
and we hope it does continueSuch important work.
Drew (05:29):
Do you tell us in terms of what's the process for schools
who are looking to access thatfunding?
James (05:35):
Yeah, I'd like to think that it's pretty easy to apply
for the funding.
We have what we call our Dashapp website where schools can
apply.
They log in prettystraightforward process.
They assign a swim coordinatoryou know somebody who we can
contact who's going to lookafter it they decide whether
they're school-based or central,based to those two programs
that I explained, and they giveus their numbers and so really,
(05:57):
we're targeting students fromyear two and up who are not, who
or who cannot swim.
It's a learn to swim program, ayear's two to six up, and they
give us their numbers and then,if it's a central program, they
just choose which pools theirpreference is and when in the
year they want to come, andthat's it.
(06:18):
That's the process.
It's three steps and then wetake it from there.
Drew (06:22):
So learn to swim program, I'm hearing years two to six,
correct?
James (06:26):
me if I'm wrong, okay.
Drew (06:28):
And in terms of the funding and support offered,
which is terrific.
What about the training andprofessional learning for
teachers?
Is that part of the program, ordoes part of the program
involve having already trainedswim instructors?
James (06:42):
Yeah.
So if you come to one of ourcentral programs, which
predominantly is, you know,metropolitan Sydney, but also
the Hunter, there's a lot ofcentral programs, north Coast,
south Coast as well.
They're all NESA trainedteachers or typically very
rarely do we use somebody who'snot a teacher and they all have
swim teacher qualifications.
So they're very highly trainedindividuals and are very
(07:05):
successful For teachers, who Iguess you know, or for schools
who do school-based or who wantto have get their training.
We do have a really greatrelationship with some of the
providers out there and happy toprovide advice or support or
tell schools where teachers cango to get the training if they
want to deliver the programthemselves.
Drew (07:22):
Yeah, yeah and I'm thinking from the principal
perspective for our listenersgoing, tell us what are the
rules or there is a ratio thatwe need to be, aware of.
It's all that planning stuffthat we want to make sure again
we do right as principals.
Can you guide us through thatSure?
James (07:42):
I agree it can be complex .
Lucette King, my colleague, isthe expert on policy and I know
that you will be talking to herlater.
So certainly anything I don'tcover she'll be able to cover
and anything that I guess anyquestions.
You know we really prideourselves on being really
responsive and available forprincipals, but I guess it's
easier if you can get it rightfrom the start.
Don't have to come to us.
(08:02):
So the teaching ratio is?
It changes depending on the ageof the students, potentially if
they've got a disability, andtheir capabilities as well, but
typically it's around 1 to 15 asa teaching ratio, but we always
want two staff members there asa minimum to be able to
supervise as well.
So it's 1 to 15 for teachingbut it's 1 to 12 for supervision
(08:24):
.
So, basically saying, we alwayshave two people there.
So if you've got a class of 30,then I think typically you
would have two teachers teachingthe 15 students and you would
have another staff membersupervising the whole area
making sure that the everybody'ssafe.
When it comes to our programs,for the central programs we a
maximum of 60 students at anyone time.
(08:45):
That's sort of a typicalprogram 60 students and we
provide four teachers.
So we're covering that 1 to 15ratio with our teachers and then
we use the school staff to helpwith supervision around the
pool as well the teachers thatcome with the school yeah, it's
such an.
Drew (09:01):
They're the sort of important things to make sure
that schools get right andprincipals want to ensure they
get right and such.
How long has the program beengoing for?
James (09:10):
Well, this is actually our 70th year, the 70th year of
the program.
Congratulations.
Peter (09:16):
Yeah, well, thank you.
James (09:17):
I've only been working directly on it for one year, so
I'm hoping I don't break it, butso far so good.
Yeah, 70 years and yeah,100,000 students each year
accessing Learn to Swim throughdepartment schools.
I think it's really quiteincredible.
Drew (09:31):
That is amazing stat to share, but obviously, like
anything, we want to increasethose figures and, as we said at
the start, we haveapproximately 1,400 schools at
the moment and potentiallyincreasing that, ideally.
Colleagues, you can hear theimpact of the work.
I mean learning to swim is afundamental, almost human right,
(09:52):
isn't it?
Absolutely, when we think aboutthat Particularly in Australia,
yeah, and student swimming isintegral to ensuring that
they're safe, and it's also thebenefits are amazing as well.
Are there any benefits actuallythat you do have that you could
elaborate on?
James (10:10):
well, I mean in in terms of swimming.
You know, I think it opens up awhole world for students.
We, we do some work I know thatthis is, you know, in uh, in
secondary schools and we've beenworking with I know it's a
little bit off topic there, butwith some new arrivals, and
recently we worked with school,got some feedback from a school
of how much benefit thesestudents got from it.
(10:31):
Where some of them had, youknow, like zero confidence
participating in swimming at thestart of the program, by the
end they, you know, could theyswim well, they could stay
afloat, so much so that they,when, when they had their
swimming carnival, theybasically had full participation
from the students in the school.
And I mean, what is that bring?
Well, it brought confidence tothe kids.
(10:51):
It made them feel moreconnected to their peers because
they're actually able toparticipate and they got the
enjoyment out of that.
You know they can enjoy thefull benefits of, you know, this
wonderful climate that we'vegot and being able to go
swimming, like you said, afundamental right.
So that was a really nice casestudy there.
Drew (11:09):
Yeah, and a really good story as well in terms of
showing the impact In terms offrom the principal perspective.
Are there any opportunitiesthat our leaders need to be
aware of that you could sharewith us today through your role
or through the sports unit?
James (11:24):
I guess, I think there's an opportunity really to think
about the role that sport andphysical activity plays in
schools and why do we do it, whydo we have the policy?
And I think Michael touched onwell, we have 150 minutes.
He touched on students notbeing active enough and the role
of sport and I think you know,I guess, what we're really I
(11:45):
guess arguing or trying toconvince people is really sport
is a well-being activity.
Drew (11:52):
you know, primarily that's what it's there for sure is
well-being is pivotal to ourassociations, one of our key
values actually through theassociation, and we really like
some of those topics that werediscussed.
I'm sure people listening inwould maybe engage in those,
those mini breaks, so to speak,and the research and evidence
shows that it has a positiveimpact on student wellbeing, but
(12:16):
I imagine it would be wholeschool wellbeing as well if
implemented successfully.
James (12:20):
Yeah, absolutely, and I think there's an opportunity
there to use, you know, sport.
It's universal, you know, use itas a whole school wellbeing
approach, something that canaffect every student in the
school and, like you've touchedon previously, staff members too
, and certainly the research isvery strong in this area.
And look, I think, liketraditionally, how we've
(12:42):
marketed, like, if we can saythat like particularly the
health promotion people havemarketed sport or being active,
particularly to kids, they sortof talk a lot around, you know,
preventing cardiovasculardisease and type 2 diabetes and
osteoporosis and cancer andthings like this, and this is
really, I think, irrelevant toschool teachers.
It's sort of we sort of say it'slike time delay, these are
things that are going to affectus in the future or affect kids
(13:05):
in the future maybe.
And there's, they're intangible, they're things that you know,
you can't touch and feel, youdon't understand, and it's, and
really I think, promoted in thisway as being detrimental.
But now we know there's so muchmore research around those
immediate, short-term benefitsthat students can benefit from,
and I think that teachers canhaving the students in their
classroom as well, and so we'resort of seeing a lot in the
(13:28):
research around the effect ofsport and physical activity,
particularly particularly on thebrain, and this is an area of
research that's just jumpeddramatically in the last 10, 20
years.
It's an area that I'm reallypassionate about and really
interested in in my role, so Isort of do a lot of reading on
this.
Drew (13:45):
So what are the benefits?
If you can elaborate further,what are those benefits to brain
health and from physicalactivity?
James (13:53):
Yeah, well, I mean, certainly what we know is that
being active changes our brain,and so there's one study where
they look at, you know granted,it was in older adults, and this
is where I guess a lot of thatbrain research happens,
particularly as we're trying toprevent or find cures for
dementia but what they found wasthat if they had two groups,
(14:15):
you know the active group andthe inactive group, or they gave
some physical activity to itwas a one-year period and
actually saw that thehippocampus increased by around.
The increase was 2% change.
Essentially, the group who weredoing the physical activity,
theirs increased and the peoplewho didn't do the physical
activity decreased.
So it's basically a 2%difference in hippocampus size.
(14:37):
What does this mean?
Well, what's the hippocampusfor those who didn't study
science at university or maybehave forgotten, which is fair
Memory formation, I think thisis pretty important for, or
interesting for, teachersSpatial navigation and emotional
regulation, so, and that's justexercise, that's, that's one of
the effects that it has.
We're also, I guess, there's alot of questions like why or how
(14:59):
does this happen?
And the big all the research atthe moment is really looking at
this.
It's like an enzyme.
An enzyme in the brain iscalled bdnf and this is what
helps our brains grow.
And what we see is you knowmostly this these studies are
done in rats, okay, which youknow there's.
There's some limited transferthere or we don't know but
basically, if we do any bout ofactivity, this bdnf just shoots
(15:21):
through the roof.
It really increases bdnf, helpsbrain cells grow.
I mentioned that it fightsstress and anxiety, improves
mood, mood boosts learning andmemory.
That's what we see from thatand we see this spike in BDNF
when we exercise.
Drew (15:35):
So, colleagues, listening, thinking about and hearing this
research just reassures thatsport has a place in schools, in
learning institutions, tosupport, as you've seen through
that research supports learning,retain information.
James (15:52):
Yeah, well, I, I mean I can talk.
There was this one reallyinteresting study out of chicago
actually, where they hadstudents, they were struggling
in their numeracy and they did abefore school like some extra
tuition for these students andfor half of the group they
before they did the extratuition.
They actually gave them somephysical activity like fitness,
(16:12):
really high intensity fitnessboosts.
It's fun and engaging.
Then they had their numeracylesson, their additional one,
and then they did their normalstandardized test at the end of
the term or their NAPLAN orsomething, and interestingly, in
the kids who did the, they sawan increase in both.
So the tuition really helped.
But it was a 20.4% increase inthe kids who had the physical
(16:34):
activity versus a 3.87% in thekids who didn't have the
physical activity.
They repeat it, which is, Ithink, really interesting that
you know this one thing alone.
Now, this was a small study butyou know, I think it's
something you could testyourself really easily and we
have seen this repeated throughthe systematic reviews and the
meta-analysis all says thatphysical activity.
(16:55):
There's a link there betweenphysical activity and learning.
This one was really interestingbecause they repeated it.
They they did a similar thingwhere they had the tuition group
in the morning but then theyput the physical activity in the
afternoon.
Or maybe it's the other wayaround they put the physical
activity in the morning and thephysical, then the tuition, in
the afternoon, I think, and theydidn't see the same effects.
(17:16):
So I think what we're reallyseeing and this is what Michael
touched on earlier is that thetimeliness of the physical
activity, that if we do it justbefore, say, we want to learn
something new, or just beforeour lessons at the start of the
day, we can call them like aspark activity, it really,
really gets kids ready to learn,and that could be those changes
in mood, it could be thoseincreases in BDNF, or even just
(17:39):
the blood flow to the brain, theoxygen that goes to the brain.
So what we know is that justphysical activity on its own
prepares us to learn, prepareskids to learn.
Drew (17:48):
And it's great to hear those studies, even though the
sets are coming from differentelder generation.
I heard Also I heard somethingto do with rats.
Potentially, but it justifiesor just backs in the impact, and
(18:08):
that's exactly, I guess, wherein the world we are in education
, educational leaders look atevidence-based research to show
the impact.
So if colleagues are listeningto this, this is really
fascinating.
Is there any?
Where can we point them to findfurther information about this?
James (18:25):
Look, I mean, I'm happy to you know where can they find?
I mean, certainly there's a lotof academic literature out
there.
We do have some literaturereviews available as a part of
our health check package ofresources.
I'm also happy to you know, tospeak about this to anyone,
anyone that will listen, oranytime.
I'm happy you give me anaudience and I'll speak to them,
(18:46):
but certainly it's linked inwith our health check and the
work that we're doing aroundthat.
Drew (18:50):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, and it's great to hear that
you're so passionate aboutsharing, sharing the research
and sharing the impact for ourlisteners, our, our educational
leaders, our, our principals,listening.
Are there any, any, any furthertips or advice that you could,
you were able to share with ustoday?
James (19:09):
well, I guess you know I can expand.
You know, michael briefly spokeabout the health check and sort
of mentioned that and andfundamentally what that does, or
what that, how we that cameabout, I think might be people
might be interested to know.
Peter (19:21):
So essentially, what was you know?
James (19:23):
we're arguing, well-being is a priority for all schools.
We know that that's, that's agiven.
You know, I've sort of givensome small examples of how
physical activity can be, canimprove well-being, academic
achievement.
You know, we can talk mentalhealth, we can talk mood, we can
talk connectedness.
So, without a doubt, there's alink there between sport,
(19:43):
physical activity and well-being, a strong link, I would say so,
like I've sort of said, well,we could argue that well-being
is a sorry.
The sport is a well-beingstrategy.
So if sport and physicalactivity is a wellbeing strategy
, okay, that's great.
What do we do about it?
What do we do in schools?
How do we make a difference?
This is where the health checkcomes in, and I think that
people will want to know thatit's based, that there's an
(20:05):
evidence base behind it, and soit's based on the comprehensive
approach to sport and physicalactivity which comes out of the
CDC in America, which we allbecame very familiar with
through COVID.
They were given a lot of advicearound COVID, but they do other
things as well, not justcommunicable diseases, and
essentially what they say is ifyou want to increase sport and
physical activity in schools,there are five things that you
(20:27):
should do.
You should.
Policy is number one.
It's got to be written down,there's got to be a plan for it.
Michael sort of touched on the150 minutes.
Quality sport again Michaeltouched around the strategies
that we can do to improve thequality of sport and PE.
It's not just a matter of doingit, it's a matter of the
quality of it.
Physical activity across theschool day that's the third
thing and Michael gave a lot ofexamples there around the 10 at
(20:50):
10s and that immediate benefitwas there around the 10 at 10s
and that immediate benefit.
And really what this is sayingis that we need to move.
You know we're designed to moveevery day.
We need to move every day, notjust during sport time at the
end of the week or our PElessons.
The fourth one is family andcommunity engagement.
So essentially, if we can getkids active at school, that's
great.
But what are the links outsideof school?
How can we help get ourfamilies involved or our
(21:12):
communities involved?
So, links to community sport weknow that that happens a lot in
schools.
You know they're creating andfinding those links for students
.
And then staff involvement again, michael spoke about this a lot
.
You know our staff are reallyimportant role models for
students, and so I guess howthey talk about sport and
physical activity really isimportant.
It rubs off on the kids and,essentially, those five things.
That's what this, the, thecomprehensive approach, says.
(21:34):
You do those five things andyou're going to be increasing
sport and physical activity,which we could say well, you're
going to be increasingwell-being, you could argue.
That's where the health checkthen comes in.
It's basically then based onthose five things, but for new
south wales schools.
So it's a self-assessment basedon those five things to see
where's our school at what could, and give some ideas of what we
(21:57):
could be doing better.
It's a self-assessment.
It's not an audit.
Somebody called it that theother day, which was really
interesting.
It's not about us saying thisis what you have to do.
It's about schools, I guess,being empowered to reflect, see
what they're doing really reallywell, which good, and what are
the areas where they can improvein order to make a difference
in terms of student wellbeing.
Drew (22:18):
Yeah, and it's a good starting point that you said.
And then the work is afterthose.
They've done the snapshot, notthe audit, the snapshot.
And then where to what if theydo find which inevitably they
should, which is part of thatprocess where to go from there.
So they found gaps in thisprocess where to from here.
James (22:41):
Yeah, and again, this is what I think we pride ourselves
on the support.
Come to us, ask us, you know,or certainly go to the teacher
resource hub that Michael spokeabout.
Everything in there is reallybased on the health check.
It's based on providing supportfor schools where there are
these potential gaps.
So physical activity across theschool day, quality sport and
(23:02):
PE.
There's a lot of resourcesthere, but I guess we don't need
people to guess.
Come and speak to us and we cangive advice and support on
those next steps and becauseit's going to look different in
every school, so we can tailorthat depending on your school
context and what you might need.
But I guess if you don't ask,you don't receive.
So come to us and that's whatwe're here for.
(23:23):
I'm sure that Banksy said thisearlier.
We only exist to supportschools.
You've got the tools and theresources are there, but please
come to us and and we'd be happyto support however we can.
Drew (23:33):
Well, that sounded like a challenge there.
So for those listening in andyou've done that process, you've
done the, not the audit, whatis it again?
James (23:42):
James.
The full title is the Sport andPhysical Activity School Health
Check.
Drew (23:47):
Yeah, so you've completed that task.
That's the challenge after thatis, you've done your gap, or
your gap analysis, so to speak.
Then you can then access all ofthe resources through the
sports unit and james is morethan willing and able, through
his team, to be able to supportyou through that process.
(24:07):
So look, fantastic initiativesbacked again, which is backed in
by evidence and research toshow the impact of that, and
it's all about what I heard inthe messaging through you, james
is wellbeing.
Wellbeing is coming through sostrongly through the sports unit
(24:27):
.
So thank you again for sharingall of the absolute pleasure.
Terrific to have you with ustoday.
That is James Boyer, sport andPhysical Activity Coordinator of
the Art and Sport Initiative.
So thank you again for joiningus, thank you.
Our next guest in this podcastseries is Peter Carty.
Peter is the Athletics Convenorfor the New South Wales School
(24:50):
Sports Unit.
Peter (24:52):
Thanks, Drew.
My name's Peter Carty and I'mfrom the School Sport Unit.
Drew (24:56):
Fantastic Welcome, Peter, to our podcast.
It's great for you to be withus today.
Thanks, Drew Thanks for havingme Absolute pleasure.
Now, Peter, can you tell ourlisteners what your role is in
the Sports Unit?
Peter (25:08):
Yeah, Drew, my job with the Sports Unit is a disability
and inclusion officer, so I workalongside Anthony Moyes and the
two of us support schoolsacross the entire state helping
get students involved in sportfor students with disability.
Drew (25:21):
Yeah, what a fantastic initiative and I'm sure you've
got some, some great stories tobe able to share.
But in terms of that role, canyou unpack a little bit further?
What does that role entail?
Peter (25:32):
Yeah, my role is really helping schools get students
with disability involved insport through different pathways
, both in our participationopportunities and in the
representative pathway.
Anthony, I think, is jumping ona bit later.
He'll probably go into more ofthe participation opportunities
we offer for schools, but todayI'm happy to talk about the
representative pathway andgetting students involved in
those sports of swimming,cross-country athletics.
Drew (25:52):
Yeah, so from a principal perspective, their understanding
about the what that pathway is.
Could you unpack that a littlebit today?
What, what are the pathways for?
I've got a talented student inmy school.
What are the pathways for thatstudent to make those pathways
into representation?
Peter (26:12):
Yeah, the representative pathways for swimming,
cross-country athletics allbegin back at the school level.
The school carnival is reallythe first selection trial for
students to work their waythrough to get to the state
championships.
So at a school level you'll runyour school carnival and then
from there the students progresson to zone or district,
depending on where you are inthe state, and then move through
(26:32):
to the regional association.
They then select the top threewhich advance to the state
championships.
Drew (26:38):
Yeah, yeah, fantastic.
So in terms of support forstudents and advice for
principals, that pathway seemspretty straightforward.
I mean, it's been going forquite a while now.
Peter (26:51):
Yeah, it's been going on for a long time.
There's still always questionsthat pop up.
Here at the sport unit, we getplenty of questions throughout
the year about how things work.
It could be from the rules ofchampionships, different strokes
, different events, the timing,how they all run.
It could be how to put theprogram together.
There's an array of differentquestions we get and we're happy
to help it across the PellipaSay and also the people in the
sport unit.
So I get quite a lot ofquestions in regards to
(27:14):
athletics.
Currently, I'm the New SouthWales convener and therefore a
lot of questions come to me inregards to how that runs, what
the rules are and so forth.
Drew (27:22):
So, without putting you on the spot, were there any
particular themes that do comethrough with from principals
inquiring that they're gettinggrief from, or they just need
further clarification on, or canyou help me with this?
I'm not quite sure.
Do they need to meet a certaintime zone?
Peter (27:40):
all those sort of questions pop up throughout the
year and again, each zone, eachassociation can set their own
rules.
We always guide people to thehandbook to start with, so they
follow the rules of athletics,and then we work back from there
.
So, depending on what thequestions are, quite often
questions pop up especially inregards to, say, high jump the
rules around that, because whatwe run is our rules, follow
(28:00):
world athletics, and we workback from there, where a lot of
school students are involved inlittle a's on the weekend, so
little athletics have slightlymodified rules too.
Drew (28:08):
So there's that sort of clarification between, uh, how,
the how the two blend together,I suppose yeah, I can imagine
that would be some fieldingcalls that you get just not
deliberate, but just sayinganother organisation does this,
PSSA or the sports unit doesthis?
What's the clarification here?
And you've used high jump as anexample.
Peter (28:27):
Yeah, and that happens quite often throughout the year
how we do that.
So we always refer back to thehandbook that there is a guide
black and white.
We use that work back fromthere.
Yeah, okay, that's uh, yeah,that's.
Drew (28:37):
I mean it's good advice in terms of just principals and
schools always want to do theright thing, but it's also
making sure they do the rightthing.
If they do the wrong thinginadvertently, hypothetically,
what advice would you give toprincipals and leaders?
Peter (28:52):
admit the mistake and then, and then go forward yeah,
you just got to work your wayback through it.
Like any other issue that mayarise have a look at the
situation, work out where it isand then work through it with
the students and the familygenerally that's the main thing
and try and work out where theissue is and work back from
there.
We're here to help.
We've got advice there.
There's lots of things we'vedealt with in the past that we
can advise with and assistpeople with, that's for sure.
Drew (29:15):
yeah now you also in your other title correct me if I'm
wrong about inclusion withstudents.
Am I correct in that or notyeah, can you tell us about that
space?
Because that's a huge, that's ahugely rewarding space, but
also making sure, again, makeprincipals delivering that
correctly in their schoolcontext and beyond yeah, I'll
(29:35):
talk in talk in regards to therepresentative pathway with that
.
Peter (29:39):
So inside swimming, cross-country and athletics, we
have a pathway there calledmulti-class, and it's basically
simplified for multipleclassifications competing
together.
So it's our version of theParalympics, if you like, it's a
school sport version of that.
So to be involved in thatstudents need to go and get a
formal sporting classification.
Now there's five categoriesoverarching it.
They are deaf and hard ofhearing, vision impairment,
(30:02):
transplant recipients.
We have physical impairments,which range from students in
wheelchairs, students withcerebral palsy, amputee, short
stature covers quite a broadrange.
And then our fifth arm of thatis the intellectual impairments,
and within that we haveintellectual impairment for IQ,
so an IQ of 75 or below.
We have more significantimpairments such as Down
syndrome, and then the thirdpart of that is autism.
(30:24):
But I must stress, autism isonly recognised in swimming, not
in cross-country athletics,only in swimming at the moment.
So they're the sort of areas wecover within the multi-class or
the classification system.
Now for students to getinvolved in that, they need to
get a formal classification.
To do that is reasonably simple.
It's a case of one page ofpersonal documents, so name,
address, date of birth and thosesorts of things and then adding
(30:46):
to it a medical certificate ora medical paperwork to say what
the impairment is and beclarified by a doctor,
paediatrician, specialist and soforth.
Okay, yeah, and we're here tohelp with those sorts of things.
We get plenty of questions ofthose.
Drew (30:58):
Okay, so the pathway I'm imagining would be very similar.
They participate in theirnormal local school athletics,
carnival, swimming, carnival,cross-country, and then they
move forward Like in thestandard system.
They're just part of thatinclusive nature.
Peter (31:16):
Yeah, drew, that's exactly right.
It's exactly the same pathway.
So at a school level you mainlyhave one or two students
classified.
They get in, they run, theyrace, they swim, whatever it
might be, but then they getawarded first, second, third in
multi-class and we celebratethat at a school level.
Moving forward to zone,hopefully there's a few more
kids then classified.
The competition gets a bitstronger, but again, the top
winners, the people who placethem, move forward to the
(31:36):
regional association.
Now we've seen huge growthacross this in the last few
years across the entire state.
Most associations now aresending two, three athletes in
every event towards the statechampionships.
So a couple of weeks ago at thestate championships we had 192
multi-class athletes competing,which was a record for us, and
we took 50 of those students offto the national championships
just last week, which was arecord for us, and we took 50 of
those students off to thenational championships just last
week.
So there's quite a growth inmulti-class athletes coming from
(31:59):
all across the state.
Drew (32:00):
Yeah, and I'm sure behind those 192 students there's some
really successful or some reallygreat stories behind that.
Peter (32:08):
Oh look, Drew, I'm in the seat.
I am now because of that.
I had a young girl when I wasteaching back in Year 5, Sophie,
and she was an amputee, amissing part of her arm, so she
had a short limb on her rightarm.
Sophie loved sport but wasalways shy and scared to get
involved, wasn't quite sure shecould do the whole thing, wore a
jumper all day, every day,covered her arm up, Worked with
mum and dad, got her classified.
She then went off to crosscountry, off to swimming, off to
(32:31):
athletics, all the way throughto state level.
Changed all the way through tostate level.
Changed her whole personality.
She became more confident, shebecame more outgoing.
She had that jumper off and shewas out there playing sports.
So thanks to Sophie I'velearned so much to do with
classification.
I've taken that through now tomy role and helping other kids
get involved.
Drew (32:45):
Yeah what a great story.
And there's plenty I'm sureplenty of Sophies out there with
similar experiences and reallywe're talking I say this lightly
, but and really we're talking Isay this lightly, but really
life-changing stuff isn't it?
Peter (32:55):
Oh, it certainly is.
It really is amazing, drew, tosee these students how they
change, their confidence grows.
But it's not just them, it'salso other kids in the school
and the school community.
They start to become aware ofthese students.
They don't just see them as theperson with a disability, they
see them as a peer and rolemodels for some of them.
And if they go and they have awhole new sense of life and a
whole new awareness of thatperson within the school.
(33:16):
And we find that once onechild's classified, it snowballs
.
More and more students withinthe school start being
recognised with theirimpairments and get classified
and jump on the bandwagon.
So it's great to see so manystudents now really getting
involved and celebrating theirsporting achievements.
Drew (33:32):
Wow, that's fantastic.
How long has the program beenrunning for now?
Peter (33:35):
Oh, maldi Class has been around for quite a long time.
It's just, thankfully, with ourroles now, anthony and myself,
we've been able to promote thatand there's finally someone out
there now that can actuallypromote that for schools.
So we've become a bit of aone-stop shop to help schools
with that.
All that information can befound on our website.
We're only a phone call away.
(33:58):
It's so simple to follow andget kids classified.
It's a no-brainer really, justjump on board and get kids going
.
Drew (34:04):
Yeah, that's terrific and it's great, I would say, leading
the country in that space.
So congratulations to the sportunit on doing that.
That's terrific In terms offrom a principal going back to
the principal perspective,navigating through that.
I'd imagine risk assessmentswould be a theme that could
potentially come through, orwhat are the main themes you're
(34:25):
seeing in that space?
Peter (34:26):
In that space.
Really, for us it's justawareness or a lack thereof.
We find a lot of principals, alot of schools staff there are
unsure.
It's a case of you don't needto know until you need to know.
And once people startidentifying these students and
realise there's students there,we're here to help them to get
it done.
And it's amazing the amount ofprincipals and schools that have
jumped on board once they knowthere's this pathway there, that
they really jump to it and getinvolved.
(34:48):
So a great starting point isback at your schools, talking to
your school counsellor and yourlast team and having a chat
with them about which studentshave we got in school who have
an impairment?
What are those disability types?
Are they eligible forclassification?
And they're quite often thephone calls we get.
We've got these students in oursupport class or in our
mainstream classes.
How can we help them getclassified and get them involved
?
Drew (35:08):
Yeah, really good advice.
Fantastic Looking forward to2025, what are the highlights,
though, in 2024 that you couldelaborate further on Anything
that comes to mind.
Peter (35:18):
Oh, there's so many highlights in this space.
I just love the opportunity todo it.
Like I say, 192 students thisyear at the state championships
was a great highlight for us inthe multi-class space.
But we had a team of 180athletes, able-bodied and
multi-class go to the statechampionships.
You've caught me off guard.
I don't have my figures with it, but we came in with a bag of
medals, that's for sure.
(35:39):
So school sport is certainlystrong in New South Wales.
In our primary schools.
The talent is there and it'sjust amazing to see so many
students really shining andflying our flag high across the
state.
Drew (35:49):
Yeah, what's the highlight that you're looking forward?
Peter (35:51):
to.
I'd really like to see themulti-class continue to grow.
We've really Sydney's beengreat.
The regional base has beengreat the Hunter, south Coast
but really seeing those regionalareas Riverina, western, north,
west North Coast really buildtheir numbers has been great.
We look forward to helping themexpand and continue growing.
And ultimately, I think some ofthe highlights for us this year
was seeing some of our pastathletes, like Talia Blacksmith,
(36:14):
who competed at State.
She was at the Paralympics thisyear competing in the 400
meters.
I think it wasn't a long jump.
So to see our past athletes goonto the international stage is
is certainly a big highlight andlook forward to seeing more of
those come in the years to comeWell, peter, thank you.
Drew (36:29):
I can.
I can feel the enthusiasm andthe passion and the moral
imperative of the work.
So thank you, thank you to yourwork and thank you to the
sports unit for what they'redoing to support students in
athletics as well as ensuringinclusive education is coming
through the sports unit.
So thank you, thanks, drew,appreciate your time.
Cheers Well.
That concludes part three ofour four-part series.
(36:50):
There are so many goodtakeaways.
Thanks again to James Boyer andPeter Carty.
Our next guest in this finalpodcast series is with Lisette
King and Dr Sylvia Corish.
Lisette King is a sport policyadvisor attached to the New
South Wales School Sport Unitand she's also part of the Arts
Initiative for the New SouthWales Department of Education.
(37:12):
And our final guest in thispodcast series is Dr Sylvia
Corish, who will summarise andsynthesise the key messages and
wisdom from all of our guests.
Dr Sylvia Corish is theExecutive Director of Student
Support and Specialist Programs,which includes the New South
Wales Department of EducationSports Unit.
(37:34):
So we look forward to yourcompany in our next and final
episode.
Welcome back to Professional Learning's, the New
South Wales PPA EducationalLeadership Podcast.
It's great to have your company.
This podcast aligns to thevalues of the New South Wales
Primary Principals Association,that is, the values of principal
wellbeing, principals as leadlearners, as well as supporting
principals to lead schooloperations.
(00:23):
If you enjoy this podcast,don't forget to subscribe for
further updates.
Now let's get into today'slatest episode.
Welcome to our specialfour-part series with the NSW
Department of Education SportsUnit.
This is the third episode of afour-part series.
We have created this as aspecial four-part series as
(00:46):
there is so much content andinformation to share with you
and we look forward to sharingthis four-part series of
approximately 30 to 35 minutesper podcast episode.
In this episode, episode three,we hear from James Boyer, who is
the sport and physical activitycoordinator and is also the
principal education officer forthe New South Wales school sport
(01:09):
unit, and he's joined by PeterCardy, who is the athletics
convener for the New South Walesschool sports unit.
There's some really interestingresearch that is shared about
the effect of brain withphysical exercise, and Peter
shares a powerful story ofinclusion through school sport.
So really well worth listening.
(01:30):
And if you're listening andthinking, how does the school
sport unit align withprofessional learning?
That's a great question.
Well, the short answer and it'sreally unpacked in this episode
a lot.
There is lots of evidence-basedresearch, science around the
brain, alignment with yourschool excellence framework, the
well-being benefits of sportand retention, supporting
(01:52):
student with disabilities, aswell as practical and sound
advice based around currentpolicies, just to name a few.
With all of that, let's startnow.
With all of that, let's startnow.
Our next guest in this podcastseries is James Boyer.
James is a Sport and PhysicalActivity Coordinator and is also
the Principal Education Officerfor the NSW School Sports Unit.
James (02:17):
So I'm James Boyer.
My job title is Sport andPhysical Activity Coordinator.
I'm a Principal EducationOfficer in the School Sport.
Drew (02:24):
Unit Fantastic and James, welcome firstly to our podcast.
Great for you to be with ustoday.
Thanks for having me, James.
Let's go through your title andyour role and we can go through
and unpack that further and howit can support principals.
So let's just start with whatis your role and what is your
(02:46):
role within the sports unit.
James (02:47):
Yeah, great, thank you.
So I'm one of the leaders herein the sport unit, so I'm a
principal education officer.
I lead a number of programs,for instance, all to do with
sport and physical activity.
I guess Peter's already gonethrough some of the arms of the
unit and we have therepresentative arm.
Well, I do everything that'sessentially non-representative,
(03:12):
more or less so primarilysupporting schools in sport and
physical activity.
So what does that look like?
We've heard from Michael, who'stalked about the professional
learning and the resources.
So I'm leading that strategy.
The school swimming and watersafety program that's something
that I've taken over at thestart of the year and I know
that many of the principals willbe familiar with that because
we have 1,400 primary schoolsinvolved in it.
It also extends.
We do some funding for stagesix students or stage sorry
(03:34):
stage four students as well.
What else do I do?
So the disabilities programcomes under my banner.
Michael is managing that, butit sort of is my responsibility
as well, and the PremierSporting Challenge at the moment
is currently one of my programsas well.
However, the management of thatis moving next year.
Drew (03:52):
Well, I'm sure you've got some stats to share in terms of
highlights of those programs.
Do you have anything you couldshare with us today for
highlights of those particular?
James (04:02):
programs.
Sure, I mean I mentionedalready we have 1, 1400 primary
schools involved in the schoolswimming and water safety
program.
We're trying to increase that,but we're, you know it's almost
every primary school already, sothere's 1500.
Drew (04:15):
So say that again.
You've got 1400 so far.
Okay.
So with these colleagues thereare 1800 primary, principal,
primary schools and actually1,800 members of our association
.
So the challenge for thoselistening is another 400.
I'm hearing yeah.
James (04:32):
Yeah, so there's definitely room for us to grow
there and I guess I could talkabout that.
There's 100,000 students eachyear that get swimming lessons
through the Department ofEducation.
Through this program thedepartment funds the tuition so
the schools or the students haveto pay for, you know, where
appropriate, pool entry and buscosts, which you know, we know
(04:53):
can be challenging.
But the department is fundingthe tuition and that's either
through what we call a centralprogram where we organize the
teachers, the schools come tothe pool and we bring the swim
teachers they're all Departmentof Ed NESesta trained teachers
or in some areas, particularlyin regional, regional and remote
areas, where we, you know, it'snot really practical for us to
(05:13):
send the staff, we providefunding for schools to deliver a
program we call a school-baseddelivery, where they go to their
local pool and they get localproviders, where we provide the
funding for that as well oh,that's such an important program
and we hope it does continueSuch important work.
Drew (05:29):
Do you tell us in terms of what's the process for schools
who are looking to access thatfunding?
James (05:35):
Yeah, I'd like to think that it's pretty easy to apply
for the funding.
We have what we call our Dashapp website where schools can
apply.
They log in prettystraightforward process.
They assign a swim coordinatoryou know somebody who we can
contact who's going to lookafter it they decide whether
they're school-based or central,based to those two programs
that I explained, and they giveus their numbers and so really,
(05:57):
we're targeting students fromyear two and up who are not, who
or who cannot swim.
It's a learn to swim program, ayear's two to six up, and they
give us their numbers and then,if it's a central program, they
just choose which pools theirpreference is and when in the
year they want to come, andthat's it.
(06:18):
That's the process.
It's three steps and then wetake it from there.
Drew (06:22):
So learn to swim program, I'm hearing years two to six,
correct?
James (06:26):
me if I'm wrong, okay.
Drew (06:28):
And in terms of the funding and support offered,
which is terrific.
What about the training andprofessional learning for
teachers?
Is that part of the program, ordoes part of the program
involve having already trainedswim instructors?
James (06:42):
Yeah.
So if you come to one of ourcentral programs, which
predominantly is, you know,metropolitan Sydney, but also
the Hunter, there's a lot ofcentral programs, north Coast,
south Coast as well.
They're all NESA trainedteachers or typically very
rarely do we use somebody who'snot a teacher and they all have
swim teacher qualifications.
So they're very highly trainedindividuals and are very
(07:05):
successful For teachers, who Iguess you know, or for schools
who do school-based or who wantto have get their training.
We do have a really greatrelationship with some of the
providers out there and happy toprovide advice or support or
tell schools where teachers cango to get the training if they
want to deliver the programthemselves.
Drew (07:22):
Yeah, yeah and I'm thinking from the principal
perspective for our listenersgoing, tell us what are the
rules or there is a ratio thatwe need to be, aware of.
It's all that planning stuffthat we want to make sure again
we do right as principals.
Can you guide us through thatSure?
James (07:42):
I agree it can be complex .
Lucette King, my colleague, isthe expert on policy and I know
that you will be talking to herlater.
So certainly anything I don'tcover she'll be able to cover
and anything that I guess anyquestions.
You know we really prideourselves on being really
responsive and available forprincipals, but I guess it's
easier if you can get it rightfrom the start.
Don't have to come to us.
(08:02):
So the teaching ratio is?
It changes depending on the ageof the students, potentially if
they've got a disability, andtheir capabilities as well, but
typically it's around 1 to 15 asa teaching ratio, but we always
want two staff members there asa minimum to be able to
supervise as well.
So it's 1 to 15 for teachingbut it's 1 to 12 for supervision
(08:24):
.
So, basically saying, we alwayshave two people there.
So if you've got a class of 30,then I think typically you
would have two teachers teachingthe 15 students and you would
have another staff membersupervising the whole area
making sure that the everybody'ssafe.
When it comes to our programs,for the central programs we a
maximum of 60 students at anyone time.
(08:45):
That's sort of a typicalprogram 60 students and we
provide four teachers.
So we're covering that 1 to 15ratio with our teachers and then
we use the school staff to helpwith supervision around the
pool as well the teachers thatcome with the school yeah, it's
such an.
Drew (09:01):
They're the sort of important things to make sure
that schools get right andprincipals want to ensure they
get right and such.
How long has the program beengoing for?
James (09:10):
Well, this is actually our 70th year, the 70th year of
the program.
Congratulations.
Peter (09:16):
Yeah, well, thank you.
James (09:17):
I've only been working directly on it for one year, so
I'm hoping I don't break it, butso far so good.
Yeah, 70 years and yeah,100,000 students each year
accessing Learn to Swim throughdepartment schools.
I think it's really quiteincredible.
Drew (09:31):
That is amazing stat to share, but obviously, like
anything, we want to increasethose figures and, as we said at
the start, we haveapproximately 1,400 schools at
the moment and potentiallyincreasing that, ideally.
Colleagues, you can hear theimpact of the work.
I mean learning to swim is afundamental, almost human right,
(09:52):
isn't it?
Absolutely, when we think aboutthat Particularly in Australia,
yeah, and student swimming isintegral to ensuring that
they're safe, and it's also thebenefits are amazing as well.
Are there any benefits actuallythat you do have that you could
elaborate on?
James (10:10):
well, I mean in in terms of swimming.
You know, I think it opens up awhole world for students.
We, we do some work I know thatthis is, you know, in uh, in
secondary schools and we've beenworking with I know it's a
little bit off topic there, butwith some new arrivals, and
recently we worked with school,got some feedback from a school
of how much benefit thesestudents got from it.
(10:31):
Where some of them had, youknow, like zero confidence
participating in swimming at thestart of the program, by the
end they, you know, could theyswim well, they could stay
afloat, so much so that they,when, when they had their
swimming carnival, theybasically had full participation
from the students in the school.
And I mean, what is that bring?
Well, it brought confidence tothe kids.
(10:51):
It made them feel moreconnected to their peers because
they're actually able toparticipate and they got the
enjoyment out of that.
You know they can enjoy thefull benefits of, you know, this
wonderful climate that we'vegot and being able to go
swimming, like you said, afundamental right.
So that was a really nice casestudy there.
Drew (11:09):
Yeah, and a really good story as well in terms of
showing the impact In terms offrom the principal perspective.
Are there any opportunitiesthat our leaders need to be
aware of that you could sharewith us today through your role
or through the sports unit?
James (11:24):
I guess, I think there's an opportunity really to think
about the role that sport andphysical activity plays in
schools and why do we do it, whydo we have the policy?
And I think Michael touched onwell, we have 150 minutes.
He touched on students notbeing active enough and the role
of sport and I think you know,I guess, what we're really I
(11:45):
guess arguing or trying toconvince people is really sport
is a well-being activity.
Drew (11:52):
you know, primarily that's what it's there for sure is
well-being is pivotal to ourassociations, one of our key
values actually through theassociation, and we really like
some of those topics that werediscussed.
I'm sure people listening inwould maybe engage in those,
those mini breaks, so to speak,and the research and evidence
shows that it has a positiveimpact on student wellbeing, but
(12:16):
I imagine it would be wholeschool wellbeing as well if
implemented successfully.
James (12:20):
Yeah, absolutely, and I think there's an opportunity
there to use, you know, sport.
It's universal, you know, use itas a whole school wellbeing
approach, something that canaffect every student in the
school and, like you've touchedon previously, staff members too
, and certainly the research isvery strong in this area.
And look, I think, liketraditionally, how we've
(12:42):
marketed, like, if we can saythat like particularly the
health promotion people havemarketed sport or being active,
particularly to kids, they sortof talk a lot around, you know,
preventing cardiovasculardisease and type 2 diabetes and
osteoporosis and cancer andthings like this, and this is
really, I think, irrelevant toschool teachers.
It's sort of we sort of say it'slike time delay, these are
things that are going to affectus in the future or affect kids
(13:05):
in the future maybe.
And there's, they're intangible, they're things that you know,
you can't touch and feel, youdon't understand, and it's, and
really I think, promoted in thisway as being detrimental.
But now we know there's so muchmore research around those
immediate, short-term benefitsthat students can benefit from,
and I think that teachers canhaving the students in their
classroom as well, and so we'resort of seeing a lot in the
(13:28):
research around the effect ofsport and physical activity,
particularly particularly on thebrain, and this is an area of
research that's just jumpeddramatically in the last 10, 20
years.
It's an area that I'm reallypassionate about and really
interested in in my role, so Isort of do a lot of reading on
this.
Drew (13:45):
So what are the benefits?
If you can elaborate further,what are those benefits to brain
health and from physicalactivity?
James (13:53):
Yeah, well, I mean, certainly what we know is that
being active changes our brain,and so there's one study where
they look at, you know granted,it was in older adults, and this
is where I guess a lot of thatbrain research happens,
particularly as we're trying toprevent or find cures for
dementia but what they found wasthat if they had two groups,
(14:15):
you know the active group andthe inactive group, or they gave
some physical activity to itwas a one-year period and
actually saw that thehippocampus increased by around.
The increase was 2% change.
Essentially, the group who weredoing the physical activity,
theirs increased and the peoplewho didn't do the physical
activity decreased.
So it's basically a 2%difference in hippocampus size.
(14:37):
What does this mean?
Well, what's the hippocampusfor those who didn't study
science at university or maybehave forgotten, which is fair
Memory formation, I think thisis pretty important for, or
interesting for, teachersSpatial navigation and emotional
regulation, so, and that's justexercise, that's, that's one of
the effects that it has.
We're also, I guess, there's alot of questions like why or how
(14:59):
does this happen?
And the big all the research atthe moment is really looking at
this.
It's like an enzyme.
An enzyme in the brain iscalled bdnf and this is what
helps our brains grow.
And what we see is you knowmostly this these studies are
done in rats, okay, which youknow there's.
There's some limited transferthere or we don't know but
basically, if we do any bout ofactivity, this bdnf just shoots
(15:21):
through the roof.
It really increases bdnf, helpsbrain cells grow.
I mentioned that it fightsstress and anxiety, improves
mood, mood boosts learning andmemory.
That's what we see from thatand we see this spike in BDNF
when we exercise.
Drew (15:35):
So, colleagues, listening, thinking about and hearing this
research just reassures thatsport has a place in schools, in
learning institutions, tosupport, as you've seen through
that research supports learning,retain information.
James (15:52):
Yeah, well, I, I mean I can talk.
There was this one reallyinteresting study out of chicago
actually, where they hadstudents, they were struggling
in their numeracy and they did abefore school like some extra
tuition for these students andfor half of the group they
before they did the extratuition.
They actually gave them somephysical activity like fitness,
(16:12):
really high intensity fitnessboosts.
It's fun and engaging.
Then they had their numeracylesson, their additional one,
and then they did their normalstandardized test at the end of
the term or their NAPLAN orsomething, and interestingly, in
the kids who did the, they sawan increase in both.
So the tuition really helped.
But it was a 20.4% increase inthe kids who had the physical
(16:34):
activity versus a 3.87% in thekids who didn't have the
physical activity.
They repeat it, which is, Ithink, really interesting that
you know this one thing alone.
Now, this was a small study butyou know, I think it's
something you could testyourself really easily and we
have seen this repeated throughthe systematic reviews and the
meta-analysis all says thatphysical activity.
(16:55):
There's a link there betweenphysical activity and learning.
This one was really interestingbecause they repeated it.
They they did a similar thingwhere they had the tuition group
in the morning but then theyput the physical activity in the
afternoon.
Or maybe it's the other wayaround they put the physical
activity in the morning and thephysical, then the tuition, in
the afternoon, I think, and theydidn't see the same effects.
(17:16):
So I think what we're reallyseeing and this is what Michael
touched on earlier is that thetimeliness of the physical
activity, that if we do it justbefore, say, we want to learn
something new, or just beforeour lessons at the start of the
day, we can call them like aspark activity, it really,
really gets kids ready to learn,and that could be those changes
in mood, it could be thoseincreases in BDNF, or even just
(17:39):
the blood flow to the brain, theoxygen that goes to the brain.
So what we know is that justphysical activity on its own
prepares us to learn, prepareskids to learn.
Drew (17:48):
And it's great to hear those studies, even though the
sets are coming from differentelder generation.
I heard Also I heard somethingto do with rats.
Potentially, but it justifiesor just backs in the impact, and
(18:08):
that's exactly, I guess, wherein the world we are in education
, educational leaders look atevidence-based research to show
the impact.
So if colleagues are listeningto this, this is really
fascinating.
Is there any?
Where can we point them to findfurther information about this?
James (18:25):
Look, I mean, I'm happy to you know where can they find?
I mean, certainly there's a lotof academic literature out
there.
We do have some literaturereviews available as a part of
our health check package ofresources.
I'm also happy to you know, tospeak about this to anyone,
anyone that will listen, oranytime.
I'm happy you give me anaudience and I'll speak to them,
(18:46):
but certainly it's linked inwith our health check and the
work that we're doing aroundthat.
Drew (18:50):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, and it's great to hear that
you're so passionate aboutsharing, sharing the research
and sharing the impact for ourlisteners, our, our educational
leaders, our, our principals,listening.
Are there any, any, any furthertips or advice that you could,
you were able to share with ustoday?
James (19:09):
well, I guess you know I can expand.
You know, michael briefly spokeabout the health check and sort
of mentioned that and andfundamentally what that does, or
what that, how we that cameabout, I think might be people
might be interested to know.
Peter (19:21):
So essentially, what was you know?
James (19:23):
we're arguing, well-being is a priority for all schools.
We know that that's, that's agiven.
You know, I've sort of givensome small examples of how
physical activity can be, canimprove well-being, academic
achievement.
You know, we can talk mentalhealth, we can talk mood, we can
talk connectedness.
So, without a doubt, there's alink there between sport,
(19:43):
physical activity and well-being, a strong link, I would say so,
like I've sort of said, well,we could argue that well-being
is a sorry.
The sport is a well-beingstrategy.
So if sport and physicalactivity is a wellbeing strategy
, okay, that's great.
What do we do about it?
What do we do in schools?
How do we make a difference?
This is where the health checkcomes in, and I think that
people will want to know thatit's based, that there's an
(20:05):
evidence base behind it, and soit's based on the comprehensive
approach to sport and physicalactivity which comes out of the
CDC in America, which we allbecame very familiar with
through COVID.
They were given a lot of advicearound COVID, but they do other
things as well, not justcommunicable diseases, and
essentially what they say is ifyou want to increase sport and
physical activity in schools,there are five things that you
(20:27):
should do.
You should.
Policy is number one.
It's got to be written down,there's got to be a plan for it.
Michael sort of touched on the150 minutes.
Quality sport again Michaeltouched around the strategies
that we can do to improve thequality of sport and PE.
It's not just a matter of doingit, it's a matter of the
quality of it.
Physical activity across theschool day that's the third
thing and Michael gave a lot ofexamples there around the 10 at
(20:50):
10s and that immediate benefitwas there around the 10 at 10s
and that immediate benefit.
And really what this is sayingis that we need to move.
You know we're designed to moveevery day.
We need to move every day, notjust during sport time at the
end of the week or our PElessons.
The fourth one is family andcommunity engagement.
So essentially, if we can getkids active at school, that's
great.
But what are the links outsideof school?
How can we help get ourfamilies involved or our
(21:12):
communities involved?
So, links to community sport weknow that that happens a lot in
schools.
You know they're creating andfinding those links for students
.
And then staff involvement again, michael spoke about this a lot
.
You know our staff are reallyimportant role models for
students, and so I guess howthey talk about sport and
physical activity really isimportant.
It rubs off on the kids and,essentially, those five things.
That's what this, the, thecomprehensive approach, says.
(21:34):
You do those five things andyou're going to be increasing
sport and physical activity,which we could say well, you're
going to be increasingwell-being, you could argue.
That's where the health checkthen comes in.
It's basically then based onthose five things, but for new
south wales schools.
So it's a self-assessment basedon those five things to see
where's our school at what could, and give some ideas of what we
(21:57):
could be doing better.
It's a self-assessment.
It's not an audit.
Somebody called it that theother day, which was really
interesting.
It's not about us saying thisis what you have to do.
It's about schools, I guess,being empowered to reflect, see
what they're doing really reallywell, which good, and what are
the areas where they can improvein order to make a difference
in terms of student wellbeing.
Drew (22:18):
Yeah, and it's a good starting point that you said.
And then the work is afterthose.
They've done the snapshot, notthe audit, the snapshot.
And then where to what if theydo find which inevitably they
should, which is part of thatprocess where to go from there.
So they found gaps in thisprocess where to from here.
James (22:41):
Yeah, and again, this is what I think we pride ourselves
on the support.
Come to us, ask us, you know,or certainly go to the teacher
resource hub that Michael spokeabout.
Everything in there is reallybased on the health check.
It's based on providing supportfor schools where there are
these potential gaps.
So physical activity across theschool day, quality sport and
(23:02):
PE.
There's a lot of resourcesthere, but I guess we don't need
people to guess.
Come and speak to us and we cangive advice and support on
those next steps and becauseit's going to look different in
every school, so we can tailorthat depending on your school
context and what you might need.
But I guess if you don't ask,you don't receive.
So come to us and that's whatwe're here for.
(23:23):
I'm sure that Banksy said thisearlier.
We only exist to supportschools.
You've got the tools and theresources are there, but please
come to us and and we'd be happyto support however we can.
Drew (23:33):
Well, that sounded like a challenge there.
So for those listening in andyou've done that process, you've
done the, not the audit, whatis it again?
James (23:42):
James.
The full title is the Sport andPhysical Activity School Health
Check.
Drew (23:47):
Yeah, so you've completed that task.
That's the challenge after thatis, you've done your gap, or
your gap analysis, so to speak.
Then you can then access all ofthe resources through the
sports unit and james is morethan willing and able, through
his team, to be able to supportyou through that process.
(24:07):
So look, fantastic initiativesbacked again, which is backed in
by evidence and research toshow the impact of that, and
it's all about what I heard inthe messaging through you, james
is wellbeing.
Wellbeing is coming through sostrongly through the sports unit
(24:27):
.
So thank you again for sharingall of the absolute pleasure.
Terrific to have you with ustoday.
That is James Boyer, sport andPhysical Activity Coordinator of
the Art and Sport Initiative.
So thank you again for joiningus, thank you.
Our next guest in this podcastseries is Peter Carty.
Peter is the Athletics Convenorfor the New South Wales School
(24:50):
Sports Unit.
Peter (24:52):
Thanks, Drew.
My name's Peter Carty and I'mfrom the School Sport Unit.
Drew (24:56):
Fantastic Welcome, Peter, to our podcast.
It's great for you to be withus today.
Thanks, Drew Thanks for havingme Absolute pleasure.
Now, Peter, can you tell ourlisteners what your role is in
the Sports Unit?
Peter (25:08):
Yeah, Drew, my job with the Sports Unit is a disability
and inclusion officer, so I workalongside Anthony Moyes and the
two of us support schoolsacross the entire state helping
get students involved in sportfor students with disability.
Drew (25:21):
Yeah, what a fantastic initiative and I'm sure you've
got some, some great stories tobe able to share.
But in terms of that role, canyou unpack a little bit further?
What does that role entail?
Peter (25:32):
Yeah, my role is really helping schools get students
with disability involved insport through different pathways
, both in our participationopportunities and in the
representative pathway.
Anthony, I think, is jumping ona bit later.
He'll probably go into more ofthe participation opportunities
we offer for schools, but todayI'm happy to talk about the
representative pathway andgetting students involved in
those sports of swimming,cross-country athletics.
Drew (25:52):
Yeah, so from a principal perspective, their understanding
about the what that pathway is.
Could you unpack that a littlebit today?
What, what are the pathways for?
I've got a talented student inmy school.
What are the pathways for thatstudent to make those pathways
into representation?
Peter (26:12):
Yeah, the representative pathways for swimming,
cross-country athletics allbegin back at the school level.
The school carnival is reallythe first selection trial for
students to work their waythrough to get to the state
championships.
So at a school level you'll runyour school carnival and then
from there the students progresson to zone or district,
depending on where you are inthe state, and then move through
(26:32):
to the regional association.
They then select the top threewhich advance to the state
championships.
Drew (26:38):
Yeah, yeah, fantastic.
So in terms of support forstudents and advice for
principals, that pathway seemspretty straightforward.
I mean, it's been going forquite a while now.
Peter (26:51):
Yeah, it's been going on for a long time.
There's still always questionsthat pop up.
Here at the sport unit, we getplenty of questions throughout
the year about how things work.
It could be from the rules ofchampionships, different strokes
, different events, the timing,how they all run.
It could be how to put theprogram together.
There's an array of differentquestions we get and we're happy
to help it across the PellipaSay and also the people in the
sport unit.
So I get quite a lot ofquestions in regards to
(27:14):
athletics.
Currently, I'm the New SouthWales convener and therefore a
lot of questions come to me inregards to how that runs, what
the rules are and so forth.
Drew (27:22):
So, without putting you on the spot, were there any
particular themes that do comethrough with from principals
inquiring that they're gettinggrief from, or they just need
further clarification on, or canyou help me with this?
I'm not quite sure.
Do they need to meet a certaintime zone?
Peter (27:40):
all those sort of questions pop up throughout the
year and again, each zone, eachassociation can set their own
rules.
We always guide people to thehandbook to start with, so they
follow the rules of athletics,and then we work back from there
.
So, depending on what thequestions are, quite often
questions pop up especially inregards to, say, high jump the
rules around that, because whatwe run is our rules, follow
(28:00):
world athletics, and we workback from there, where a lot of
school students are involved inlittle a's on the weekend, so
little athletics have slightlymodified rules too.
Drew (28:08):
So there's that sort of clarification between, uh, how,
the how the two blend together,I suppose yeah, I can imagine
that would be some fieldingcalls that you get just not
deliberate, but just sayinganother organisation does this,
PSSA or the sports unit doesthis?
What's the clarification here?
And you've used high jump as anexample.
Peter (28:27):
Yeah, and that happens quite often throughout the year
how we do that.
So we always refer back to thehandbook that there is a guide
black and white.
We use that work back fromthere.
Yeah, okay, that's uh, yeah,that's.
Drew (28:37):
I mean it's good advice in terms of just principals and
schools always want to do theright thing, but it's also
making sure they do the rightthing.
If they do the wrong thinginadvertently, hypothetically,
what advice would you give toprincipals and leaders?
Peter (28:52):
admit the mistake and then, and then go forward yeah,
you just got to work your wayback through it.
Like any other issue that mayarise have a look at the
situation, work out where it isand then work through it with
the students and the familygenerally that's the main thing
and try and work out where theissue is and work back from
there.
We're here to help.
We've got advice there.
There's lots of things we'vedealt with in the past that we
can advise with and assistpeople with, that's for sure.
Drew (29:15):
yeah now you also in your other title correct me if I'm
wrong about inclusion withstudents.
Am I correct in that or notyeah, can you tell us about that
space?
Because that's a huge, that's ahugely rewarding space, but
also making sure, again, makeprincipals delivering that
correctly in their schoolcontext and beyond yeah, I'll
(29:35):
talk in talk in regards to therepresentative pathway with that
.
Peter (29:39):
So inside swimming, cross-country and athletics, we
have a pathway there calledmulti-class, and it's basically
simplified for multipleclassifications competing
together.
So it's our version of theParalympics, if you like, it's a
school sport version of that.
So to be involved in thatstudents need to go and get a
formal sporting classification.
Now there's five categoriesoverarching it.
They are deaf and hard ofhearing, vision impairment,
(30:02):
transplant recipients.
We have physical impairments,which range from students in
wheelchairs, students withcerebral palsy, amputee, short
stature covers quite a broadrange.
And then our fifth arm of thatis the intellectual impairments,
and within that we haveintellectual impairment for IQ,
so an IQ of 75 or below.
We have more significantimpairments such as Down
syndrome, and then the thirdpart of that is autism.
(30:24):
But I must stress, autism isonly recognised in swimming, not
in cross-country athletics,only in swimming at the moment.
So they're the sort of areas wecover within the multi-class or
the classification system.
Now for students to getinvolved in that, they need to
get a formal classification.
To do that is reasonably simple.
It's a case of one page ofpersonal documents, so name,
address, date of birth and thosesorts of things and then adding
(30:46):
to it a medical certificate ora medical paperwork to say what
the impairment is and beclarified by a doctor,
paediatrician, specialist and soforth.
Okay, yeah, and we're here tohelp with those sorts of things.
We get plenty of questions ofthose.
Drew (30:58):
Okay, so the pathway I'm imagining would be very similar.
They participate in theirnormal local school athletics,
carnival, swimming, carnival,cross-country, and then they
move forward Like in thestandard system.
They're just part of thatinclusive nature.
Peter (31:16):
Yeah, drew, that's exactly right.
It's exactly the same pathway.
So at a school level you mainlyhave one or two students
classified.
They get in, they run, theyrace, they swim, whatever it
might be, but then they getawarded first, second, third in
multi-class and we celebratethat at a school level.
Moving forward to zone,hopefully there's a few more
kids then classified.
The competition gets a bitstronger, but again, the top
winners, the people who placethem, move forward to the
(31:36):
regional association.
Now we've seen huge growthacross this in the last few
years across the entire state.
Most associations now aresending two, three athletes in
every event towards the statechampionships.
So a couple of weeks ago at thestate championships we had 192
multi-class athletes competing,which was a record for us, and
we took 50 of those students offto the national championships
just last week, which was arecord for us, and we took 50 of
those students off to thenational championships just last
week.
So there's quite a growth inmulti-class athletes coming from
(31:59):
all across the state.
Drew (32:00):
Yeah, and I'm sure behind those 192 students there's some
really successful or some reallygreat stories behind that.
Peter (32:08):
Oh look, Drew, I'm in the seat.
I am now because of that.
I had a young girl when I wasteaching back in Year 5, Sophie,
and she was an amputee, amissing part of her arm, so she
had a short limb on her rightarm.
Sophie loved sport but wasalways shy and scared to get
involved, wasn't quite sure shecould do the whole thing, wore a
jumper all day, every day,covered her arm up, Worked with
mum and dad, got her classified.
She then went off to crosscountry, off to swimming, off to
(32:31):
athletics, all the way throughto state level.
Changed all the way through tostate level.
Changed her whole personality.
She became more confident, shebecame more outgoing.
She had that jumper off and shewas out there playing sports.
So thanks to Sophie I'velearned so much to do with
classification.
I've taken that through now tomy role and helping other kids
get involved.
Drew (32:45):
Yeah what a great story.
And there's plenty I'm sureplenty of Sophies out there with
similar experiences and reallywe're talking I say this lightly
, but and really we're talking Isay this lightly, but really
life-changing stuff isn't it?
Peter (32:55):
Oh, it certainly is.
It really is amazing, drew, tosee these students how they
change, their confidence grows.
But it's not just them, it'salso other kids in the school
and the school community.
They start to become aware ofthese students.
They don't just see them as theperson with a disability, they
see them as a peer and rolemodels for some of them.
And if they go and they have awhole new sense of life and a
whole new awareness of thatperson within the school.
(33:16):
And we find that once onechild's classified, it snowballs
.
More and more students withinthe school start being
recognised with theirimpairments and get classified
and jump on the bandwagon.
So it's great to see so manystudents now really getting
involved and celebrating theirsporting achievements.
Drew (33:32):
Wow, that's fantastic.
How long has the program beenrunning for now?
Peter (33:35):
Oh, maldi Class has been around for quite a long time.
It's just, thankfully, with ourroles now, anthony and myself,
we've been able to promote thatand there's finally someone out
there now that can actuallypromote that for schools.
So we've become a bit of aone-stop shop to help schools
with that.
All that information can befound on our website.
We're only a phone call away.
(33:58):
It's so simple to follow andget kids classified.
It's a no-brainer really, justjump on board and get kids going
.
Drew (34:04):
Yeah, that's terrific and it's great, I would say, leading
the country in that space.
So congratulations to the sportunit on doing that.
That's terrific In terms offrom a principal going back to
the principal perspective,navigating through that.
I'd imagine risk assessmentswould be a theme that could
potentially come through, orwhat are the main themes you're
(34:25):
seeing in that space?
Peter (34:26):
In that space.
Really, for us it's justawareness or a lack thereof.
We find a lot of principals, alot of schools staff there are
unsure.
It's a case of you don't needto know until you need to know.
And once people startidentifying these students and
realise there's students there,we're here to help them to get
it done.
And it's amazing the amount ofprincipals and schools that have
jumped on board once they knowthere's this pathway there, that
they really jump to it and getinvolved.
(34:48):
So a great starting point isback at your schools, talking to
your school counsellor and yourlast team and having a chat
with them about which studentshave we got in school who have
an impairment?
What are those disability types?
Are they eligible forclassification?
And they're quite often thephone calls we get.
We've got these students in oursupport class or in our
mainstream classes.
How can we help them getclassified and get them involved
?
Drew (35:08):
Yeah, really good advice.
Fantastic Looking forward to2025, what are the highlights,
though, in 2024 that you couldelaborate further on Anything
that comes to mind.
Peter (35:18):
Oh, there's so many highlights in this space.
I just love the opportunity todo it.
Like I say, 192 students thisyear at the state championships
was a great highlight for us inthe multi-class space.
But we had a team of 180athletes, able-bodied and
multi-class go to the statechampionships.
You've caught me off guard.
I don't have my figures with it, but we came in with a bag of
medals, that's for sure.
(35:39):
So school sport is certainlystrong in New South Wales.
In our primary schools.
The talent is there and it'sjust amazing to see so many
students really shining andflying our flag high across the
state.
Drew (35:49):
Yeah, what's the highlight that you're looking forward?
Peter (35:51):
to.
I'd really like to see themulti-class continue to grow.
We've really Sydney's beengreat.
The regional base has beengreat the Hunter, south Coast
but really seeing those regionalareas Riverina, western, north,
west North Coast really buildtheir numbers has been great.
We look forward to helping themexpand and continue growing.
And ultimately, I think some ofthe highlights for us this year
was seeing some of our pastathletes, like Talia Blacksmith,
(36:14):
who competed at State.
She was at the Paralympics thisyear competing in the 400
meters.
I think it wasn't a long jump.
So to see our past athletes goonto the international stage is
is certainly a big highlight andlook forward to seeing more of
those come in the years to comeWell, peter, thank you.
Drew (36:29):
I can.
I can feel the enthusiasm andthe passion and the moral
imperative of the work.
So thank you, thank you to yourwork and thank you to the
sports unit for what they'redoing to support students in
athletics as well as ensuringinclusive education is coming
through the sports unit.
So thank you, thanks, drew,appreciate your time.
Cheers Well.
That concludes part three ofour four-part series.
(36:50):
There are so many goodtakeaways.
Thanks again to James Boyer andPeter Carty.
Our next guest in this finalpodcast series is with Lisette
King and Dr Sylvia Corish.
Lisette King is a sport policyadvisor attached to the New
South Wales School Sport Unitand she's also part of the Arts
Initiative for the New SouthWales Department of Education.
(37:12):
And our final guest in thispodcast series is Dr Sylvia
Corish, who will summarise andsynthesise the key messages and
wisdom from all of our guests.
Dr Sylvia Corish is theExecutive Director of Student
Support and Specialist Programs,which includes the New South
Wales Department of EducationSports Unit.
(37:34):
So we look forward to yourcompany in our next and final
episode.
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Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.