Teaching outdoor and adventure activities: an investigation of a primary school physical education professional development p

Physical Education Reform in Ireland: Past and Present
 
Provision for physical education in Irish primary schools has progressed slowly 
over the past century. The reasons for this are many and varied. In order to understand 
fully how we arrived at the current curriculum, we need to establish how physical 
education in Ireland has changed and developed. 
The establishment of the Irish National School system (prior to the formation of 
the State) introduced physical drill for all children in primary schools. In 1898, The 
Commission on Manual and Practical Instruction in Primary Schools under the Board of 
National Education in Ireland issued a report highlighting the practices in physical drill 
which prevailed at the time. Arising from this report was the recommendation of a 
grant to be awarded to schools if they ensured efficient, systematic instruction in drill 
and physical exercises. Consequently, this ensured that some form of physical 
education, however rigid, was featured in all classrooms. Economic and cultural 
developments also impacted the inclusion of physical exercises in schools. Young boys 
in particular were encouraged to become strong and healthy through physical drill as the 
British military sought to improve their forces. 
At the turn of the 20
th
century, there were two reports which contained 
references concerning physical drill, which was the closest ‘subject’ to Physical 
Education, as it is now known, and its provision in primary schools. The Belmore 
Report made important recommendations concerning physical drill in primary schools 
(Coolahan, 1981),
‘as well as the three R’s, kindergarten, manual instruction, drawing, 

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singing, object lessons, elementary science, physical education, cookery and laundry as 
obligatory subjects’ (p. 34). According to Coolahan (1981) within a short time the new 
subjects including physical education were ‘being taught in almost all schools and in a 
fairly satisfactory manner’ (p. 36) and six years later the Dale Report described 
significant increases in the number of primary schools providing some form of drill as 
part of the curriculum (Duffy, 1997). The syllabus at that time was largely geared 
towards marching and regimented exercises and physical drill at primary level and 
became an accepted part of the school week. With the foundation of the Republic in 
1921 this position of obligatory physical education changed. The National Programme 
Conference in 1926 recommended that the number of subjects be reduced, as there was 
a need to emphasise Irish culture and language in the schools (Duffy, 1997). Physical 
training suffered and was no longer a compulsory element of the primary curriculum. It 
is interesting to note that prior to the formation of the Republic almost a century ago, 
physical activity was a compulsory part of the school day. In 1947, the Minister for 
Education and the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) proposed that the 
primary curriculum should be expanded again and should include, amongst other 
subjects, compulsory physical education, and again in 1950 the Council of Education 
recommended the inclusion of physical education as a compulsory subject, however 
these recommendations were never adopted (Coolahan, 1981). Advocates of physical 
education have spent the last century trying to impress on Government the importance 
of reverting to this ‘compulsory status’. One of the reasons which may account for the 
lack of compulsory status has been identified by Duffy (1997) as the government’s 
absence of duty to provide for the ‘physical’ education of the child as identified in 
Article 42 of the constitution,
‘the primary and natural educator of the child is the Family and guarantees the 
inalienable right and duty of parents to provide according to their means for the 
religious and moral, intellectual, physical and social education of the children’ 
the state shall ‘as guardian of the common good, require in view of actual 
conditions that the children receive a certain minimum education, moral, 
intellectual and social’ (Government of Ireland, 1937).
The ‘religious’ and ‘physical’ education of the child was the responsibility of the 
family and the Church. As the majority of primary schools in Ireland to date, have been 
Church maintained, religious education has played a strong role in children’s education, 
however the same cannot be said for physical education. In 1932 the Revised Notes for 
Teachers was published. This document outlined the background of the development of 

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the Swedish system of physical training and stressed the breadth of the curriculum – 
including references to national games, dancing and health education. Despite these 
initial moves towards a national system of physical training there were no 
advancements through the 30s and 40s. In fact, the only reference to physical education 
at policy making level was in 1936, when a committee was appointed by the Minister 
for Education to examine and report on the problem of physical education in the schools 
and report to the minister as to a system of physical education most suitable for 
introduction in the schools. Much work was carried out in the area and 
recommendations were made to the minister, however, very little if anything came from 
the committee’s findings. The committee recommended that the first essential 
requirement of the Government towards improving physical education was the 
establishment of a Central Institute or college to train organisers in the Department of 
Education, teachers in secondary and vocational schools and for the provision of special 
and refresher courses for all serving teachers in national schools. This has been 
achieved to an extent with the establishment of Thomond College, now the University 
of Limerick, which provides a specialist degree in Physical Education for second-level 
teachers. University College Cork and Dublin City University began offering specialist 
degrees in physical education for teachers at second level from 2006. Refresher courses 
are available as summer in-service courses for teachers in physical education. The 
majority of these courses are facilitated through the Education Centres under the 
auspices of the Irish Primary Physical Education Association (IPPEA) since 2002.
However, as yet there is no specialist course for ‘organisers in the Department of 
Education’.
The committee in 1936 also recommended that: 
physical education become a compulsory subject in all schools and that 3 
periods minimum should be allocated to physical education per week 
it should become a subject for certificate examination 
a pass at leaving certificate level should be an essential qualification for 
entrance into a training college 
Despite these recommendations physical education is still not a compulsory 
subject at any level, and it is not, yet, a subject for certificate examination. Therefore, 
the recommendation that all students entering teacher education should possess a pass at 
leaving certificate level is unachievable. The recommendations continue;

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In training colleges, physical education should be a compulsory subject 
in the examinations and an integral part of the studies.
Teachers should be assisted by organisers attached to the Department of 
Education 
Teachers should be able to avail of short refresher courses in physical 
education 
A Diploma in Physical Education should be offered to those with a 
special aptitude in the area. 
A salary bonus should also be offered to teachers taking a Diploma in 
Physical Education would be an incentive to teachers to interest them-
selves in the area of physical education. This would lead to competent 
teachers taking charge of physical education in National Schools 
We have come a long way since the recommendations of 1936 and many of the 
above recommendations have been achieved; physical education has become a 
compulsory subject and integral part of studies in the colleges of education. The hours 
allocated to physical education in the colleges of education have increased from an 
average of 25 hours over three years in 1990 (Deenihan, 1990) to an average of 48 
hours over three years in 2000 (Colleges of Education Physical Education Consortium, 
2009). Further studies in primary physical education are only recently available 
whereby qualified teachers can study to gain a Certificate/Diploma in primary physical 
education (first graduate in 2006) or a Masters in Education with a specialism in 
primary physical education (first graduate in 2008). These qualifications do not ensure 
a salary bonus; however these teachers would be seen as leaders in physical education in 
their schools and in some cases may be in receipt of a post of responsibility salary 
bonus. Although the recommendations were made in 1936 it has taken between fifty to 
seventy years to put some of them in place and it is also interesting to note how seventy 
years ago the recommendations made are the same ones researchers continue to make 
today.
The Council of Education (1954) stated for secondary physical education, that 
‘from the beginning of its deliberations, the council regarded the absence of Physical 
Training as a defect in the existing curriculum’ and to redress the situation the Council 
proposed that the subject should be renamed physical training, health and hygiene and 
that the overall aim should be to promote ‘the development of carriage and physical 

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alertness, good posture in sitting and the general cultivation of health’ (p. 188).
However, there was no action taken on amending the primary school syllabus for 
physical education until 1971 and the publication of Curraclam na Bunscoile. The 
curriculum was presented in two handbooks that were issued to every serving teacher 
and student teacher. The handbooks contained the aims and objectives of the 
curriculum as well as the content for each subject. Also included were some 
suggestions as to how each subject could be taught. A child-centred approach was 
critical in the thinking behind the 1971 curriculum and underpinned learning in all 
subject areas. 
Physical education was only recognised formally as a subject in 1971 within the 
primary school curriculum, following a pilot introduction in two hundred schools in 
1968. Significantly, it stressed that ‘to deny a pupil the opportunity of expressing 
himself in movement and general physical activity is to neglect an essential aspect of 
growth in his personality and character’ (Government of Ireland, 1971, p. 289). In 
some ways this was forward thinking in Ireland and this ‘right’ has been further 
elaborated in UNESCO’s International Charter of Physical Education and Sport,
Every human being has a fundamental right of access to Physical Education and 
Sport, which are essential for the full development of his personality. The 
freedom to develop physical, intellectual and moral powers through physical 
education and sport must be guaranteed both within the educational system and 
in other aspects of social life (1978, Article 1.1, p. 8).
The aims of physical education as outlined in the 1971 curriculum were ‘to 
develop a suitable range of motor skills, to help him to adapt himself to his immediate 
environment and to cultivate desirable social attitudes’ (Government of Ireland, 1971, p. 
289). Whole class instruction on physical drill was discarded in favour of an approach 
which allowed each child to develop at their own rate according to their individual 
ability.
Keating (1989) in a presentation at the Physical Education Association of 
Ireland (PEAI) conference looking to the future, made a number of recommendations 
for physical education. In the following section if, or how well, these recommendations 
were met (