A life in sport...
Eliane Larbi spoke to HCC's Mrs Chapman about her career in PE teaching.
Mrs Chapman is one of the longest serving teachers at Heathfield and has seen a lot of changes in attitudes and people's perceptions of PE over her career.
When Mrs Chapman was at school, she did all the sports we do today - such as netball and hockey, but also talked about judo and country dancing!
True to her nature as a sports lover, Mrs Chapman says she loved all her subjects, except country dancing - which truth be told, I don’t exactly blame her! PE was her absolute favourite subject at school - “certainly no competition there!” Not to anyone’s surprise, Mrs Chapman said that she had always longed to be a PE teacher, as it was her best-loved subject during her secondary education.
PE has always affected children’s mental health positively, however Mrs Chapman says that nowadays children are “more aware” of their mental health in comparison to when she was a child.
I wondered if the style of PE was taught differently in Mrs Chapman’s time - so I questioned whether or not she had sets of similar abilities, and she responded by saying that her class was all mixed ability and there was an equal number of male and female teachers.
In terms of actual lessons, Mrs Chapman said it was the same as what PE is now at Heathfield Community College - so the genders were not mixed. The fact that all of the abilities were mixed in Mrs Chapman’s classes was interesting and I wondered how the students that physically struggled were treated. She stated that the teachers would help them, encourage them, support them and try to make things easier -but it depended on what teacher you had.
Mrs Chapman believes that the importance of PE has changed over the years, because back in her time there was no option to take the subject as a GCSE, or an A level. PE was just seen as a practical subject and was not that much of a priority. However, many things have changed since then; PE is seen as a more important part of education. This is surprising, but I am glad that the importance of PE has changed favorably.
When asked if there was anything that Mrs Chapman wanted to change or adjust to PE she replied: 'having more of it' - ideally PE for everyone every day! Perhaps this is a predictable answer - certainly it's true to her nature as a PE teacher. Perhaps one day this could actually come to pass!
Eliane Larbi, Year 7
Mrs Chapman is one of the longest serving teachers at Heathfield and has seen a lot of changes in attitudes and people's perceptions of PE over her career.
When Mrs Chapman was at school, she did all the sports we do today - such as netball and hockey, but also talked about judo and country dancing!
True to her nature as a sports lover, Mrs Chapman says she loved all her subjects, except country dancing - which truth be told, I don’t exactly blame her! PE was her absolute favourite subject at school - “certainly no competition there!” Not to anyone’s surprise, Mrs Chapman said that she had always longed to be a PE teacher, as it was her best-loved subject during her secondary education.
PE has always affected children’s mental health positively, however Mrs Chapman says that nowadays children are “more aware” of their mental health in comparison to when she was a child.
I wondered if the style of PE was taught differently in Mrs Chapman’s time - so I questioned whether or not she had sets of similar abilities, and she responded by saying that her class was all mixed ability and there was an equal number of male and female teachers.
In terms of actual lessons, Mrs Chapman said it was the same as what PE is now at Heathfield Community College - so the genders were not mixed. The fact that all of the abilities were mixed in Mrs Chapman’s classes was interesting and I wondered how the students that physically struggled were treated. She stated that the teachers would help them, encourage them, support them and try to make things easier -but it depended on what teacher you had.
Mrs Chapman believes that the importance of PE has changed over the years, because back in her time there was no option to take the subject as a GCSE, or an A level. PE was just seen as a practical subject and was not that much of a priority. However, many things have changed since then; PE is seen as a more important part of education. This is surprising, but I am glad that the importance of PE has changed favorably.
When asked if there was anything that Mrs Chapman wanted to change or adjust to PE she replied: 'having more of it' - ideally PE for everyone every day! Perhaps this is a predictable answer - certainly it's true to her nature as a PE teacher. Perhaps one day this could actually come to pass!
Eliane Larbi, Year 7