The following free-to-access resources produced by National Governing Bodies (NGBs) of sport are potentially of great use to physical education professionals and teachers. These physical education resources may provide lesson ideas and help reduce teacher workload in producing resources for engaging pe lessons. Some also develop sport specific subject knowledge without the need for attending professional development courses. Their inclusion in this list is not an endorsement of quality and we would always expect physical educators to use their professional judgement, knowledge of specific groups and broader pedagogical understanding/educational aims of lessons to adapt these ideas to suit their context.
We hope it is of use to you and welcome suggestions of additions to this list. As these organisations often change their website URLs, please also let us know if you spot a broken link, so we can update for the benefit of all (email: [email protected]).
PE Scholar resources
Remember to also use the search facility on our pe resources page as we have a huge number of great resources to support teaching and learning in your school and help make physical education teaching simple. In addition to lesson plans, worksheets, resource cards, posters, and assessment tools, we have ‘prompt cards’ to provide one pager activity cards for many of the major physical education activities taught in school with key rules, common misconceptions and teaching/learning points for 4 key skills.
List of physical education resources (in alphabetical order by sport):
Archery
Archery GB – archery in schools ideas, videos and links to School Games resources https://archerygb.org/get-involved/archery-in-schools
Athletics
Run, Jump Throw resource cards are a must for athletics lessons:
British Athletics – access the athletics hub here https://www.athleticshub.co.uk/
England Athletics – great free pe resources for use in lessons as part of ‘Running, Jumping, Throwing’ (RJT) task cards available here – https://www.englandathletics.org/competitions-and-events/schools-and-young-competition/
English Schools’ Athletic Association – access to competitions and awards schemes here – https://esaa.org.uk/
American football
Free to access ‘basics’ guides and videos from BAFA here available https://www.britishamericanfootball.org/teaching-football-in-schools/
Association football (soccer)
The Football Association have a wide selection of materials and online courses that are regularly updated available here https://www.thefa.com/get-involved/schools. Many of these are free to access, look for the Teacher Resource Pack which includes worksheets and posters to support teachers with the materials needed to inspire and engage their pupils. This is updated termly.
Badminton
Badminton England have a free to access ‘school resource hub’ where you can access a whole host of resources, lesson plans, festival and competition ideas and much more to support your delivery available here https://www.badmintonengland.co.uk/on-court/school-resource-hub/. Remember to look out for their SmashUp! resource.
Basketball
Basketball England have materials for primary, secondary and universities available here https://www.basketballengland.co.uk/get-involved/education/ to include resources for download here https://www.basketballengland.co.uk/get-involved/coach/coaching-resources/
Boccia
Boccia England have a bunch of free to download resources here and a 30 minute e-learning workshop to introduce this inclusive, tactical and exciting sport. It costs just £10.
Cricket
Chance to Shine is a national charity that aims to give all children the opportunity to play, learn and develop through cricket. They have a whole host of free school resources for primary and secondary if you sign up via their website here.
English Cricket Board – the ECB also has a whole host of coach development materials including an app that could help you and are available here.
ECB’s Dynamos Schools introduces children to the countdown cricket format and provides a consistent experience across schools and clubs. Find out more here.
Table Cricket resources – available at the bottom of this page
Dance
The following providers are a great place to start. We get the Royal Opera House in each year to deliver free training supported by their learning platform so definitely give them a look. I know go noodle is also popular at primary for active breaks!
Music and Dance Conservatoire – Rudolf Laban
National Association of Teachers of Dancing
Royal Opera House Learning Platform
Fitness
I recommend taking a read of the Association for Physical Education Health Position Paper but for me the best resources to access for fitness come from:
Sport England‘s Studio You video resource bank which features a diverse range of instructors who aim to partner with PE teachers to ‘help girls experience the joy of getting active’. This is part of the This Girl Can campaign and includes free to download units of work, lesson plans and hundreds of videos for whole class or small group use.
Golf
England Golf has a schools programme that promotes physical and mental benefits of golf and is available via the Golf Foundation here.
Gymnastics
British Gymnastics have a whole host of school teacher qualifications and I would encourage all PE teachers to complete one to build confidence and competence to deliver this important national curriculum area safely and in an exciting way.
Handball
England Handball have free online resources to support lesson planning and a £15 intro to teaching course available here.
Hockey
England Hockey have a dedicated hub with support, resources and courses for primary and secondary teachers available here.
Lacrosse
England Lacrosse have a resource pack of cards that are free to download here.
Netball
England Netball have a whole host of lesson plans, activity cards, coaching videos and more aimed specifically at primary or secondary school available to download for free here.
Outdoor Adventurous Activities (OAA)
This is another key element of the national curriculum that often gets overlooked but offers so much in terms of personal development. The following are good places to start:
British Orienteering have training courses, resources and equipment needed to help get you started available here.
British Mountaineering Council are a good place to start when looking at climbing/ bouldering in school.
Royal Yachting Association are worth a look to see what facilities are available near you.
Surf England provide a surf instructor award.
Pickleball
As a racquet sports player, I am surprised that more schools don’t utilise pickleball as their net/ wall game of choice to help students pick up the basics. It is an easy and fun game that is quick to pick up and develop skills, tactics and competition at many levels. Take a look at Pickleball England here and watch this space for lots more materials for schools.
Rowing
British rowing have a free to access online learning course and digital download that we have created for them to benefit schools … even if you don’t have access to water or rowing machines!
Rounders
Rounders England have a whole host of rounders challenges and ideas for mini festivals as well as face to face or digital courses available here.
Rugby
England Rugby offer a comprehensive range of resources, courses and other offers via their rugby in schools page here. Start with the free Kids First eLearning before tackling the Touch and the XRugby (for 5, 7 or 10-a-side versions of the game) courses which are also online and free. You can often get coaches from your local area in to help you introduce rugby to your students and it is essential you keep up with legal changes to reduce concussion and more.
Softball
British Softball Federation has some ideas and resources available here.
Stoolball
Stoolball England have lesson plans and a resource pack to download for free here.
Swimming
Swim England have a whole host of free resources and online learning available here. These are a must for any teacher delivering swimming and this online library is well worth a look.
Squash
England Squash have basic downloads and resources available here.
Table tennis
Table Tennis England have loads of options available to schools to include purchasing equipment, getting coaches, training staff, entering competitions and more. Access it all here.
Tennis
The Lawn Tennis Association offers free training, resources and equipment packs to all primary and secondary schools via this site.
Ultimate frisbee
UK Ultimate have a teacher guide available here.
Volleyball
Volleyball England have a range of courses and resources available here.
Additional high value materials
School Games – competition formats and challenges from over 40 NGBs aimed specifically at inclusive school sport
Sport New Zealand move well – my current favourite set of resources that are free to download to supercharge PE
Sport Australia game sense – a great set of free downloadable resource cards
YST Top Transition – a great set of core tasks to look at holistic skill development and assessment in PE
Mosston & Ashworth spectrum of teaching styles – a website full of ideas, resources and the free eBook
Our book reviews – a blinklist style opportunity to stay on top of essential reads in our PE and youth sport space.
@imsporticus drowning in the shallows website full of AMAZING blogs to challenge your thinking
PEPRN – Dr Ash Casey’s blog posts, again a must for any physical educator
Top sportsability – a whole host of practical advice for teachers to include video clips and downloadable content with ideas and strategies to include young disabled people in physical activity
Sainsburys Inclusive PE – online eLearning as a legacy to this funded programme
Inclusion 2024 inclusive education hub
Relevant podcasts
Believe move grow with Daniel Elias
Experts in sport podcast by Loughborough University
Global PhysEd voxcast
High performance podcast
Life lessons from sport and beyond with Simon mundie
Physed cast
Physical activity researcher podcast
Playing with research in HPE
Shape America podcast
Stripped back sport with Kirsty gallacher
The infinite leaders podcast
The real science of sport podcast
The run your life podcast with Andy Vasily
The sports psych podcast
Under the PE umbrella
Well schools podcast by Youth Sport Trust
PE Insights with Nathan Walker
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