Lesson Plans
To help talk about health and keeping active in the classroom we've worked with our sporting partners to provide lesson plans in key sports.
Use them to encourage your children to try something new, or to keep working hard at sports they already practice.
The lessons work both for beginners and accomplished athletes.
Warm up first!
Before children take part in any sport it is vital that they warm up fully. They also need to warm down at the end of a session to help avoid stiff muscles.
For more advanced information on how to coach children correctly and safely within a particular sport we recommend that you contact the appropriate governing body.
Football
For kids that are serious about their football, good training from a qualified coach is very important to help them develop and improve on all the technical aspects of their game.
If you are interested in finding out about football training contact your national governing body in England (FA), Scotland (SFA), Wales (WFA) or Northern Ireland (IFA).
We strongly recommend that advanced football training is not attempted without attending the appropriate courses.
Rugby
Rugby is a very technical contact sport and it is extremely important that it is taught correctly and safely with the right training qualifications in place. Club coaches / PE teachers are strongly recommended to attend rugby training courses run by rugby's governing bodies in England (RFU), Scotland (SRU), Wales (WRU) and Northern Ireland (Ulster Branch IRFU).
Each of the drills featured in the basic lesson plan can be progressed to challenge more advanced children before they take on the challenge of playing full contact rugby.
This manual includes contact drills which can be dangerous if not coached correctly. Please do not attempt to coach using this manual unless you are a fully qualified Level 1 Coach in Rugby.
There are numerous training drills available for all aspects of the game.
Tennis
Tennis is a skilful game so it is important to develop good techniques early on to avoid any bad habits!
The basic tennis drills on this website can be adapted as required and we have included three more drills here for players who are more advanced.
If you want to develop tennis lessons for your school or club yourself, you can access training courses, through the Lawn Tennis Association. To find out more about applying for training courses for teachers or for training courses in clubs go to the LTA.
Athletics
In ‘Basic Lesson Plans for Athletics’ you will find some middle and long distance running drills which have been developed by Paula Radcliffe in conjunction with Loughborough Sport (Loughborough University).
Athletics training becomes increasingly more technical once you reach the stage of progressing older children (12+) who are interested in the sport and wish to increase their ability beyond having fun with the basic running, jumping and throwing exercises.
Due to the demands of the sport we strongly recommend that you begin the various training courses run by athletics' governing body - UK Athletics. This is important to gain guidance on what distances children should be running / what weights they should be throwing.
Please see the UK Athletics website for more information.
