Updated for 2026
“We spend the first year of a child’s life teaching it to walk and talk and the rest of its life to shut up and sit down. There’s something wrong there.”
— Neil deGrasse Tyson
Rethinking How We Teach PE
For years, I’ve believed that many PE lessons miss the mark when it comes to fostering physical literacy. We often rush to control, instruct, or correct. But what children truly need is space - space to experiment, take risks, fail, and try again.
What is play in physical education? It’s not just downtime or reward; it’s a powerful learning tool. PE play gives children the opportunity to discover what their bodies can do. Whether they're trying a new movement or engaging with others through games, this active experimentation is critical for motor development, problem-solving, and confidence. According to research from organisations such as Sport England and the Youth Sport Trust, play-based approaches significantly improve engagement and long-term participation in physical activity.
The Role of the Confident Teacher
It takes a confident teacher to step back and let a child struggle before they succeed. Watching a pupil make the same mistake multiple times can be difficult, but sometimes learning through play is the most powerful way forward. Giving students time to explore solutions, rather than offering them immediately, helps develop both independence and resilience.
Even social interactions within play PE activities are valuable. We’ve all seen pupils shout in frustration during a game, only to realise later that communication and teamwork are more effective. These are vital life skills, and they often emerge naturally when teachers allow PE play to unfold. Check out our blog on teaching a good PE lesson for more guidance on how to teach engaging PE lessons.
The Power of Play in Physical Education
We often hear pupils say, “But we just want to play!” This shouldn't be dismissed as resistance to learning. Instead, it highlights a valuable insight: children naturally understand the joy and freedom that come with play. Our job is to integrate learning into that play, not take it away.
The challenge is finding the balance, ensuring students develop skills and understanding without sacrificing the joy of movement. When pupils are engaged in meaningful, well-structured play in physical education, they learn more and enjoy the process. They begin to see that every new skill enhances their play and every game teaches something new.
Research from the Association for Physical Education (afPE) also supports this approach, emphasising that high-quality PE should promote both competence and confidence through engaging, inclusive activities.
A Curriculum That Encourages Play
The current National Curriculum provides us with the flexibility to make play a central element of PE. This is an opportunity we should embrace. Encouraging children to move freely, to walk, run, jump, and explore, is not just fun. It’s developmentally essential.
By embedding play into curriculum design, we can also better support differentiated learning. Not every child develops at the same pace, and play allows for natural variation in challenge and progression. For more on structuring inclusive lessons, see our article on adaptive PE.
As PE teachers, we should nurture a classroom culture where play PE is not seen as the opposite of learning but as the method through which deep learning takes place. Through PE play, we help children communicate, collaborate, and develop a love for physical activity. In doing so, we lay the groundwork for lifelong participation in sport and movement. Something that extends far beyond the school gates.
Ultimately, if we want children to stay active for life, we must first let them enjoy moving. And that starts with play.