Adapting PE for the Next Curriculum Era
- Neil @ Future Action
- 23 hours ago
- 7 min read
Why Feel • Connect • Move • Think helps departments respond to the curriculum review
There’s a shift happening in Physical Education, and PE departments are already responding to it.
It’s not about scrapping schemes of work or chasing the next framework. It’s a quieter, more honest change, one that’s asking PE departments to look carefully at who PE currently works for… and who it doesn’t.
The emerging PE curriculum review is pointing us in a clear direction:
Core PE must remain physical
Inclusion can’t be an afterthought
Physical literacy matters
Young people need more than technique and performance to stay active for life
For many PE teachers, this doesn’t feel radical. It feels like policy finally catching up with classroom reality.
So the question becomes:
how do we adapt PE in a way that protects movement, increases inclusion, and genuinely supports young people’s wellbeing?
A helpful lens, not another model
Across the RISE Up community, and through partnership work with schools in Devon, this work brings together two complementary strands.
The Physical Literacy direction has been led by Professor Liz Durden-Myers from PE Scholar, working alongside Active Devon as part of the Sport England Patchwork Physical Literacy programme, with delivery support from Keira Wylie and the wider PE Scholar team.
Through this work, departments have been supported to use a simple organising lens that brings physical literacy into everyday PE practice:
Feel • Connect • Move • Think
Alongside this, Future Action has contributed the trauma-informed PE lens, supporting departments to translate physical literacy principles into psychologically safe, inclusive practice for pupils who struggle to engage, regulate or belong.
Not as a bolt-on. Not as extra content. But as a way of making good PE more inclusive.
FEEL — psychological safety first
If pupils don’t feel safe, nothing else really sticks.
FEEL is about a child’s internal experience:
Do I feel judged?
Am I worried about getting it wrong?
Can I try without embarrassment?
In PE, psychological safety doesn’t happen by accident, it is deliberately designed.
For some departments, this starts with very simple changes:
greeting pupils positively at the door
warm face-voice-body language
using a low-stakes entry activity before anything public or competitive
Small shifts. Big impact.
This isn’t about lowering standards. It’s about creating the conditions where pupils are willing to engage and persist.
Psychological safety is not a personality trait. It’s a taught skill.
CONNECT — belonging before performance
If FEEL is what happens inside a child, CONNECT is what happens between young people and their educator.
Connection shows up in everyday PE decisions:
how groups are formed
whether pupils feel chosen or exposed
how mistakes are responded to
whether relationships are repaired or written off
In one department we partner with, simply moving from fixed classes to flexible groupings transformed attendance among a small group of disengaged pupils. The activities stayed the same, the sense of belonging changed.
Belonging isn’t soft. It’s what keeps young people coming back.
MOVE — Physical Literacy in action (RISE)
Once children feel safe and connected, they’re ready to move.
This is a non-negotiable: PE must remain physical, and the movement must be purposeful.
At the heart of MOVE sits the RISE framework, which explicitly teaches pupils the link between movement and mental wellbeing.
RISE helps young people understand how different types of movement change how they feel.
Repeaters — calming before challenging
Repeaters use rhythmic, repetitive movement to:
calm the amygdala
widen pupils’ window of tolerance
support access to the pre-frontal cortex (where thinking and learning happen)
For pupils arriving anxious, dysregulated, or on edge, Repeaters help the nervous system settle before asking for challenge, decision-making or public performance.
Repeaters don’t lower challenge, they prepare the brain for it.
Inclusive Teams — belonging through movement
Inclusive Teams focus on shared purpose rather than comparison.
Through traditional and non-traditional team games, pupils experience:
cooperation without fear of exposure
being part of something bigger than themselves
connection through movement
For many young people, particularly some girls and students with SEND, Inclusive Teams remove the social threat that has historically pushed them away from PE.
Stress Busters — releasing tension safely
Stress Busters regulate in a slightly different way.
By exerting force against resistance in a controlled manner, pushing, pulling, lifting, holding wrapped in care, pupils:
release built-up stress and frustration
regain a sense of control in their bodies
reduce emotional overload
The goal isn’t exhaustion. It’s regulated release.
Energisers — rediscovering joy and zest
Energisers use aerobic, often joyful movements, like dance or skipping, music-led activity, themed circuits, to help pupils:
lift energy and mood
reconnect with enjoyment
rebuild positive associations with movement
Energisers aren’t about winning or perfect technique. They’re about helping young people rediscover their zest for life through movement.
Why RISE matters
RISE doesn’t replace games, dance, fitness or athletics. It changes how and why they’re used.
Pupils aren’t just active, they’re learning:
“This type of movement helps me feel calmer.”
“This helps me release stress.”
“This helps me feel connected.”
“This lifts my mood.”
That’s physical literacy with mental wellbeing at its core.
THINK — self-care, understanding and agency
THINK comes last deliberately.
Not because it matters least, but because reflection lands best after pupils feel safe,
connected and regulated.
THINK is where mental fitness lives:
self-confidence and inner voice
healthy habits (sleep, hydration, routines)
emotional awareness and regulation
short reflection linked directly to movement
When I was teaching Year 8, children chose how they approached a fitness circuit, selecting steady, high-energy, or stress-release, then spent two minutes reflecting on how that choice supported their mood, focus or confidence.
No worksheets. No essays. Just thinking that supports future engagement with movement.
THINK happens in minutes, not lessons, and always in service of movement.
A simple place to start
If this all feels like a lot, here’s a genuinely achievable place to begin.
You don’t need to change activities.
You don’t need new resources.
You don’t need to rewrite your curriculum overnight.
Sport England data indicates that girls from lower socio-economic backgrounds sit at a key intersection of gender and socio-economic disadvantage, and are more likely to become disengaged from movement. This is something I saw repeatedly across many of my girls’ PE classes post-lockdown.
For me, that raised a simple, practical question:
How do we make PE feel safe, relevant and worthwhile again — without diluting it?
One small but powerful shift is to start by sharing clear learning intentions across the four areas:
Not every lesson needs all four. But over time, young people begin to hear a consistent message:
PE is helping me feel safe, connect with others, move in ways that work for me, and understand why movement matters.
That consistency quietly changes the culture of lessons.
What this looked like in practice
With my Year 8 girls post-lockdown, a group increasingly disengaged from a more traditional PE curriculum, this approach became a way to repair relationships, rebuild trust, and reintegrate young people who had effectively opted out.
The activities didn’t change dramatically. The intent did.
Here are some of the strategies and activities we used to support that reconnection through Feel • Connect • Move • Think:
This wasn’t about lowering expectations. It was about meeting young people where they were and helping them build a meaningful, personally relevant relationship with movement.
Last Friday, I had the pleasure of sharing this approach with brilliant educators at the North East Derbyshire Levelling the Playing Field PE Conference in Chesterfield, during my workshop Inclusion: From Policy to Practice.
The feedback echoed something I’ve seen repeatedly in PE lessons across different contexts.
Sometimes, adapting PE for the next curriculum era doesn’t start with policy.
It starts with care, clarity, and a small intentional shift in how we frame learning.
If your department isn’t here yet
Some colleagues will read this and think:
“We want this, but we’re not there.”
That’s okay.
Most of us were never trained to:
teach psychological safety
design inclusion intentionally
regulate before challenge
This isn’t a values problem.
It’s a professional learning gap.
And it’s teachable.
How we’re supporting schools
Through our Devon RISE Up programme, in partnership with Active Devon and multi agency partners like Sport England, we’re supporting schools to:
adapt to the curriculum review with confidence
explicitly teach the link between movement and mental wellbeing
build staff consistency and confidence
Always with schools, not to them.
Want to take the next step?
If you’re ready to explore this further, here are two clear ways to begin.
For schools and organisations looking to explore future partnerships, training, consultancy, speaking, or to request a copy of Time to RISE Up.
👉 Join the waiting list here
A short, three-minute reflection to map your current provision and identify practical next steps.
👉 Complete the School Wellbeing Scorecard here
Both are designed to help you understand where you are now, and what might help next.
Final thought
The future of PE isn’t softer. It’s smarter.
PE in the next curriculum era must help young people:
feel safe enough to try
belong before they perform
move in ways that work for them
understand how movement supports their life
Departments designing for Feel • Connect • Move • Think are ahead of the curve.
They’re choosing to lead with humanity, without losing rigour.
They’re protecting movement, widening inclusion, and helping young people build a relationship with physical activity that lasts.
That’s not the future of PE.
That’s excellent PE, now.
Have a brilliant week, and thank you for all you do for your young people.
Neil Moggan and the Future Action team
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