Leading a Physical Education (PE) department with additional responsibilities
Traditionally, basketball has five specific playing positions and previously, the players who filled these positions would stick to their role and avoid doing anything that was outside their position…
Centres and power forwards would rebound the ball and rarely dribble, Guards would dribble the basketball but would hardly ever enter the key.
And then basketball evolved, much like a 21st century PE department.
A basketball team of 2025 may have named positions, but we are in an era of ‘positionless basketball’. Meaning all players are now required to do a bit of everything regardless of which number they wear. Great coaches and leaders know this. Leaders understand if you want your players and teams to compete at a world class level, you must train them to play and balance all the positions and responsibilities equally.
As frustrating as this might be or sound, Heads of PE and faculty leaders around the country will be experiencing and leading teams who play many roles within a school. PE teachers are ambitious, competitive and have skill sets that often lend themselves to other roles desired by school leaders. Furthermore, leadership roles within the PE world are competitive. Enthusiastic, committed, PE specialists occupy the leadership roles. Therefore, it is natural that high quality practitioners will seek promotion in other areas.
My view is that is that we need to embrace ‘positionless basketball’ and learn to lead teachers and teams that can at least double or triple threat effectively well.
Below is my ‘Starting 5’ leadership strategies for leading a team with multiple responsibilities.
1. Role Acceptance
‘We can’t all be the point guard.”
As a leader we need to accept that other roles are important to teachers. We need to be empathetic, just as a subject leader will have external pressures to perform, staff with additional responsibilities will also have this and they will want to be successful in their role. Once we accept this, we may be able to help balance the requirements placed upon them. This is not to say expectations are lowered, it is to create a sense of understanding. We must always remember that most positions in school, are unique and one person only ever really holds that position at that time. Therefore, by default we end up working in silos and prioritising our own work over others. However, as the PE leader, we can always lean into the ‘why’ the teacher started their career in the first place. Most teachers have a passion for their subject and for developing students within it, if we consistently revisit their purpose, people will recentre and balance what is required of them.
2. Ways of working principles
Basketball set plays are strategically planned to create the best conditions to create soring opportunities.
As a department matures and evolves, the way the department work together and communicate may also have to flex. No two schools are set up in the same way, but most schools can have flexibility in their approach. The best, most effective schools are finding creative solutions in how to meet the needs of staff with different working patterns (including part time staff) or who occupy multiple positions within the school, including teaching across a range of subjects.
This usually starts with communication. When PE leaders take time to talk to other leaders (and vice versa) the agreed outcome is better. Talking and listening to each other on ways of working and holding each other to account for these will be vital so that everyone can be successful in their role.
E-mail communication may not be practical, the calendared meeting slots may not work as well as it does for other departments; therefore, being creative to find solutions is required.
Some of the best examples I have seen in schools (but not limited to) include:
(i) a weekly PE morning briefing that is blocked out by all members of the team, so that they can come together and talk coordination regularly.
(ii) A snag board, in an office where all members can add notes on things that are going on that week.
(iii) Heads of PE recording short messages and sending out so that all staff can see and hear the message regardless of their working pattern (linked to this, the Head of PE needs to say ‘have you watched the video?’ before they answer follow up questions!)
(iv) a regular PE bulletin of all moving parts with who is accountable for what.
(v) Rolling timetable documents that staff can input into to keep track of who has taught what, when.
(vi) a written-up set of principles (culture code) agreed as a team and lived out day to day.
These are just a sample and in isolation sound like additional work; however, when departments get this right, the day to day running of the department improves and working patterns become easier. What I am also clear about is the Head of Department cannot have multiples of these to suit everyone, it must be agreed as a team and evaluated after a period of time.
3. Playing to strengths
Get the right players, in the right position, at the right time.
Similar to ways of working, talking to staff who hold additional roles about what expertise they can bring to the department and how to utilise them will help support staff and bring out the best of them. This will retain their significant purpose to their core business and enhance their contribution to the department. Great leaders will declutter other areas of work, so that they can focus on important PE work and, therefore, be held to account on that aspect. This might include parts of examined courses, or certain sports (and all that goes with them – fixtures, CPD, equipment etc) or quality assurance of teaching.
PE teachers need to understand they wont be able to always cherry pick what they want to do or not and leaders need to understand that delegation is a key part of leadership, but if this is done well, all parties have clarity on what they need to do to feel valued to contribute to a thriving department.
4. On court communication
Communication in basketball is one of those things like energy and effort; it needs always to be happening at a high level.
Communication is a multiplier! Effective communication grows a department, poor communication destroys a department (similar for the whole school too!)
I have already discussed finding solutions with communication through ways of working. This is more about what you say and when you say it, day in day out. In a busy full court press, much like a school day, staff will be coming and going. They will jump from one role to the next, and in some cases from multiple venues across the school. Firstly, we should never underestimate the many roles we play seamlessly across a typical 8-hour day. Therefore, we should also be empathic about what someone has just come from or is about to go to.
General principles around communication remain a vital of part of the leader’s responsibility. When your team (any member of the team, including school leaders) do something well, it should be noticed as soon as possible. Thank you(s), recognition and feeling appreciated (or lack off) is still cited as the biggest contributing attribute that affects employees’ wellbeing. People want to do a good job, the mindset of ‘That’s their job; they get paid for it’ is the quickest way to reduce staff contribution and discretionary effort.
Equally, if a member of staff has not performed as expected, public reprimanding will undo future performance quickly. Follow up should be in private, by the appropriate member staff and should start with questions. Taking time to understand that leader’s day, might help explain why that PE matter was not as good as it should have been, but importantly what can be done in the future to prevent it happening again.
In all of this, a principle I feel that should always be remember is to treat adults like adults and communicate in a way you would want to be communicated to yourself.
5. Correct match ups
Player match ups take time and pre-game analysis. Getting this right can be pivotal to winning or losing the game.
Linked to playing to strengths, skilful leaders will take time to ensure staff are able to work closely or alongside people who suit each other’s skill sets. Additional responsibilities often creates reduced timetables, or less time for PE required activities, yet there is still an expectation for the school and from the Senior Leadership Team to deliver a full positive PE experience for all students.
PE leaders should think carefully about what the main priorities are for their department annually and align people accordingly to deliver this. (This may also include a conversation with line managers so that they have clarity on what the PE team are prioritising. You cannot deliver everything to the same standard if your team have multiple rolls.)
Matching up and creating working teams is a fundamental skill of a great leader. Solutions to this might include:
Instead of making one person responsible for a single element (running a year group sports team) can you pair people up over two teams so that they can manage their time and support each other when they have pinch points.
If a member of staff has a year group responsibility, loading their timetable with that year group and sports teams will help them overall.
PE teachers who oversee transition are going to be full on in term one and term six, can they be linked to someone who can front load their work and swap in the middle terms?
Two teachers are co-responsible for KS4 classes. This allows them to co-lead on the various aspects at various times.
I appreciate in smaller departments and in certain situations these will not always work, but equally I know without giving this some thought and, instead, trying to exist as before will lead to frustrations for all involved.
Finding solutions to changing working patterns is an ongoing challenge for all leaders at all levels. The most successful leaders evolve and evaluate consistently.
On the buzzer…
Now, of course this is two way. If you are the member of staff with the additional responsibility you need to be a team player. You will have a responsibility to the students you teach and the department you work with. It is a constant balance, however, one that needs attention if you are to be successful and have impact in the multiple roles you perform.
The ‘Starting 5’ list applies both ways. As the PE teacher you need to accept that the standard of PE delivered is high priority to the leaders of PE and school leaders. Working with leaders on communication and how you can best contribute to the department is a positive step forward. Knowing your strengths and passions are a good starting point, but also being able to accept you may at times need to be flexible – not everyone can do the thing they love all the time.
To finish, in the words of the greatest (in my opinion) basketball leader…
“The strength of the team is each individual member; The strength of each member is the team” (2) Phil Jackson
- https://www.basketballforcoaches.com/basketball-positions/
- Jackson, P. & Delehanty, H. (2013). Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success. New York: Ballantine Books.
Responses