2. Fionamarie Kearney

3. Working as a coach for the Ulster Council delivering the Physical Literacy Programme gave me the opportunity to base my research for my Masters Degree on the effectiveness of the programme. This involved benchmarking.

4. Physical Literacy is about choosing fun activities that will enhance childrens abilities in the areas of agility, balance and co-ordination. It also explores the skills of running, jumping and throwing. Catching, passing, kicking and striking are further core skills that are learnt (GAA Fundamentals Manual, 2000).

5. Benchmarking is a self- improvement tool for organisations. It allows for comparison with others, and to identify strengths and weaknesses and learn how to improve.

6. When used appropriately, benchmarking has proved to be a very effective tool for bringing about improvements in performance. It can be used to for coach self- analysis or analysis of players.

7. Benchmark the class/group as a whole Opportunity to benchmark individuals as well.

8. Teachers were asked to complete a benchmarking questionnaire. It was aimed at evaluating teachers perceptions on their own ability and the ability of the children in their class in relation to Physical Literacy.

9. I asked the class teacher to fill out the questionnaire at the beginning of the programme, the middle and the end.

10. Creativity Confidence Self-esteem

13. Brainstorm ideas in groups of 2- 3, activities you could do in your coaching session that would involve developing creativity.

21. Form A Teachers Benchmarking Pupils at End of Programme

25. Form B Teachers Benchmarking themselves at Middle of the Programme

27. Form B Teachers Benchmarking themselves at End of the Programme

29. A total of 40 teachers completed the benchmarking. Each one of them noted a vast improvement in all areas of development. Teachers commented how the programme improved childrens self-esteem and confidence.

30. The results are averages taken from the 40 teachers individual markings at the beginning, middle and end of the programme. BeginningMiddleEnd Creativity247 Confidence458 Self-esteem358

32. Analysis from the teachers own benchmarking indicated that their confidence of delivering Physical Literacy has increased significantly from the beginning to the end of the programme.

33. In groups of 3 or 4. A) Discuss the benchmarking form and how you could use it in your club. B) What would the positives and negatives be?

34. Questions