Is P.E Teaching Worth It? | Pros and Cons

Being in the education content space, it is important that I research trending topics and commonly searched terms within this field. Surprisingly ‘Is P.E. teaching worth it?’ was amongst one of the most searched terms!

With so much talk out there about the current state of the educational system and the decline in early career teachers, one would assume that people are wondering if teaching is still a promising career path?

Of course, I think being a P.E teacher is worth it and a great career path, if it is something you are passionate about. The caveat is, where you work will largely influence your experience as a P.E teacher. I will discuss some common issues you may encounter as a P.E teacher and through understanding these limitations of the role, you can make your own decision if you think this will be a worthwhile endeavour.

I will provide some first-hand experiences and things that you may face as a future Physical Education teacher, the good bad and the…ugly!

What You May Face

Firstly, your experience in any school and in any role will be influenced by several factors, including the school itself, your colleagues, the needs and ages of the students you teach, the available resources and facilities, how much your role is valued, and the overall culture of the school.

In general, teaching P.E. tends to be more physically exhausting than teaching other subjects—at least, that’s been my personal experience. For most P.E. teachers, however, this is not a drawback. People drawn to P.E. teaching typically have a passion for sports and enjoy staying active, as remaining still is simply not an option for us! As a P.E. teacher, you’ll be on the move during nearly every lesson—walking across the school, going in and out of equipment storage areas, and setting up and packing up equipment on a daily basis.

Facilities and Resources

Most schools do not have sufficient facilities for regular P.E lessons to take place. This might mean you will have no indoor gymnasium or space to conduct lessons, you may need to face bad weather whilst you teach or you may be subject to sharing spaces when needed. The nature of the role will force you to be flexible in how and where you teach. Unfortunately in most school settings, P.E is not always a priority. If spaces are needed for assemblies, gatherings, other learning areas or school needs- generally you will need to be adaptable. This is not a bad thing just something to consider.

Starting my career in schools without sufficient space allowed me to build a base of activities and units of work that can be used in any school setting. It forced me to become a better HPE teacher and now that I am in a school with great facilities, I am able to lean on those skills that were developed in my early years to always ensure I am prepared and have a range of alternative activities I can go to when needed. Developing these skills makes you versatile and also opens you up to trying new things.

The biggest issue I have noticed particularly living in a warm country is being outside in the UV and sun every day. This has a range of health concerns you will need to consider and prepare for prior to teaching P.E. Investing in quality outdoor sun protective clothing, hats, sunglasses and sun cream with be vital in ensuring you remain safe during teaching.

In colder seasons you may need to teach through rainy, drizzly days, having equipment get wet and trying to raise your voice over the gusting wind! A regular teaching space like a gym creates a classroom-type environment that is much more conducive to teaching and learning.

Under-Resourced

You may very well be in a situation where you are under-resourced. If you do find yourself in a situation like this and want to know some ways to gain resources please read our article on the topic. There are ways around this!

Not having the resources, you need to effectively teach your lessons can be very challenging and make classroom management, lesson planning and assessments a tricky thing to navigate. This may be an opportunity for you to advocate for your teaching area and try to start resourcing your sports equipment. Unfortunately, at times, those who are not trained in P.E. underestimate the importance of having sufficient resources. To provide meaningful and engaging lessons for students that thoroughly cover their curriculum and offer the variety that is required, you will need some variance in equipment.

The equipment needed for striking and fielding games and very different to those needed for invasion games. The equipment that is developmentally appropriate for Year 6 students is very different to what is appropriate for junior primary students.

Resources are important, like in any other subject area.

There are many ways around this and similar to not having the correct facilities, it encourages you to be resourceful and creative with how you use equipment and school space.

Work In A Small Team Or On Your Own

A P.E teacher in most school settings are specialist teachers, similar to language teachers or music teachers there is generally only one or a small team of these educators in a school site. This means that you won’t be able to share the planning workload, have someone to bounce ideas off or have someone who can provide you with support in your subject area if you are on your own.

This can be challenging when it comes to obstacles that you may face in the year, needing help with moderation or even having someone else to help you advocate for the needs of your subject area. When change is needed in a particular area of the school, having more people onboard or in the same boat helps speed up the process. If you are the only teacher affected by something let’s say for example, needing more resources for your subject area, things may move a little slower as it only affects you in a sense. Ensuring you have a positive relationship with your leadership team you always provide possible solutions to the issues raised and that you are tactful in your approach, this should not be a major issue but something to be considered and made aware of.

Other subject areas or year levels generally have larger teams where teachers collaborate for all things. Planning, assessments, moderation, excursion and carnivals…. The list goes. Understanding this prior to stepping into a P.E. teaching role is important and I encourage you to network and build relationships with P.E. teachers outside of your school to address many of the potential downfalls of working on your own.

Now The Good Stuff!!

If you love sports, then this is the job for you. You’ll need to understand which age group you prefer to teach and what content needs to be covered for each year level, but once you find your niche, it’s one of the best jobs in education (although I may be a bit biased!). You get to be outdoors on those beautiful sunny days, stay active, play sports, and engage with students in an area that most kids absolutely love and are excited about! You rarely have to push students to participate, and more often than not, you’ll easily become one of their favorite teachers simply because of the nature of the subject they enjoy so much.

There are many days when I’m in the gym or on the oval, music playing, while the students warm up and get ready for our activity, and I think to myself, “Wow! I’m getting paid for this.” I get to share my love, knowledge, and passion for physical education with students who are eager to learn.

Once students see that you love sports just as much as they do, they tend to start looking up to you. Being a P.E. teacher is truly a special experience—not just for you, but for your students as well. It’s a job that requires a lot of energy, patience, and resilience, but the reward is immeasurable—especially when you see the appreciation and joy in your students when they see you.

Let me share with you three things I absolutely love about this job! (I could tell you a million..)

Autonomy & Repetitions

As you may likely be working on your own or at most in a small team, this will allow you to choose how you run your HPE program. It gives you free rein to decide the sequencing of your lessons, when you do assessments and of course the topics you cover. In other subject areas (Maths, English, Year level teacher) you may need to ensure you are covering similar topics to your co-teachers or mutually plan and allow for other ideas to take priority over yours in the collaboration process. If you’re in a subject area on your own generally speaking you will get autonomy over most things.

How many teachers get the opportunity to refine a lesson multiple times in a given day? As a P.E. teacher, you get to do this, especially if you teach in a large school where you might teach multiple classes of the same year level. This also means you’re planning requirements are less as you will plan for a particular year level and not for a specific class. Allowing you to refine your plans over a few lessons, and understand what works and what doesn’t.

In another subject area, you may teach a topic once or teach a lesson only once. Whilst you may be able to reflect on this, you won’t be able to try the lesson again for a long period of time or you may not try it again ever.

In the long term, this will benefit you as a teacher and provide you with a deep understanding of what works with particular age groups and what doesn’t.

Transferable Skills

As mentioned earlier, being a P.E. teacher requires you to be extremely adaptable in how you teach, who you teach, where you teach, and, of course, how you collaborate with others. You’ll work with almost every staff member in the school, gain insights into how a diverse range of students learn, manage a variety of behaviors across different year levels, and collaborate with teachers from each grade. You’ll also be responsible for creating lessons, marking, and assessing students of all year levels, which gives you a deep understanding of the criteria and learning outcomes across age groups—an incredibly valuable skill.

While this may seem daunting at first and contributes to the challenges of the job, it also offers a unique opportunity to develop a diverse skill set that will make you a great leader. Many educational leaders begin their careers in a specialist area like P.E. and, due to their experience working with a broad cross-section of the school community—students and staff alike—develop the ability to handle almost any situation effectively and appropriately.

If you stay within the confines of one class, working solely with students from that class and collaborating only with your year-level team, you’ll miss out on the invaluable skills that a specialist teacher develops on a daily basis.

Freedom

Like all teachers, we are directed by the curriculum, with that in mind if you are in a P.E. role, you will get creative freedom with how you incorporate the curriculum into your subject area. You will not have the constraints of needing to teach a specific thing at a particular time of the year or need to align your topic with another teacher or subject area (Generally speaking).

Whilst considering the needs of your school, its facilities and most importantly the needs and interests of your students- you have the freedom to choose how you create your program and what you teach.

Compared to other subject areas which are far more rigid, you get autonomy in what you do and can also cater things to the areas you are passionate about and that are your teaching strengths. Having creative freedom in this sense allows you to integrate what you think will work best for yourself and your students, making your lessons more engaging.

Flexibility

Not only will you have flexibility in the planning and implementation of your teaching units but you get variety in the year levels and classes you teach. You get the amazing opportunity to essentially teach the whole school.

This is an amazing way to embed yourself in the school community very quickly. Very few teachers will have the ability to walk across the schoolyard and know almost every student in the school as most year-level teachers only teach 25-30 students for the year.

There won’t be a day you go into where you won’t have variety in what you are teaching and to whom you are teaching it. If you have a bad lesson you get to reflect on what went wrong and make changes for the next lesson, starting again fresh. If you have a good lesson, you can replicate that lesson again with another group of students. Constantly changing classes and students allows you to a new opportunity and a fresh start within a teaching day.

This can create an exciting, enjoyable and adventurous day.

Con’s?

Can work in isolation or small teams
Potential to be under-resourced and have no facilities
Work outside in the heat and cold
Teach all if not most year levels and classes
High paced day, moving constantly from class to class
Setting up packing up equipment
Be responsible for whole school events, carnivals and weekend sports
Have to advocate for your learning area

Pro’s?

Autonomy
Variety in what you teach and age groups of students you teach
Flexibility in what you do in your plans
Be in charge of your domain
Build leadership skills
Make your own decisions on most things
Build positive relationships quickly with both students and staff
Get to work with leadership directly
Get to know and meet all members of the community
Become an integral part of the school
Well like by students
Opportunities to network with other schools and HPE professionals

The Verdict?

P.E. teaching is worth it. If it’s your passion than it is something you will enjoy regardless of the obstacles you will face. If you are in a school that needs a revamped HPE program, that is just an opportunity for you to advocate for yoursubject area and create something amazing for your new school community. Allowing you to leave your mark on the school and start to build a positive outlook on the subject area for that particular site.

Try to find an ideal age group you want to teach (Primary or high school) and then try to experience different schools to make an informed decision on where you would like to work. Don’t let one bad experience make you think P.E. teaching itself is not worth it, it may just be your interaction with that particular school. Finding a school that is right for you and that has the facilities you need to do your job. This will be the biggest indicator of whether you find success and fulfilment in your role as an HPE teacher.

If you need help, please reach out to us. Many great leaders in well-being and upper leadership start as HPE teachers. The role itself requires you to work with and cater for the needs of all students and staff in a school setting. The role is extremely unique and will provide you with some lifelong skills and fantastic experiences that will no doubt make you a better educator down the track.

P.E teaching is worth it.

Three Evidence Based Facts Why P.E Teachers Are So Important To A School!

Better Physical Health and Fitness: Trained P.E. teachers help students stay healthy and fit. They know how to create activities that keep students active, which helps prevent health problems like obesity and heart disease. Research shows that students who have certified P.E. teachers are more physically active and have better fitness levels. This means they are healthier and less likely to get sick (UNESCO, 2024).
Improved Academic Performance: Exercise is good for the brain. Studies show that students who are active tend to do better in school. They can concentrate better and remember things more easily. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that physical activity can lead to better grades and test scores. Trained P.E. teachers know how to combine physical activities with learning, making it easier for students to succeed in their studies (UNESCO, 2024).
Development of Social and Emotional Skills: Physical education helps students develop important social and emotional skills. In P.E. classes, students learn how to work as a team, lead others, and communicate effectively. They also learn how to handle stress and build confidence. According to the Aspen Institute, having quality P.E. taught by trained professionals can help students improve their social skills and emotional well-being, making them better prepared for life both in and out of school (UNESCO, 2024).