In Commemoration of Len Almond
It is with great sadness that we have to inform our TGfU community of the death of Len Almond on Friday, 12th May, 2017.
In this memorial to Len, Joy Butler has contributed the words she offered when presenting Len with his Honorary Award in 2010.
Len Almond
Honorary Award 2010
One thing I can tell is that it is enormously difficult to consolidate all of what Len has achieved in a few minutes. So suffice to say that what I am about to say are some of the highlights – the proverbial tip of the iceberg with so much more to know. The metaphor is a useful one in that the 90% that you don’t see of the iceberg is akin to the slow burn of Len’s work over 40 years of teaching and the depth of impact he’s had on so many people individually but also in terms of major organizational changes. The slow burn effect on one of Len’s students here today can be summarized in the following statement:
“As a PETE student I was exposed to Len’s teaching philosophy. Central to this philosophy was the notion of challenges, which created a forum for student centered and embodied learning as we strived to solve problems within each of the challenges Len posed to us. While this approach has become a focus of my own teaching philosophy and research, there was, at the time, some resistance to Len’s suggestions from me and the other students he taught. However, over time and with our experiences in school using Len’s suggested methods I began to realize the powerful impact of Len’s teaching philosophy” Stephen Harvey.
Len Almond, a senior lecturer in the School of Sport and Exercise Sciences
& Director of the British Heart Foundation National Center for Physical activity and health.
Len joined Loughborough in 1975 as a research fellow and became a senior lecturer in the school of Sport and Exercise sciences. He specialized in curriculum issues. It was here that Len made huge contributions to thinking about school PE, including the teaching of games for understanding. In 2001, Len opened the first TGfU conference. Len and his two colleagues, Rod Thorpe and David Bunker, are credited with creating a climate for curricular change within physical education, leading to the development of TGFU. IN his keynote address Len explained that the basis of the TGfU approach is to promote learning. “Any subject can be taught to any child in any form if it is put into the simplest terms,” he said. “Teaching Games for Understanding attempts to create a critical framework where games present problems that need solving and players can make intelligent decisions to solve them.” In order for children to become intelligent performers of games their teachers need to rethink how they teach, and to modify game play so that students can appreciate what a game is all about. Len said, “If you don’t know a game, you can’t teach or explain it in the simplest form. We need to view teachers as artists, who, in the process of teaching, learn themselves, much like actors learn better skills by performing.”
Seminal publications for TGfU have been the:
‘Rethinking Games’ book of 1986,
The place of PE in Schools 1989
His work then expanded to the broader issues of Physical Activity and Health and he is probably better known for this work in the UK. This started in 1985, the then Health Education Council, awarded its first grant for the study of physical activity to the University. It enabled Loughborough to set up the Health and Physical Education project, in which Len played a key role. The project brought about massive changes in the way Health related exercise was taught in schools. Following this Len led many other health-related initiatives and secured significant external funding for the University. One of his greatest achievements is in establishing the British Heart Foundation National Center for Physical Activity and Health at the campus.
Written by Joy Butler
“As a PETE student I was exposed to Len’s teaching philosophy. Central to this philosophy was the notion of challenges, which created a forum for student centered and embodied learning as we strived to solve problems within each of the challenges Len posed to us. While this approach has become a focus of my own teaching philosophy and research, there was, at the time, some resistance to Len’s suggestions from me and the other students he taught. However, over time and with our experiences in school using Len’s suggested methods I began to realize the powerful impact of Len’s teaching philosophy” Stephen Harvey.
Len Almond, a senior lecturer in the School of Sport and Exercise Sciences
& Director of the British Heart Foundation National Center for Physical activity and health.
Len joined Loughborough in 1975 as a research fellow and became a senior lecturer in the school of Sport and Exercise sciences. He specialized in curriculum issues. It was here that Len made huge contributions to thinking about school PE, including the teaching of games for understanding. In 2001, Len opened the first TGfU conference. Len and his two colleagues, Rod Thorpe and David Bunker, are credited with creating a climate for curricular change within physical education, leading to the development of TGFU. IN his keynote address Len explained that the basis of the TGfU approach is to promote learning. “Any subject can be taught to any child in any form if it is put into the simplest terms,” he said. “Teaching Games for Understanding attempts to create a critical framework where games present problems that need solving and players can make intelligent decisions to solve them.” In order for children to become intelligent performers of games their teachers need to rethink how they teach, and to modify game play so that students can appreciate what a game is all about. Len said, “If you don’t know a game, you can’t teach or explain it in the simplest form. We need to view teachers as artists, who, in the process of teaching, learn themselves, much like actors learn better skills by performing.”
Seminal publications for TGfU have been the:
‘Rethinking Games’ book of 1986,
The place of PE in Schools 1989
His work then expanded to the broader issues of Physical Activity and Health and he is probably better known for this work in the UK. This started in 1985, the then Health Education Council, awarded its first grant for the study of physical activity to the University. It enabled Loughborough to set up the Health and Physical Education project, in which Len played a key role. The project brought about massive changes in the way Health related exercise was taught in schools. Following this Len led many other health-related initiatives and secured significant external funding for the University. One of his greatest achievements is in establishing the British Heart Foundation National Center for Physical Activity and Health at the campus.
Written by Joy Butler
