Hi Reader,

With many of you preparing to return to school, this felt like a good moment to reconnect.

I have been quieter since November. During that time, and through the winter break, I intentionally stepped back to reflect on the projects I was involved in and the professional learning spaces I have been building for PE teachers. That pause helped me recalibrate and become clearer on where my energy and focus are best placed as the year resumes.

With that clarity in mind, I want to begin the year by addressing a question that sits at the heart of PE and often creates confusion around assessment and grading.

If behaviours sit at the centre of success in PE, why do they sit on the edges of clarity when it comes to assessment and grading?

One of the most common tensions in the PE field is what to do with student behaviours and how they should be positioned. Some teachers base much of their assessment and grading on behaviours. Others work intentionally to separate behaviours from learning. Many feel a pull to do something different but are unsure how to do so or what might happen if they do.

That uncertainty is the issue.

This is not a question of whether behaviours matter. They do.

Behaviours outline how students are expected to engage in their learning and with others. They shape safety, responsibility, and how learning environments function across lessons and contexts. Without clear expectations for behaviour, learning becomes harder to support consistently.

At the same time, behaviours are not what students come to PE class to learn.

Students come to learn what is outlined in the curriculum learning standards, or whatever language is used locally to describe the intended learning. That is what assessment and grading are meant to reflect.

How to Distinguish Behaviour from Learning

A helpful way to clarify this distinction is to look across contexts.

If something is expected in most classes, regardless of the activity or unit, and you are looking for it consistently over time, it is very likely a behaviour.

If something is specific to a particular lesson, unit, or learning focus, it is more likely tied to learning.

This does not make behaviours less important.
It places them more accurately.

But PE is a participatory class

This is often where the tension surfaces.

Yes, PE is participatory. Students need to be engaged to learn. But this is not unique to PE. Participation is a condition for learning in every subject, not the learning itself.

In PE and other performing type classes, participation simply looks different than it might in classroom based subjects like English or math.

When participation and behaviours are mixed as evidence of learning, clarity begins to erode. Assessment becomes fuzzy. Grades meant to summarize learning achievement become inaccurate. Behaviours become harder to support intentionally. Teachers end up relying on behaviours to do work they were not designed to do.

Separating behaviours to better support students

Behaviours have a direct and indirect impact on learning. That is precisely why separating them matters.

When behaviours and learning are mixed as evidence of learning, it becomes harder to support either well. When they are separated, teachers can respond more intentionally to behaviours while keeping learning clear and visible for students.

One practical way to support this separation is to think about behaviours through a frequency lens rather than as something to score or grade. This shifts the question from “How good is this behaviour?” to “How often is this behaviour showing up?”

Behaviours are actions students are capable of doing. The question is not whether they can do them, but how often they are doing them over time. Because of this, behaviours do not need to be broken down into levels of quality or degrees of success the way learning does.

Instead, we look for patterns:

• Rarely.
• Sometimes.
• Often.
• Consistently.

What a Frequency Scale Might Look Like

This shifts attention away from isolated moments and toward trends over time. Behaviours stay visible and supported without needing to stand in for learning or be converted into grades.

Use Frequency Scales Over Time

Frequency scales work best when they are used over a period of time rather than class by class. Looking across one to two weeks allows patterns to emerge that are worth celebrating, supporting, or discussing.

For students

Frequency scales can support self reflection. They provide a way to consider how often behaviours are showing up, what may have influenced them, and how those behaviours are impacting learning. From there, students can make more informed decisions about what they want to adjust moving forward.

For teachers

Frequency scales help clarify which behaviours are being focused on, support modelling and shared language, and allow teachers to notice patterns over time. As needs emerge, teachers can respond in the moment rather than waiting for the end of a reporting period. When students and teachers are using the same frequency language, conversations about behaviour become more grounded and evidence based.

Frequency scales create clarity for teachers and students.

Learning can be assessed and communicated clearly.

Behaviours can be supported intentionally over time.

Both matter.

They simply serve different purposes.

When behaviours and learning are clearly separated, both become easier to support.

Behaviours stay visible and important, without carrying the weight of grades. Learning stays clear and central, without being distorted by compliance.

That clarity does not remove complexity from teaching. It simply gives teachers a steadier place to make decisions from.

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Want more clarity around assessment and grading in PE?

This kind of clarity, where learning, assessment, and grading make sense and are aligned, is what I’m passionate about building. Creating this clarity is a continuous process of refinement and one that is often better done alongside colleagues than on our own.

That is why I’m starting The PE Assessment Blueprint, an online membership opening in the next few weeks. It is designed to help PE teachers make assessment and grading more practical and manageable, turning sound ideas into approaches that actually work in day-to-day PE classes.

Think of it as both a professional toolkit and a collegial circle where PE teachers can learn, reflect, find and use resources, ask questions, and build clarity together over time.

If this sounds like your kind of space, you can join the waitlist below to be notified when it opens.

Join the Waitlist

No pressure. This is something I’m building for teachers who want to continue developing their practice and thinking more clearly about how assessment and grading can better support both their teaching and their students in PE.