School and university may be a distant memory for many of Dubai's PE teachers, but that doesn't mean that their learning has stopped.
Whilst most were still tucked up in bed on Saturday morning, it was back to school for 50 of the city's PE teachers, as Kent College played host to a special basketball refereeing course.
The event, which was organised by DXBPE's Ed Mosley, utilised the expertise within the DASSA PE community to deliver the course at next to no cost to attendees, making it accessible to all.
Mosley, who is also Head of PE at the newly finished North London Collegiate School, told us that he established DXBPE after becoming frustrated with the high cost of CPD courses.
"PE teaching CPD courses are notoriously expensive, with organisations flying in big names to lead events that often miss the mark. I realised that there was already a wealth of experience in a wide range of sports within the DASSA schools that could be shared, so I started DXBPE with the aim of providing courses for teachers, by teachers, without the hefty price-tag."
Mosley explained that the them of the day's course had arisen from a feeling within the PE teaching community that there was a need to up-skill in the area.
"At the end of last season it became clear that a lot of teachers felt uncomfortable when it came to refereeing their school's basketball matches. Matt Christensen (Greenfield Community School), Christine Lewis (North London Collegiate School), and Fiona Ryan (First Point), have all played and/or officiated basketball profiessionally; they agreed to lead today's course, which will help teachers understand the intriquicies of the game, and ultimately help them to improve their student's performance."
Mosley was also delighted that there had been positive side-effects from the DXBPE courses.
"Courses like this are really sociable and great fun…everybody's chatting to each other and playing the games with a smile on their face…it brings the community together and strengthens relationships, which in turn makes things like arranging fixtures really easy."
Any teachers looking for further information on future courses organised by DXBPE should check out the DXBPE website, or drop Ed an email.