Deborah Callcott, Judith Miller and Susan Wilson-Gahan have written a timely, much needed and ambitious book for students preparing to become teachers of health and physical education. They valuably address the preparation of teachers across the whole age range of compulsory schooling, from early years to secondary school. This is something that is rarely done, perhaps due to the perceived divide between primary generalists and secondary specialists. Or, where the complete age range is considered, emphasis is often given to one group over the other. By taking a developmental perspective in this volume, the three authors seek to overcome some of the shortcomings of other teacher education texts. In so doing, they provide a strong sense of alignment of physical education provision across the age range.

They also seek to align the subject matter of health and physical education, and information and communication technology (ICT). This is a challenging task to do well since these bodies of knowledge in themselves are complex, with different histories and pedagogies in the school curriculum. In addition to the developmental perspective just mentioned, Callcott, Miller and Wilson-Gahan use scenarios and tasks skilfully to bring together and integrate this complex content for students. Along with this extensive use of scenarios is a further feature, which is to speak as directly as possible to individual student teachers and to prompt each one to locate the book’s concepts within their own experience, both past and present.