Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Dr Tom Quarmby
Reader
Tom is a Reader in Physical Education (PE) and Sport Pedagogy. His research focuses on the role and value of PE and sport for youth from socially vulnerable backgrounds (including care-experienced young people), and trauma-aware pedagogies in PE.
Following the completion of his PhD in 2011, Tom worked as the ‘Educational Review’ Post-doctoral Research Fellow, and later as a Lecturer in Sport, at the University of Birmingham. While completing his doctoral studies in August 2010, he was presented with the AIESEP Young Scholar Award at the AIESEP World Congress in La Coruna, Spain. He moved to Leeds in 2012 to work in the Physical Education team within the Carnegie School of Sport.
Tom has received funding from research councils, charitable trusts and industry including, the British Academy, Become Charity, Active Communities Network and The Youth Sport Trust.
Current Teaching
Tom teaches on the Physical Education degree programmes at both undergraduate and postgraduate (Masters) level. He teaches on a range of modules centred on the socio-cultural and pedagogical aspects of physical education, physical activity and sport. Tom also supervises a number of postgraduate research student projects.
Research Interests
Tom's current research explores the role and value of physical education and sport for young people in alternative provision schools. For instance, Tom has explored - in collaboration with the Youth Sport Trust - what PE in alternative provision looks like, how it is experienced by pupils, how staff are trained and supported to teach it, and how well resourced the subject is. This research has direct implications for those delivering PE in alternative provision settings.
In addition, Tom - working with a team of researchers from other institutions - has developed principles for supporting trauma-aware practice in PE, and identified a range of strategies to support the enactment of trauma-aware pedagogies. This ongoing work explores how well pre- and in-service teachers are prepared to work with trauma-affected youth in PE, how well they understand the implications of trauma and how it might manifest, along with the impact it may have on them.
Ask Me About
- Children
- Exercise and physical activity
- Family
- Physical education
- Sport
News & Blog Posts
New research spotlights the challenges of delivering physical education in alternative provision schools
Physical Education Pop Up in Lock Up
Right to be Active (R2BA) research shared with MPs at the APPG for looked-after children and care-leavers.
Why do we need to know what parents think of Physical Education and School Sport?
