ECER 2025 was a highlight for NW18 this year and it was pleasing that we saw a return to typical numbers in terms of submissions (n= 47) compared with the previous year where this was lower. Most of these were individual papers, though we also had two symposia. Some excellent discussions took place during the conference with almost all sessions being well attended (apart from those on the last day whereby attendance was noticeably lower). There were a number of international attendees at the conference, as well as several ECRs, which facilitated networking opportunities and insightful discussions on different contexts.
Within the conference we also had our second Honorary Member keynote, delivered by Professor Fiona Chambers. This was on the topic of the future of physical education and was very well attended.
Our Network Meeting was also productive and lots of important decisions were made during this including around requesting to change the name of NW18 and maintaining communication between conferences. It was also announced that NW18 had been successful in applying for a Network Project – another important development for the Network – that would run in the next academic year (and which members were invited to be a part of). This project will be led by Dr Shirley Gray and the focus of this will be on PE curricula across European borders, building on the work of Dr Gray and colleagues as part of the UK PE Collaborative.