Nalda Wainwright

Director, Wales Academy for Health and Physical Literacy
Dr Nalda Wainwright

Background

Dr Wainwright spent 14 years as a primary teacher, including 5 years as head of a unit supporting children with neurodiversity and a range of complex needs. She was the Local Authority primary physical education associate advisor and a consultant for Sport Wales for the physical education and school sport programmes.   Dr Wainwright moved from teaching to work in teacher education and then to lead a team of researchers who focus on the application of research to impact practice. Dr Wainwright was the lead consultant for inclusion in Welsh Government funded Physical Education and School Sport (PESS)  and authored and national training programme to support teachers in developing strategies and curricula to support all pupils in their school physical education. Dr Wainwright was the regional strategic lead for the Welsh Government funded Physical Literacy Programme for Schools (PLPS) and chair of the PLPS research group.

Specialist Subjects

  • Physical Literacy
  • Physical Education
  • Early Childhood Physical Development
  • Motor Development
  • Outdoor Education
  • Play

Professional and/or Research Experience

Dr Wainwright's PhD was the first globally in the field of Physical Literacy and led to the establishment of the Wales Academy for Health and Physical Literacy at UWTSD. Her research examined the impact of play based Welsh curriculum on children's physical literacy and the findings from this study led to the development of the internationally recognised SKIP-Cymru professional development programmes for teachers, teaching assistants, pre school staff and health practitioners. The SKIP-Cymru work has also underpinned the development of the CIMSPA Accredited Building Foundations for Sport course, The Footie Families programme and the MiniMovers APP for parents. Research at all stages of the development of this work has led to a range of publications, international conference key note lecture, and presentations in the fields of physical literacy, physical education, early childhood education, sport and health.

Qualifications

  • BA Education (Hons)
  • MA Ed
  • PhD

Languages Spoken

English

Professional Membership or Roles

Life member: International Motor Development Research Consortium
Associate Editor: Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy
Foundations consultant Sport Wales
Board member: West Wales Sports Partnership
Director and board member: MiniMovers Limited

Link to Orcid Profile

ORCID Research profile

Professional Publications

  • Recent journal publications
  • Wainwright, Nalda, Goodway, Jacqueline D., John, Amanda, Stevenson, Anna, & Thomas. Kirsty. (2025). SKIP-Cymru: Evaluating the Long-Term Impact of SKIP Teacher Professional Development on Children’s Motor Competence. Journal of Motor Learning and Development. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1123/jmld.2024-0088.
  • John, A., Wainwright, N., Goodway, J.D. and Williams, A., 2024. The Relationship between Physical Activity and Motor Competence of Foundation Phase Children in Wales during the School Day. Children, 11(6), p.629.
  • Zhang, Y., Wainwright, N., Goodway, J.D., John, A., Stevenson, A., Thomas, K., Jenkins, S., Layas, F. and Piper, K., 2024. MiniMovers: An initial pilot and feasibility study to investigate the impact of a mobile application on children’s motor skills and parent support for physical development. Children, 11(1), p.99.
  • John A., Wainwright N., Goodway J and Williams A. 2024 Examining the Fidelity of Implementation of SKIP Cymru (Successful Kinesthetic Instruction for Preschoolers) by Early Childhood Teachers in Wales. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy,
  • Carl, J., Barratt, J., Arbour-Nicitopoulos, K.P., Barnett, L.M., Dudley, D.A., Holler, P., Keegan, R., Kwan, M., Scurati, R., Sum, R.K.W. and Wainwright, N., 2023. Development, explanation, and presentation of the physical literacy interventions reporting template (PLIRT). International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 20(1), pp.1-15.
  • Richards, A.B.; Mackintosh, K.A.; Swindell, N.; Ward, M.; Marchant, E.; James, M.; Edwards, L.C.; Tyler, R.; Blain, D.; Wainwright, N.; Nicholls, S.; Mannello, M.; Morgan, K.; Evans, T.; Stratton, G. WALES 2021 Active Healthy Kids (AHK) Report Card: The Fourth Pandemic of Childhood Inactivity. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 8138. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19138138
  • Brian, A., Taunton Miedema, S., Starrett, A., Griffin, S., Stribling, A., Miedema,
  • B.,Walker, M. Casner, C., Wainwright, N., Wadsworth, D., Goodway, J. D. and
  • Stodden, D.F. (2022) SKIPing with PALS: Exploring Parental Engagement in a Motor
  • Intervention for Their Preschool Children. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport.
  • DOI:10.1080/02701367.2022.2041538
  • Stevenson, A., Wainwright, N. and Williams, A. (2022) Interventions targeting motor skills in preschool aged children with direct or indirect parent engagement; A Systematic Review and Narrative Synthesis. Education 3 -13 DOI 10.1080/03004279.2022.2034174
  • Wainwright, N. (2021) The Foundation Phase, Outdoor Learning and Motor Development. Journal of Physical Education and Sport, Vol 21, Supplement issue. pp 567-673 DOI:10.7752/jpes.2021.s1064
  • Book Chapters
  • Wainwright, N., Piper, K. (2024). A Community-Based Perspective of Children’s Health Literacy in Wales. In: Nash, R., Cruickshank, V., Elmer, S. (eds) Global Perspectives on Children's Health Literacy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-63840-4_22
  • Wainwright, N. and Williams, A. (2022), Outdoor and Adventurous Education. In Griggs G and Randall, V. (eds) An Introduction to Primary Physical Education London: Routledge (2nd edition).
  • TV interviews and videos
  • https://youtu.be/mFNFiKQSuP0?si=XgYlfhcR9o-SVV_r
  • https://youtu.be/v7ETC9xea5o?si=ObiFE_neUAcXo-Oq
  • https://www.youtube.com/@minimovers3431

Available to Supervise Doctoral Students

Yes