PE teacher Julie Keogan is a rare breed. She is one of only a few specialist sports teachers working in an infants school in the country.

Mrs Keogan teaches every pupil at Montgomery Infants School in Colchester at some point every week.

Her appointment during the past year is paying dividends at the school, where the number of after-school sport clubs has soared.

She’s certainly popular. Mrs Keogan’s arrival in the class she is about to teach earns her whoops of delight.

She said: “I would say their attitude has changed. When I come to get them for a lesson now, they are all really happy to see me, as they know they are having PE.

“I think the benefit for me teaching it all the time is the pupils get used to me.

“We can make sure we are promoting it as fun and get them increasingly confident at team games and individual sports for when they go to secondary school.”

She is the first to admit she found it hard to believe when what she considers her dream job landed at her feet.

The mum-of-two started her career at the school, in Baronswood Road, but left to live in Australia, before returning to England to start her family.

Mrs Keogan, 43, of Straight Road, Colchester, had returned for maternity cover once her children were old enough, and worked in a job share before the chance to complete her Primary Link Teacher in Sport came up.

She said: “When the job as the specialist sports teacher was offered to me, I couldn’t believe it.”

The job means she teaches PE to every class at the school.

To achieve this, she did a number of courses run by the Colchester and Blackwater Schools Partnership, which has recently been saved by a Government U-turn on funding.

She has attended all the courses on offer, including tennis, tag rugby, netball, athletics and gymnastics, meaning she has been able to increase the number of after-school classes.

More than 90 pupils now regularly attend after-school clubs.

Mrs Keogan also regularly organises aerobic classes at play time and is in the process of organising a skipathon to raise schools funds in May.

As a result of all their hard work, Mrs Keogan and the school were nominated for a Colchester Sport Award by Dave Hinchcliffe, school sports co-ordinator for the Colchester and Blackwater School Partnership. They received a commendation.

The school has also forged links with Kingsford Infants School, in Gloucester Avenue, Colchester, and meets regularly on alternate school sites to take part in competitive sporting fixtures.

She said: “We have clubs for Years 1 and 2, but I am really hoping we will be able to offer them for the reception class soon.

“I would say it has definitely helped children get into sport having one specialist teacher, because they know when I come into the room that they will be having a PE lesson and, generally, they respond really well to that.

“It is important for the children they value outside activities.”

Headteacher Sally Leung is in no doubt about the benefits having a specialist teacher has brought.

She said: “I am not really sporty myself, but obviously I have taught sport when it has been needed.

“But it is much better to have someone who really loves it teaching it to the children, and that frees up the other teachers to develop their own subject areas and support each other. The benefits are immense.

“There are specialist sports teachers in secondary schools, so I can’t understand why we would not have them in primary schools.”