Physical Education

We firmly believe that our children should be empowered to make healthy lifestyle choices and maximise opportunities to encourage children to take part in physical activities. PE is taught twice a week; once by the class teacher and once by a qualified PPA sports teacher. All children in Year 4 have a term’s swimming tuition taught by qualified swimming teachers at our local pool. We also run a range of free before and after-school sports clubs – see our clubs page for full details – and participate in a range of local tournaments and sports workshops, ensuring that as many pupils as possible are chosen to take part. We are fortunate to have access to specialist Sports Coaches to allow our children to experience a range of unique sporting activities, which have included tennis, cricket and lacrosse in recent months. We also have strong links to the local community and host after-school football and dance clubs (fees apply). Our grounds include an orienteering course, full 200m running track and a daily mile track. Teachers also offer active brain breaks in class.

We are delighted that our commitment has been recognised through the award of the School Games Platinum Award.

PE Curriculum Intent

In terms of DELIVERING EQUITY, we envisage by the end of Year 6 that our pupils will enjoy communicating, collaborating and competing in a variety of physical activities. Our pupils will develop their ‘thinking physical being’ (brain) ‘doing physical being’ (body) and ‘behavioural change physical being’ (heart). Most importantly, they will understand the positive effects of physical activity on their wellbeing and leading healthy active lives through making informed choices. Our pupils recognise the benefits of physical activity and understand how to improve in different physical activities and sports. They are receptive to exploring a variety of physical activities and sports and recognise the cultural and social significance that sports play in many people’s lives.

Progressive layering of knowledge, embedded in long-term memory, scaffolds pupils to:

Understand how the body moves, developing and improving key fundamental movement skills
Link and apply key fundamental movement skills in a variety of games
Learn to follow rules of games and be a good sportsperson
Understand the effect being active has on the body
Develop understanding of the impact of good healthy active lifestyle choices on their physical and mental wellbeing

Application of Conceptual Understanding – occurs when new information and ideas are incorporated into pupils’ existing knowledge through:

Recognising that our bodies are different from one another and move differently
Developing fundamental movement skills, which support physical growth and opens more opportunities to participate in a variety of physical activities
Understanding how making good food choices and being active, supports our long-term health
Making comparisons between different physical activities
Developing an appreciation of sport role models and the impact they have on our lives today
Challenging stereotypes in sport
Understanding that rules need to be followed in games for fairness, equality, equity, safety and enjoyment

PE Curriculum Implementation

To achieve our intent, our PE curriculum will provide the following:

All PE learning will be linked to prior learning – rewinding previous week’s, previous term and previous year’s learning
Skills and vocabulary are rehearsed and repeated every lesson during ‘learning rewind’
When relevant, PE will be linked to other areas of the curriculum and used to inspire, engage and ignite curiosity. Links can be made in English, Maths, Science, PSHE and Geography when purposeful resulting in our curriculum being cross curricular
A pre-assessment will be carried out to see what the pupils already know about the current subject.
Physical Education is taught through key programs of study-dance, gymnastics, OAA, swimming, hit/run/catch, attack/defend/shoot, run/jump/throw and send/return. PE Hub is used to support planning and teaching of PE lessons.
A post assessment will be carried out to check pupil’s understanding of their unit of PE, through playing competitive games or performing a sequence.
PE curriculum is accessible for all, and when necessary, teachers adapt the lesson to ensure all pupils make progress
Year 4 pupils have 10 weeks of swimming lessons at a local pool.
Water safety is taught in EYFS, year 2, year 4 and year 6 explicitly as part of their topic/PSHE lessons.

Our PE Curriculum Map includes:

A progressive, sequential journey of knowledge, skills and concepts from EYFS to Year 6, encompassing the depth and breadth of the PE curriculum
Immersion in a variety of physical activities
Opportunities to address potential cultural capital disadvantage
A focus on subject specific vocabulary to equip children with the language to describe their body, how it moves, and effects physical activity has, with precision and confidence
Key outcomes, described as ‘sticky knowledge,’ which form the foundation of prior and subsequent learning
Higher order, subject-specific questions to assess knowledge and understanding
Enhanced learning through visiting experts
Adapted learning and teaching to support those with additional needs through the pre-teaching of PE vocabulary, the use of observing, copying and repeating and refining skills
Targeted support for children with additional needs including peer collaboration, adapting the lesson through space, task, equipment and people
Adapted learning and teaching to challenge all pupils to understand concepts on a deeper level such as why it is important to make good choices for an active and healthy lifestyle
Application of knowledge to make comparisons of a variety of physical activities and apply their understanding/skills to game/performance situations
Learning opportunities that encourage children to develop a genuine interest in and appreciation for being active, watching and participating in a variety of physical activities for life

PE Curriculum Impact

Our PE curriculum will achieve the following:

Pupils enjoy learning fundamental movement skills through a variety of games and activities
They discuss knowledge and concepts they have learned confidently, enthusiastically and passionately during and crucially after their learning
Pupils will be able to recall and use PE subject specific vocabulary accurately
Pupils can talk confidently about what they enjoy about physical activity, what went well and ways to make their performance even better
Pupils will have the opportunity to participate in a variety of physical activities, inter/intra competitions
Pupils will be able to swim and know how to be safe in and around water
Pupils will have the knowledge to make good choices about leading an active and healthy lifestyle
Pupils will have opportunities to participate in a variety of extracurricular clubs
Pupils will have the confidence to try out new physical activities