PE
“Learning for life”
PE Curriculum
Intent:
At Thornton Hough Primary School, we value the importance of PE and the role it has to play in promoting long term, healthy lifestyles which our children will continue throughout their lives. The value we place upon PE and school sport is reflected in the time dedicated to it within the school day and beyond.
The intent of our PE curriculum is to provide all children with high quality PE lessons, sporting activities and extra-curricular opportunities. It is our vision for every pupil to develop skills and knowledge so that they can go on to lead physically active lifestyles. We strive to inspire our pupils through fun and engaging PE lessons, that are active, enjoyable, challenging and accessible to all.
We aim to shape our children into healthy, social and active young people.
- We intend to build the skills, knowledge and confidence of our children for activity and sport.
- We will allow our children to learn about themselves, the importance of a healthy, active lifestyle, self-expression and concepts such as fair play and respect.
- We will develop a range of important cognitive skills, such as decision making and analysis, and social skills such as teamwork and communication.
- We will support our children to develop their character and independence – and knowing how to keep physically and mentally healthy.
We want our pupils to understand and adopt the benefits of a healthy and physically active lifestyle, that explicitly promotes the link between physical and mental health. Through our teaching of PE, we provide opportunities for pupils to develop values and transferrable life skills such as fairness and respect. In addition, we provide them with opportunities to take part in competitive sport and to explore a wide range of activities.
Additionally, we want our children to leave primary school with essential life skills that will keep them safe. Ensuring that our children meet the required standard in swimming is vitally important to us, especially as we are located on a peninsular. Teaching children to safely ride a bike on roads is another essential skill for our children.
Implementation:
Our Long Term Plan for PE covers all aspects of the National Curriculum and incorporates a wide spectrum of activities for the children to experience over the course of their school journey. These include: Dance, Fitness, Gymnastics, Games, Swimming, Athletics and Outdoor Adventurous Activities. Our Long Term Plan is based on teaching skills, rather than sports, to ensure that children are learning and developing their physical, social and emotional skills. Our plans follow a clear progression of skills which children learn, develop and hopefully master over the years. In the early years of schooling, our children start to master the fundamental skills of movement before the introduction to more complex skills, which might involve multiple pieces of equipment and/or rules.
The village green, village hall, local sports centres and outdoor activity centres provide us with access to specialist facilities to deliver the PE curriculum. This allows pupils the experience of participating and competing in a variety of activities at purpose built venues. These experiences often encourage children to go on to join their local sports clubs, where they further develop their skills and passion for the sport.
‘Healthy Minds and Healthy Bodies’ sessions are delivered to all Key Stage 2 pupils by a specialist teacher and the class teacher. The benefits of having an active lifestyle and the link between physical and mental health are taught during these lessons. The children reflect on how exercise makes them feel and the positive effect in can have on their own mental health. The children participate in guided meditation which teaches them how to relax both the mind and body.
Specialist sports coaches provide fitness classes at lunchtime which all children participate in regularly. The aim of these sessions are for the children to have fun with their peers, whilst being extremely active. A mix of competitive and non-competitive games, and individual and team activities, ensure motivation is maintained.
A wide range of extra-curricular sports clubs are delivered throughout the year by experienced and specialist coaches or teachers. These clubs provide the children with additional opportunities to be active and to try out different activities and sports. Some clubs, such as Judo, run each year to allow children to progress through the levels and build on previously taught skills.
We frequently attend inter-school competitions across the Borough and wherever possible take multiple teams in order to provide opportunities for children to participate at different levels. Intra-school competitions are provided for all children in a variety of events, such as Athletics, Rounders, Netball, Tag Rugby and Disability Sports.
All Key Stage 2 children attend swimming lessons so that they can meet the expected National Curriculum standard. Once children have achieved this, they continue to attend so that they can improve their stamina and progress to learning water safety and lifesaving skills. All of our children are encouraged to learn to ride a bike. Before leaving primary school, the children undertake a ‘Bikeability’ course, where they are taught essential bike riding skills and road safety.
Impact:
Through following a clear and comprehensive scheme of work, that is in line with the National Curriculum, teaching and learning shows progression across each year group within the areas of PE. Consequently, children will achieve age related expectations in PE. It is our aim that children will learn fundamental skills that are developed and applied to different sports as they progress through the school.
The impact of the curriculum is monitored in several different ways to ensure that pupils all access an engaging, active PE curriculum. Assessment outcomes, planning for progression, discussions with teachers and sports coaches and pupil opinions are used to inform the quality of learning and understanding that pupils have gained. This ensures all pupils value the importance of PE and leading physically active lifestyles.
By the time children leave Thornton Hough Primary School, it is hoped that they will have developed a passion for PE and sport and have a clear understanding of the importance of living physically active and healthy lifestyles. The children will have developed a vast array of physical skills which they can apply to different sporting situations. They will be able to analyse their own and others’ performances in creative areas such as dance and gymnastics, and in both attacking and defensive play. The children will be able to articulate why physical activity is essential in keeping physically and mentally healthy. Our children will actively seek opportunities to help each other, whether that’s as part of a team or helping another individual. The children will enjoy being physically active and accepting of challenge. They will have experienced many different sporting opportunities and will have an understanding of the sports and physical activities that they enjoy participating in. They will be looking forward to further opportunities at secondary school after being inspired through their primary school experiences.
