Intent
Here at St Thomas of Canterbury, we aim to inspire all of our children to develop a love of physical activity and sport. By engaging with Physical Education that is built around our school values and a whole child approach, we aim to nurture resilient children who will strive towards reaching their personal bests not only in PE, but across the wider curriculum.
We listen to our children’s wants and needs and provide them with a range of active experiences and clubs. We want to aid our children in obtaining the values and skills needed to celebrate and respect the success of others, as well as modestly celebrate their own. We aim to ensure that all students leave our school possessing the skills, motivation and knowledge needed to enjoy a lifelong engagement with sport and physical activity. We trust that our broad and innovative PE curriculum will allow students to develop their love of movement and sport well beyond their time with us. Our pedagogy is supported by a curriculum that will enable pupils to learn within a coherent and progressive framework, develop new and existing skills through a variety of sports, and develop a rich and deep subject knowledge by exploring the breadth and depth of the National Curriculum. We strive to educate both our children and families to develop a greater understanding of how to live healthy lifestyles and make healthy choices. We are dedicated to ensuring healthy minds, as well as bodies and will continue to support our children's well-being.
Our weekly PE sessions are inclusive and encourage children to compete against themselves and others whilst being challenged to improve their physical, social, emotional and thinking skills. These skills are embedded at the heart of our planning.
Our objectives in the teaching of PE align with the National Curriculum in that we aim to ensure all pupils:
- Excel in a broad range of physical activities,
- Are physically active for sustained periods of time,
- Engage in competitive sports and activities,
- Lead healthy, active lives.
Implementation
At St Thomas of Canterbury, the delivery of PE is implemented via our subscription to ‘Get Set 4 PE’. This platform allows us to plan with a careful consideration of the aims of the National Curriculum and instils a whole child approach. Ultimately, this enables us to ensure that our children are given a wealth of opportunities to develop their physical skills. Each lesson plan has progressive activities that are designed to inspire and engage our pupils, allowing them to explore and develop skills and embed knowledge. Each lesson is accompanied by supporting resources including resource cards, skills videos and music. Teaching points appear throughout to help support our teachers with their subject knowledge and differentiation tasks provide activities with simple changes to appropriately challenge all pupils.
Progression is inbuilt into our long-term planning to ensure that our children are increasingly challenged as they move up through the school. Our curriculum planning in PE is carried out in three phases (long-term, medium-term and short-term). The long-term plan maps out all activities covered in every term, for each Key Stage. The PE subject leader works this out in conjunction with all teaching colleagues. Together, we create a broad and balanced curriculum that is exciting for our children to learn through. Our medium-term plans differ in that they outline the details of each unit of work, for each term. These plans provide an overview of the skills that need to be covered and assessment criteria to run alongside this. Lastly, the short-term lesson plans provide opportunities for children of all abilities to develop their skills, knowledge and understanding following the STEP principle.
This year we have re-subscribed to the Howard School Sports Partnership (HSSP). The HSSP provides us with a needs led service to help enable our children to become the best that they can be. They support us with extracurricular provision and Young Leaders Playground Training. Via the HSSP, we take part in the Mini Youth Games, a competition and sports participation series available to all Medway Primary Schools. Each competition is available to children in Years 5 and 6. By taking partaking in the MYG and sports days, we hope to increase pupil engagement and develop an excitement around sport.
We also work in partnership with Strive PE and Sport, who support our delivery of the curriculum and provide extra-curricular clubs. They are supportive of our intent and continue to boost children’s participation in extra-curricular sport across the school.
During KS2, our children also take part in a series of structured swimming sessions with teaching staff and offsite instructors.
EYFS
Physical Development is of integral importance for our children across the Foundation Stage. Following the objectives set out by the Early Learning Goals, we aim to encourage our children to develop confidence and control over the way they move and handle equipment. With these goals in mind, we underpin our curriculum planning for children aged three to five years with opportunities for appropriate physical challenge both indoors and outdoors, using a wide range of resources to support skill development and progression.
Impact
Our children leave us at the end of Year 6, with:
- The ability to swim at least 25 metres and knowledge of how to remain safe around water.
- A good foundation of Physical Education to take into secondary school.
- Good levels of physical fitness.
- The ability to take the initiative and become excellent young leaders.
- A highly positive attitude towards Physical Education.