Intent:
At St Cuthbert’s Catholic Primary School, we believe that physical education, experienced in a safe and supportive environment is a unique and vital contributor to a child’s physical development and wellbeing. A broad and balanced physical education curriculum is intended to provide for children’ increasing self-confidence in their ability to manage themselves and their bodies within a variety of movement situations.
At St Cuthbert’s Catholic Primary School, we believe physical education should be an area of learning where self-esteem, physical progression and positive attitudes are fostered and nurtured. Physical Education provides all children with the opportunity to succeed, whether through personal or team success. Physical Education also promotes a healthy lifestyle which children can develop and value into adulthood.
Aims of our P.E Curriculum:
- Foster a love for and enjoyment of being active.
- Develop ‘fitness for life’ through promoting the health benefits of regular exercise.
- Identify talents
- Develop self-esteem, confidence and social skills.
- Contribute to the physical development of every child.
- Give children a way of expressing themselves and an opportunity to be creative.
- Develop a range of skills that can be applied in other contexts.
- Give children the opportunity to try out activities that they would not otherwise have access to.
Implementation:
We have used the best research to create a well sequenced and progressive curriculum map containing the key concepts children need to be procedurally fluent in to work and think like sporting professionals.
The key concepts in P.E we plan a progression for are as follows:
- Physical skills
- Thinking skills
- Personal skills
- Health skills
At St Cuthbert’s Catholic Primary School, children are encouraged to evaluate their own work as well as the work of other children. Within lessons children have the opportunity both to collaborate and compete with each other, and they have the opportunity to use a wide range of resources.
At St Cuthbert’s Catholic Primary School, every lesson should be focused around a clear learning objective and a broken-down success criterion, to explain ‘how’ the learners will achieve their learning objective. Learners should be made aware of this at the start of each lesson and review their learning at the end of each lesson.
At St Cuthbert’s Catholic Primary School, activities should be differentiated, appropriate to the needs and ranging abilities of the class. Each lesson must have a planned extension activity, to extend the lesson’s learning objective, where appropriate for the more able children.
At St Cuthbert’s Catholic Primary School, dialogue and demonstration should be used as teaching tools throughout all lessons. Particular skills should be modelled and discussed. Plenaries (mini-plenaries) should be used to highlight good practice and next steps in their learning.
Teaching Styles
At St Cuthbert’s Catholic Primary School, we use a variety of teaching and learning styles which involve a mixture of whole-class, group and individual activities. At St Cuthbert’s Catholic Primary School, teachers (and peers) model good skills and technique and also draw attention to good examples of individual performance to use as models for the other children.
At St Cuthbert’s Catholic Primary School, PE actively promoting the skills of teambuilding, physical, social and emotional wellbeing, Maths and speaking and listening.
Impact:
At St Cuthbert’s Catholic Primary School, inclusion in physical activities means that all children have access to learning opportunities regardless of race, gender and ability. We aim to create an environment in which all children learn to respect and value each other and each other's interests. This is achieved by employing the following strategies:
- Having equal expectations of boys and girls – not letting girls opt out or boys dominate team organisation for example.
- Teaching mixed gender/ability groups and pairs.
- Structuring activities so that all are fully involved.
- Providing opportunities for children to present their work to others.
- Recognising the need to extend more able children and targeting them for school clubs/signposting to borough clubs.
- Anticipate needs and provide support as required. This could be the provision of specialist equipment, adult support or modified teaching programmes.
- Targeting particular children during playtimes and supporting them in physical play.
We believe that if children have become knowledgeable PE participants, then they will be able to articulate their understanding with confidence. Hopefully leading to lifelong participation. This is why pupil voice is an important tool in assessing whether children have made progress. If a child is able to confidently formulate and explain their own responses to an overarching enquiry, then the curriculum and its delivery have been successful. The work produced by our children and the discussions they have, should demonstrate that they are equipped with the PE related skills and knowledge that will enable them to be ready for the secondary curriculum and for life as an adult.