Intent

In Physical Education we aim for all of our children to see themselves as healthy individuals both in body and mind. We endeavour to inspire a sense of responsibility in our children to ensure they understand what it is to be healthy and develop their enthusiasm for Physical Education, recognising that the skills and knowledge they learn through Physical Education can be used to have a positive impact on themselves and God’s world around them.
 

To be able to see themselves as healthy and active individuals, children will need to build up the skills, knowledge and understanding to enable them to be healthy and active and know how they can maintain this. They will need to understand and use the language of Physical Education and apply the discrete skills learnt and knowledge obtained across the curriculum, making connections both within Physical Education and across other subjects too.
 

To see themselves as healthy and active individuals children need a high-quality physical education curriculum which inspires all pupils to succeed and excel in competitive sport and other physically-demanding activities. It should provide opportunities for pupils to become physically confident in a way which supports their health and fitness. Opportunities to compete in sport and other activities build character and help to embed values such as fairness and respect. 
 

Implementation

The aims of the National Curriculum (2014) for Physical Education are:

•    To develop competence to excel in a broad range of physical activities 
•    To be physically active for sustained periods of time
•    To engage in competitive sports and activities 
•    To lead healthy, active lives

The National Curriculum is the part of the St Gregory’s curriculum that maps out the knowledge and skills that we want our children to learn and experience in each subject. 
 

How we plan for progression in Physical Education at St Gregory’s:
The St Gregory’s Curriculum is designed around year group themes. Each has been structured and sequenced in order to engage pupils in purposeful learning by building on prior knowledge and helping connect knowledge, understanding and skills year-on-year both within Physical Education and across other subjects too.
 

Physical Education teaches skills and vocabulary that are built on year on year. Children are encouraged to become secure in their fundamental movements within KS1 before moving into team games and sports specific rules in KS2.  Planning takes into consideration the time of year in which sports are taught, for example cricket being taught in the Summer term and gymnastics during the Autumn term.
 

Physical Education is taught for 4 hours per fortnight for every year group. PE is delivered in two ways.  We follow a scheme of work from The PE Hub (2 hours) that teachers lead. This allows teachers to follow a set lesson plan with focus on vocabulary and mastering skills. The other 2 hours are delivered in collaboration with Montagu Academy, specialist coaches who support teachers with their PE delivery whilst teaching children transferable skills across sports with similar skill sets supporting our school approach of building skills in metacognition and muscle memory.  This model of specialist support allows for teachers to have fortnightly CPD in coaching and support in talent identification giving access to additional programmes for children who have higher level transferable PE skills in addition to what the school is solely able to offer.  The class teacher then repeats this coaching session without specialist support to help their own professional development and enable retrieval of skills and knowledge soon after they’ve initially been taught.
 

We recognise that foundations for becoming a healthy and active individual are laid in the Early Years Foundation Stage through all seven strands of the Early Years Framework and especially through Physical Development (PD) and Personal, Social, Emotional Development (PSED). To be ready for the next stage in their education, the starting point that we strive for every child to have upon entry to Y1 and working towards the aims of the National Curriculum is:
 

Once children enter Y1, they work progressively towards the aims of the National Curriculum.  To ensure progression, the teaching team worked together to plan out curriculum coverage and then the subject leader identified the progression of skills and vocabulary required at each stage of learning to prepare children for the next stage in their learning.

Physical Education Curriculum 
Coverage is based on the National Curriculum 2014 Programme of Study with objectives allocated across phases and year groups to ensure a progression of knowledge, skills and understanding.  For example, there is a strong focus on fundamental movements and simple movement patterns within KS1.
 

The Curriculum Overview Map allows for children to constantly build on previous learning through the transfer of skills across many different sports. Mastery of body management and fundamentals, underpins the whole of our PE delivery and once this has been achieved, it allows for children to make rapid and sustained progress through the introduction of team games and further skill development.

See PE vision for more information
 

PE and Sport Provision

At our school we strongly believe that physical education (PE) is part of every child’s entitlement to a good education. We actively encourage PE, sport and physical activity as a channel through which learning can be enhanced and enjoyed. It is unique in that it is taught through physical activity in weekly practical lessons both indoors and outdoors, in a wide range of physical, creative and aesthetic settings. It provides pupils with the generic skills, knowledge and understanding they need to become physically literate and at the same time gives most of them their first regular experiences of sport. When taught well, physical education enthuses and inspires pupils to participate fully and develop a life-long love of physical activity, sport and exercise.

Current Provision

We are proud of the current PE curriculum provision at our school and of the wealth of extra-curricular opportunities that we provide for our pupils. All children have access to at least two hours of high quality PE, sport and physical activity provision each week, with a good balance of games, gymnastics, swimming, dance and athletic activities. Sporting clubs include; Street Dance, Football, Kwik Cricket, Hockey, Netball, Athletics, Multi-Skills, Running, Gymnastics, Dodgeball, Kinball, Tag Rugby and Yoga, all of which provide the children with opportunities to share their talents and represent our school.

Commitment & Development

For the past four years, our school has also been awarded the ‘Platinum’ School Games Kitemark for our commitment to and development of competition, school sport and physical education. We were required to fulfil prerequisite criteria and written submission based on our dedication to engaging all children in physical activity. Last year we achieved a incredible 80% participation in extra curricular events and clubs.  We have an active School Sports Organising Committee who plan, lead and officiate within our school.  This committee helps to plan, deliver and officiate our School Games Day, and also organise lunchtime activities for our KS1 pupils.  An example of the impact that this committee has had, is that they wanted to maximise all opportunities within the school day and from this we now have before school, after school and lunch time sports clubs.  

We were very proud that we were one of only 104 schools nationally who were invited to apply for the Platinum Award and achieve it.  To be able to get this we have now started to take our commitment to health and well-being outside of our own school and into the community, working with our parents and families even more to make sure changes we're making to our lifestyles are more sustainable.

Both intra-school and inter-school competitions also feature in our school sporting calendar including, Football, Hockey, Swimming, Rounders, Athletics and Cross Country as well as our yearly School Games Day. In addition to this we attend the Cheltenham and District Schools Athletics Competition with our KS2 pupils, Netball league, the annual Albert Dix football competition and our school sports teams also take part in regular fixtures with other local primary schools.

Useful Information