PE
At St. Paul's, we recognise the vital contribution of physical education to a child’s physical, cognitive, social and emotional development as well as the role it can play in a child’s spiritual, moral and cultural development.
We will aim to provide a broad and balanced P.E. curriculum to aid children’s increasing self-confidence in their ability to manage themselves and their bodies within a variety of movement situations. We will achieve this through the effective teaching and learning of the knowledge skills and understanding of Physical Education. We will use the Lancashire County Council guidelines as the basis for our scheme of work and we will make meaningful links with the other subjects of the curriculum. Our aim is to foster an enthusiasm and awareness about how their bodies work and the techniques they can use to improve their physical development through sport.
With our P.E. curriculum we look to embody our vision and values:
Learning Together Following Jesus
“Whatever you do, work at it with all of your heart.”
Striving to be the best we can be physically and mentally.
INTENT
Physical development:
• To develop physical competence and confidence by acquiring and developing a range of fine and gross motor skills.
• To be aware of the different shapes and movements that can be made with the body.
• To develop knowledge, skills and understanding, and the ability to remember, repeat and refine actions with increasing control and accuracy.
• To promote fitness and a healthy lifestyle by understanding the effects of exercise on the body and the importance of developing strength, endurance and flexibility
• To appreciate the value of safe exercising.
Social and emotional development:
• To develop a love of physical exercise.
• To develop the ability to work independently and communicate with, and respond appropriately towards others using verbal and non-verbal communication.
• To develop confidence in their own skills and abilities.
• To promote an understanding of safe practice, and develop a sense of responsibility towards the safety of themselves and others.
• To realise that the right exercise for you can be fun and will give you energy for other things in life.
• To create and plan games and teach them to one another.
• To develop a sense of fair play.
Cognitive development:
• To develop decision making and problem-solving skills.
• To develop reasoning skills and the ability to make judgements.
• To develop an increasing ability to select, link and apply skills, tactics and compositional ideas.
• To develop the ability to communicate non-verbally with the body
• To improve observational skills, the ability to describe and make simple judgements on their own and others’ work, and to use this knowledge and understanding to improve their own performance.
• To understand that using the correct technique will improve accuracy and individual performance.
• To be able to evaluate performance and act upon constructive criticism.
IMPLEMENTATION
In the Reception Class (EYFS), opportunities are provide for children to be active and to develop their co-ordination, control and movement through moving and handling activities which involve the use of a range of equipment and involve different spatial experiences. Structured lessons and opportunities for outdoor physical activity amount to at least two hours each week.
Pupils in both KS1 and KS2 engage in two hours of high quality PE during the course of each week. In KS1 the curriculum focuses on fundamental movement skills to develop agility, balance and co-ordination. Curriculum content includes ball skills and team games, gymnastic and dance activities. At KS2 pupils continue to apply and develop a range of skills and units of work include a range of invasion, net / wall, and fielding and striking games, gymnastics, dance, athletics and swimming. We also enrich children’s experiences through opportunities for outdoor and adventurous activities.
Where relevant, links will be made with other areas of the curriculum. Children will be encouraged to create their own games and activities and to make rules and instructions for how to play these.
A range of resources are used to support progression across the curriculum including: TOP sport resources, the LCC PE Scheme (delivered through the PE Passport app) and sport specific programmes introduced via specialist coaches from the Chorley Schools Sports Partnership. These sessions also provide professional development for the teaching staff developing their knowledge and skills in delivering high quality PE lessons.
It is a national requirement that all children should swim 25m (unaided) by the end of Year 6. Therefore, swimming lessons are compulsory for all children. At St.Paul’s, children attend swimming lessons in Year 3 at All Seasons Leisure Centre with fully qualified swimming instructors. Children in Y6 are provided with the opportunity to take part in Top Up Swimming to ensure they meet the national requirement at the end of Key Stage 2.
Our extra-curricular programme compliments and supplements the range of activities covered in curriculum time. We follow a range of inter-school fixtures, tournaments and festivals, liaising with Chorley Sports Partnership and our staff also run extra curricular clubs for the children.
Lunch time play activities are supported by Skillwise, an outside agency, to provide positive, healthy lunchtimes across the whole school on rotation. Play leaders (PALS) are timetabled from Year 5 children to offer structured play with KS1 children.
Focus is on increasing the physical activity of all children in the school and introducing movement into lessons as part of the activity and as ‘active minutes’ to minimise periods of inactivity and also providing children with positive playtimes. As a school, we also have introduced regular activities to promote and support children's mental health throughout the school day.
IMPACT
Physical Education will be fun at St. Paul’s, we believe PE to be an integral and vital part of the curriculum to be enjoyed by all children. Our children are given the opportunities to increase
self-confidence in their ability to manage themselves and their bodies within a
variety of movement situations and develop fundemental skills and knowledge in physical and health education. Our Christian values that underpin our school and its beliefs are lived out in action through our PE curriculum.