Physical Education Subject Statement

 

Perseverance  – We encourage our children to show determination in physical activity, understanding that practice, effort and resilience help them develop new skills and improve their performance.

Ambition – We promote high expectations for all our children, celebrating effort and progress while encouraging children to challenge themselves and develop confidence in their physical abilities.

Curiosity – Our curriculum inspires children to explore a wide range of sports, skills and movement, helping them discover new interests and understand how their bodies move and work.

Kindness – We foster a supportive and inclusive environment where children work as a team, respect others and demonstrate fairness and sportsmanship in all activities

 

Curriculum Intent

At St John’s Primary School, Physical Education (PE) is an inclusive subject where all children are encouraged to challenge themselves to achieve their personal best. We offer an exciting, challenging and well-structured curriculum in which children can discover all that is good about sport and being active. We believe that PE experienced in a safe and supportive environment is essential to ensure children attain optimum physical and emotional development and good health

Children learn a full range of sports during their time at St John’s Primary School; our coaching and teaching enables them to develop the knowledge, skills and confidence to make good progress and in some cases, excel. Sports and activities that we teach include hockey, netball, tennis, athletics, football, tag rugby, gymnastics, dance, fitness, cricket, swimming and rounders.

 

Curriculum Implementation

We teach children how to be part of an effective team by focusing on communication and respect. These values are practised when engaging in competitive sports tournaments and festivals both in and out of school. Our children are taught to approach problems within the activities with an open mind. Children engage in competitive and co-operative physical activity in a range of challenging situations. They evaluate and recognise their own successes and understand how to achieve in different activities.

We aim for all our children to make informed decisions to lead healthy and active lives which impact positively on their bodies and minds. Supported by the ‘Get Set 4 Education’ PE schemes of work, which provides clear progression of key skills and understanding of the National Curriculum, staff deliver high-quality teaching and learning that encourages children to fulfil their potential.

The long-term plan sets out the PE units which are to be taught throughout the year and ensures that the requirements of the National Curriculum are fully met. Children participate in two PE lessons each week, covering two sporting disciplines every half term. For Year 5 children, this includes 10 weekly swimming lessons with professional swimming teachers.

Links with Wallingford School Sports Partnership

St John’s Primary School is committed to developing sport across the Wallingford School Sports Partnership. In addition to participating in a number of partnership competitions (including KS1 multi-skills and football, LKS2 football, netball and tag rugby, and UKS2 mixed football, girls’ football, netball, hockey, sports hall athletics, tag rugby and cricket), we have forged meaningful links with local sports clubs.

We join with Wallingford Rugby Club to host two partnership tag rugby tournaments, in addition to receiving supplementary coaching sessions with the club coaches. We also have close links with cricket and tennis clubs who deliver coaching sessions at our school.

Core to our PE long-term planning and delivery across the year is the need to align our units with the sporting competition calendar so that children are sufficiently skilled and ready to test themselves both technically and tactically in a competitive environment.

School Clubs

Our children are encouraged to participate in the varied range of extra-curricular activities and St John’s runs a number of sports clubs across the academic year, which are led by both external coaches and school staff. These include:

• Tennis
• Cricket
• Football
• Netball 

 

Curriculum Impact

Assessment of children’s learning in PE is carried out by class teachers through ongoing monitoring of the development of the children’s understanding, knowledge and skills during their weekly lessons. Swimming assessment is carried out by the swimming teachers. The outcomes of these assessment processes are then used for end of year reporting purposes.

We believe that the impact of our PE lessons is that: children learn to take responsibility for their own health and fitness; they understand how to lead a healthy lifestyle and the importance of exercise; they enjoy PE and develop a love of sport, and physical activity, that they can pursue outside of school and in future life outside of primary school. It is our aim that our children will grow up to live happy and healthy lives, utilising the skills and knowledge acquired through PE.