Physical Education
Intent
In PE, curriculum units have been chosen with the intention of providing a range of opportunities to participate in competitive sport and other physically demanding activities, to inspire competitiveness and attitudes of fairness and respect, and to ensure each child is physically active for a sustained period of time- to help keep them healthy and active. It is also the aim that each unit shows a clear progression of skills that are developed as children move up year groups and key stages.
We aim to develop our children’s physical development with diverse, engaging and practical P.E. teaching. Our exciting curriculum focuses on the progression of core skills, which enables our children to confidently access the different sports that the school provides in lessons, clubs and in teams. This begins in reception with basic ball and catching skills all the way to Year 6 where students are focusing on the core skills of football, hockey, netball, rounders, tag rugby, cricket and OAA. Gymnastics and dance curriculum targets focus on starting to develop children’s balance, flexibility and controlled coordination, with a varied selection of activities included such as yoga to inspire the children and keep activities contemporary.
Furthermore, the variety of indoor and outdoor PE lessons are created to nurture, develop and enhance the skills of all our children in line with their interests and targeted skills.
The National Curriculum states:
A high-quality physical education curriculum 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
Early Years and Key Stages 1
All children across the school have 2 hours of PE per week and 3 weekly slots on the running track. In Early Years and Key Stage 1, our focus is on children developing their core skills such as; movement, agility, balance, throwing, catching and coordination. Also, they are introduced to competitive and co-operative physical activities which will increase in challenge as they progress through their school career. They develop their concept of invasion games with basic tactics so there is an element of competitiveness while emphasising the importance of improving coordination and balance- bouncing and catching balls with increasing accuracy so they can develop these skills in preparation for KS2 and beyond. This is also a focus with other striking/fielding and net games such as tennis where hand-eye coordination is developed.
Gymnastics and dance curriculum targets focus on starting to develop children’s balance, flexibility and controlled coordination, with a varied selection of activities such as yoga to inspire the children and keep activities contemporary.
Key Stage 2
In Key Stage 2, children continue to be exposed to an increasing level of competitiveness through the choice of PE topics in each unit and this is further reinforced with the variety of team, festival and tournament opportunities children can participate in allowing our children to employ their skills in discipline specific scenarios and competitively against other schools in the County. Each activity type is also covered through different sports and activities in lessons, with unit targets showing a clear progression in skills from Year 3 to year 6.
Impact
By the end of their time at William Cobbett, our children will be able to:
- use running, jumping, throwing and catching in isolation and in combination
- play competitive games, modified where appropriate [for example, badminton, basketball, cricket, football, hockey, netball, rounders and tennis], and apply basic principles suitable for attacking and defending
- develop flexibility, strength, technique, control and balance [for example, through athletics and gymnastics]
- perform dances using a range of movement patterns
- take part in outdoor and adventurous activity challenges both individually and within a team
- compare their performances with previous ones and demonstrate improvement to achieve their personal best
- swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres
- use a range of strokes effectively [for example, front crawl, backstroke and breaststroke
- perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations.
The school competes in a range of competitions including football, rugby, athletics, swimming, netball, gymnastics and cricket. The school hold several intra-sport tournaments including a cross-country race, endball and football tournament as well as all competing in Sports Day. We have Sport Leaders who lead different sporting activities at lunchtime as well as design activities and lead on sports day both in EYFS, KS1 and KS2. The school holds a successful healthy school initiative ‘Run to Qatar’. We also have sports afternoons for Years 2 & 3. Pupils will leave William Cobbett with a varied skillset, confidence in a variety of sports and a body of competitive experiences to take to their next school.
Useful Websites
Primary PE Activities - Youth Sport Trust
Back to School: Ten Free PE Activities and Ideas for Parents (twinkl.co.uk)
