PE at St Charles’ Catholic Primary School 

At St Charles’ Catholic Primary School we believe that Physical Education and Sport have a vital role to play in the physical, social, emotional and intellectual development of children. Physical Education and Sport are important in giving children the knowledge, understanding and the tools to make informed choices about healthy living and have a positive impact on their own health and well- being.

Intent

Our curriculum aims to improve the physical and mental wellbeing and fitness, of all children, not only through the sporting skills taught, but through the underpinning values and disciplines PE promotes.

We want to equip them with not only the minimum statutory requirements of the Physical Education National Curriculum but to prepare them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life. We aim to equip our pupils with a multitude of sports-specific skills including attacking, defending and tactical awareness which can be carried through their sporting journeys. We have high expectations of our pupils and seek to provide them with an extensive range of sporting opportunities throughout their time in our school. By educating children how, not only to keep active, but also how to eat a well -balanced diet is key to setting a strong foundation for a healthy future lifestyle.

We aim to do this by ensuring that all pupils:

• Develop competence to excel in a broad range of physical activities.
• Are physically active for sustained periods of time.
• Engage in competitive sports and activities.
• Lead healthy, active lives.

In line with all areas of our curriculum, we have high expectations for all children to achieve their potential in PE, regardless of their starting points. The PE curriculum and assessment system at St Charles’ is developed to ensure that we motivate pupils, monitor progress and achieve consistently high standards. We aim to deliver high-quality physical activity and learning opportunities that inspire all children to succeed in all aspects of physical education. We want to teach children how to cooperate and collaborate with others, as part of a team, understanding fairness and equity of play to embed life-long values.

Implementation

In summer term, an audit of the PE curriculum was conducted. On the back of the findings from this audit, the PE curriculum has been carefully built and the learning opportunities and assessment milestones for each year group crafted to ensure progression and repetition in terms of embedding key learning, knowledge and skills. For example, we focus our teaching on six main strands of physical education; dance, invasion games, gymnastics, striking and fielding games, athletics and net and wall games. These are revisited year on year so pupils progressively build their skills and knowledge. In addition to this, we provide specialist swimming teaching to pupils in Years 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 as well as top-up sessions in the summer term for any Year 6 children who have not achieved the 25 metres swim expected in the National Curriculum.

Physical Education subject specific characteristics, which we expect the children to demonstrate, have been developed. These characteristics underpin all work in PE and form a focal point for display areas and provide a common subject specific vocabulary for staff and pupils.

These characteristics are:

• The ability to acquire new knowledge and skills exceptionally well and develop an in-depth understanding of PE.
• The willingness to practise skills in a wide range of different activities and situations, alone, in small groups and in teams and to apply these skills in chosen activities to achieve exceptionally high levels of performance.
• High levels of physical fitness.
• A healthy lifestyle, achieved by eating sensibly, understanding the dangers of smoking, drugs and alcohol, and exercising regularly.
• The ability to remain physically active for sustained periods of time and an understanding of the importance of this in promoting long-term health and well-being.
• The ability to take the initiative and become excellent young leaders, organising and officiating, and evaluating what needs to be done to improve, and motivating and instilling excellent sporting attitudes in others.
• Exceptional levels of originality, imagination and creativity in their techniques, tactics and choreography, knowledge of how to improve their own and others’ performance and the ability to work independently for extended periods of time without the need of guidance or support.
• A keen interest in PE. A willingness to participate eagerly in every lesson, highly positive attitudes and the ability to make informed choices about engaging fully in extra-curricular sport.
• The ability to swim at least 25 metres before the end of Year 6 and knowledge of how to remain safe in and around water.

The PE Medium Term Plan shows clear progression in line with age related expectations. Teachers and governors are kept regularly informed of developments in our frequently reviewed curriculum. Teachers and teaching assistants are supported and aided in their roles, ensuring confidence in the skills and facts they are required to teach

Our PE Progression of Skills Knowledge and Vocabulary.docx shows the skills that are taught within each year group and how these skills develop year on year to ensure that attainment targets are securely met by the end of each key stage.

Impact

Our curriculum aims to improve the wellbeing and fitness of all children at St Charles’, not only through the sporting skills taught, but through the underpinning values and disciplines PE promotes. Within our lessons, children are taught about self-discipline and that to be successful you need to take ownership of and responsibility for their own health and fitness. Our impact is therefore to motivate children to utilise these underpinning skills in an independent and effective way in order to live happy and healthy lives.

We use both formative and summative assessment information in every PE lesson. Staff use this information to inform their short-term planning and short-term interventions. This helps us provide the best possible support for all of our pupils, including the more able. The assessment milestones for each phase have been carefully mapped out and further broken down for each year group. This means that skills in PE are progressive build each year.

Gamesmark Award

We are delighted to announce that for the first time ever, St Charles’ has been awarded the Silver School Gamesmark Award. Well done to all of the children who have helped us reach this target!  Your hard work, enthusiasm and commitment to sport has been amazing and this award is a celebration of all your successes.  Keep up the great work!  Have a look at our certificate below.  Can you spot it around school too?

st_charles_catholic_primary_school_mark_award_-silver

PE policy