P.E.

INTENT

At St. Thomas’, we aim to ensure all children are provided with opportunities to experience a wide variety of sports and physical skills and that they enjoy and are engaged with high quality Physical Education. We want to support all children to aspire to enhance life-long fitness and healthier lifestyle choices whilst developing children’s knowledge, skills and understanding to increase confidence and competence in a wide range of areas. The Physical Educational curriculum not only allows physical skills, but also factors in the importance of building and challenging self-esteem to create positive mindsets. We aim to encourage resilience in a supportive environment to help them to persevere with difficult situations or activities. Additionally, KS2 children will be provided with the opportunity to swim competently, confidently, and proficiently over 25m.

IMPLEMENTATION

At St. Thomas’, children are provided with skills through high- quality teaching of class teachers and outside PE specialists. These PE skills are taught weekly for two one-hour supportive PE sessions which cover two sporting disciplines. EYFS has a strong focus on fundamental movement skills, negotiating space safely within and around others and learning how to handle and use different equipment. KS1 develops fundamental skills further and ball skills and the understanding of defence and attack, using simple tactics, control, and flexibility. KS2 develops the above skills further and are applied to specific sports within each half term. We follow the ‘The Lancashire PE Scheme’ which provides a clear outline of the sports, skills, and games used to aid development, and this runs alongside the ‘PE Passport’ iPad app which allows us to monitor progression efficiently so that children are constantly challenged as they move through the school.

IMPACT

At St. Thomas’, children are engaged in a meaningful Physical Education learning experience to achieve a variety of goals. Through the study of PE, a high number of children will be able to achieve the expected standard or higher, and through targeted intervention, those who find P.E challenging, are helped and supported to catch up and close any gaps in their learning experience. Additionally, an equally high number of children will be able to achieve the ‘National Curriculum Swimming Award’ by the end of KS2. The work that children produce is evident on the digital platform (PE Passport) and this not only allows for assessment, but it enables further scaffolding to enhance learning. In addition to this, Children use the technology of iPads to peer record and assess each other, thus developing independence and a sense of ownership over their learning, health, and fitness.