Physical Education
Intent
Here at St Thomas’ CE Primary Academy, we believe that Physical Education is essential for children to reach and attain the optimum physical and emotional development and good health, all within a safe and supportive environment. We will highlight the positive impact that being active has on their physical and mental health. We deliver high-quality teaching and opportunities that inspire children to succeed – not only in PE – in all areas of life. We want to show the importance of working effectively in a team through cooperation and collaboration with their peers and teammates as they strive to understand the fairness and equality of play to embed our core values. We encourage collaboration with local sports teams and organisations by inviting them into our school to deliver sessions, run after school clubs or promote holiday camps which increases activity levels of our pupils when not in school. At St Thomas’ CE Primary Academy, we recognise that some of our families may not have access to regular outside provisions through circumstances. We support children by providing more opportunities through lunch time clubs to increase their activity levels and in return support children’s mental health.
Implementation
- PE at St Thomas’ CE Academy will be taught using the PE scheme ‘GetSet4PE’ that provides a spiral, challenging and enjoyable curriculum through a range of sporting activities including; invasion games, net and wall, strike and field games, gymnastics, dance, swimming and outdoor and adventure.
- Pupils will take part in two high-quality delivered PE lessons (using GetSet4PE) that will be covering our concepts (KS1 – mental wellbeing, physical development, challenge. KS2 – mental health, health and fitness, aspirations).
A healthy lifestyle will be threaded through our PE lessons and embedded further through units of work within the PSHE and Science curriculum.
Fundamental Knowledge and Skills within the EYFS
At St Thomas’, we recognise the importance of developing both fine and gross motor skills as children enter our Early Years Setting. Considering the fact that some children learn best when they are actively engaged in their environment, we provide them with ample opportunities to explore their environment by experimenting with movement, touching, balancing and manipulating different objects and materials, which allow us to support our Reception children as they continue to enhance their bone health and muscular development at a formative time. The younger the chidren are when they become physically active, often leads to them adopting a love of sport and fitness as they grow up, which in turn will allow them to live a healthier lifestyle both physically and mentally. We also recognise that P.E. supports other area of the EYFS curriculum such as improving personal, emotional and social skills through the use of equipment. This provides opportunity for children to partake in a trial and error approach that enhances our children's resilience, self-esteem, confidence and a chance to develop ways in which they can solve a challenge. By providing our Physical Education to children in Early Years, we are nurturing the natural talents that our children possess and providing the fundamentals which may see them take part of an aspirational journey within an active, sporty lifestyle.
Concepts
KS1 | |
Mental wellbeing | Mental wellbeing means feeling good about themselves and the world around them. |
Physical development | Physical development refers to the advancements and refinements of motor skills, or, in other words, children’s abilities to control their bodies. It relates to the growth and skill development of the body, including the brain, muscles and senses. |
Challenge | The situation of being faced with something that needs great mental or physical effort in order to be done successfully and therefore tests a person’s ability by finding a solution. |
KS2 | |
Mental health | Mental health is a positive state of mind and body, feeling safe and able to cope, with a sense of connection with people, communities and the wider environment. |
Health and fitness | Fitness involves activity of some sort that stimulates various systems of the body and maintains a certain condition within the body. Health, on the other hand, involves every system of the body and is only achieved through a lifestyle that supports health. |
Aspirations | Aspiration is defined as the act of being motivated and having that strong desire to achieve. |
- Competition and taster experiences encourage and promote all children to work and perform individually or as a team at local and higher level ie county.
- As part of our curriculum, we provide experiences and training to support children to learn to balance or ride a bike safely (EYFS/Year 5)
- Leadership opportunities are provided (Sports Captain and Vice-Captain) as well as children organising their own inter-house competitions.
- Sports funding is planned and used creatively to widen the experiences, such as skiing, ice-skating, rock climbing and archery.
Impact
Staff at St Thomas’ CE Academy are dedicated to motivate children to participate in a range of sports through teaching that is quality and engaging. By using GetSet4PE, we are not only enriching the PE experience for our children but delivering continued CPD to our staff by the use of example videos and teaching points on individual lesson plans. From our lessons, children are taught what it means to be healthy and how they can take responsibility as they become more independent in the world as they continue to grow. From this, their improved knowledge of health and fitness can lead to an enjoyment of taking part in sport whether it be socially or competitively with the view of maintaining a good level of health and fitness. We give our children the tools of necessary skills and a love for sport. We hope that they will grow up to live healthy and happy lives as they utilise the skills and knowledge that they have acquired from us through the teaching of PE at St Thomas’ CE Academy.
