Physical Education

"The game is never more important than the people you play it with." Debra Demaline Maxted

“A healthy active lifestyle not only changes your body, it changes your mind, your attitude and your mood for the better.” – Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Physical Education Lead - Mr Daniel Head

Intent

Our vision at St Dennis is to provide high quality physical education and school sport that leads to enjoyment, confidence and positive attitudes towards a healthy lifestyle now and in later life. We want to enable all abilities to acquire new knowledge and skills in PE that they are confident to use and that lead to strong mental, emotional, social and physical wellbeing.

Our curriculum is customised, designed and personalised for the pupils in our school and aims to enable, develop and challenge children’s abilities in a range of physical activities and sports – helping them to develop their personal fitness and a healthy sense of competition and also learn important life skills such as communication, teamwork, leadership, organisation, honesty, perseverance, resilience and fair play.

Implementation

We follow the breadth of the programmes of study of the National Curriculum for physical education. All children take part in two hours of exciting and active PE every week, both indoors and outdoors, using a wide variety of equipment. Lessons are taught by the class teacher or our specialist PE HLTA. Teachers encourage, reassure and support during every PE lesson to develop resilience, determination and confidence to succeed.

We implement a thrilling and stimulating curriculum, integrating popular games along with unfamiliar sports. We teach skills, mini games and full matches that lead to the understanding of rules and regulations and sportsmanship.

We recognise that all children have diverse abilities and ensure that all lessons include scaffolding to promote an inclusive approach, which endeavours to encourage not only physical development but also wellbeing. We regularly give our children the opportunity to coach their peers and run events for younger children; this gives confidence, self-belief and determination.

St Dennis are participators in a wide range of inter-school competitions where we attend all events with mixed gender teams and aim to ensure that all children participate.

We deliver the REAL PE programme which gives every child the physical literacy, emotional and thinking skills to achieve in PE, sport and life. This unique, child-centred approach engages and challenges every child and is underpinned by the ABC’s – agility, balance and coordination.

PE lessons are enriched through the Daily Mile across the whole school and numerous extra-curricular clubs for all ages that include football, netball, dance, tag rugby, cricket, hockey, running and yoga. All children have the opportunity to join a wide range of clubs in order to learn new skills and develop a wide range of transferable lifetime skills.

Assessment

We assess our pupils using the Jasmine PE Wheel. There are nine areas of assessment: applying physical skills, agility, balance, co-ordination, swimming, health and fitness, creative, social and personal. This assessment links closely to areas taught in PSHE and science, providing a cross-curricular scope of study that is progressive, engaging and ambitious for all pupils. 

The regular updating and analysis of this data by the PE Lead and specialist PE HLTA feeds into future planning and allows us to focus on the specific and unique needs of our pupils. 

Impact

Our curriculum of 2 hours of stimulating activity per week, has an advantageous impact on wellbeing. Children learn about the impact and importance of 'healthy body, healthy mind'. PE lessons give children a platform and concrete understanding of how sport and exercise can and should be sustained throughout their lives. Children are motivated to employ these underpinning skills in an independent and effective way in order to live a happy and healthy life.

Termly pupil conferencing feeds into how we plan and deliver our PE over the year. It is important for all pupils to understand how to improve their work, and listening to pupil voice allows us to find out if they understand this. We also find out from pupil conferencing if pupils are enjoying lessons and understanding what it is that they have done well. Listening to pupils helps to identify the most significant barriers to learning.

We are incredibly fortunate to employ a specialist PE HLTA, who gives his time and energy in many ways including extra-curricular clubs and sporting fixtures. Over the years, our sports teams have achieved success in many different areas, not only developing competition skills but also leadership and organisation skills.

How does PE promote British Values?

Democracy - Children learn about socially acceptable behaviour through PE. They work individually and in teams to make informed choices and through this learn about different roles including being a leader and a team player.

Rule of law - Children understand the need for rules, adhere to and develop them for activities that they create, including those within competition. They also adhere to and understand the rules of safety. They demonstrate good social skills and can solve problems on their own or with others.

Individual liberty – Children respect individual differences and are confident to express their opinions and respect views of others. They are also able to make judgements about their own and others’ performances. Children feel safe in curricular and extracurricular activities and during off site fixture visits.

Mutual respect and tolerance – Children know, understand and be able to articulate different styles of dance and the historical aspects of various activities whilst avoiding stereotyping groups and articulating their own beliefs. Children respect PE equipment, the school facilities and other venues at off-site fixtures. They know the values of the school and PE contribute to their development and accept rewards and sanctions. Children can access competition within and outside of the school and demonstrate appropriate behaviour and regard for rules and regulations.

http://www.afpe.org.uk/physical-education/wp-content/uploads/Fundamental-Values-in-PE-April-2016.pdf