Intent

At St Peter’s Catholic Primary School we believe that PE is essential to the academic, social, emotional, spiritual and physical development of all children. An effective PE curriculum will improve children’s confidence and raise their self-esteem, as well as enabling them to develop positive attitudes about maintaining a healthy lifestyle. It will encourage good sportsmanship and team work skills and therefore better equip them to be able to participate fluently within their social and work communities - as well as within sport – make and maintain effective healthy relationships, become aware of and monitor their own health and be able to assess risks and be comfortable when making ‘safe’ risk choices.

The main aims of PE are:

• To promote physical activity, physical development and healthy lifestyles through a range of well planned activities which meet the needs of all children.
• To develop social co-operation, positive attitudes and to compete with a sense of fair play and good sportsmanship.
• To promote lifelong learning, active participation and a thirst for competition.
• To promote and develop safe practice in physical activities through high quality opportunities and outcomes.
• To provide equal opportunities for all children regardless of race, gender, background or ability.
• To provide opportunities for all children to achieve their full potential and assist each individual to be the best they can be whilst raising achievement and supporting excellence.

Implementation

At St Peter’s we use RealPE as a base for our planning - this unique, child-centred approach challenges and supports every child.

All learning outcomes are taken from the National Curriculum schemes of work in order to ensure there is a progression of skills throughout EYFS, KS1 and KS2. We use RealPE and RealGym to guide our planning of the majority of the PE curriculum but augment this with dance, Outdoor and Adventurous activities Forest School, Swimming and traditional sport coaching. See Appendix 1 and 2 for the Yearly overviews.

Swimming is taught to the majority of children in KS2 by qualified swimming teachers from school at a local pool.

All classes will have the opportunity to participate in a sporting competition at least once each year. It is the subject leader’s responsibility to book these events and to organize participants and staff to support.

All children and staff should change into suitable clothing for PE which allows freedom of movement.

Children with long hair should have it tied back during PE and all jewellery must be removed by the child.  If a child cannot remove their earrings as they have been pierced within 6 weeks, then the child cannot be physically active in the class but can assist in taking score and guide their piers.

A risk assessment will be carried out prior to the lesson when facilities, apparatus and equipment is checked by the teacher or coach. When handling and setting up apparatus, children must be supervised by an adult in order to ensure this is carried out safely. At St. Peter’s we conduct annual inspections of all our PE equipment, completed by Greenlight.  Records of their inspections can be found within the main school office.

Parents are invited to annual sporting events which involve their children, including our sports day. Throughout the year children are selected to represent the school in local sporting festivals and KCSP organized events and where possible, parents are invited to attend to show their support. Gymnastic routines and final dances are filmed and these are shown to parents during the parents sharing events.

There are a wide range of clubs offered by the school each week, although this changes according to the time of year and ongoing feedback from the children. Many of these are run for free by staff volunteers or by external coaches for a minimal fee.  We are actively involved with a number of local clubs and organisations, including Zumba, Bikeability, hockey, gymnastics and squash, and are always looking for different groups to add to the range of activities offered to our children and the wider community.

Impact

The children are exposed to a broad and balanced PE curriculum that is well planned and progressive in terms of skills development. Majority of pupils reach or exceed KS1 and KS2 PE attainment targets. Majority of pupils make expected progress from end of KS1 to end of KS2. There is an increase in the number of children engaged in extended learning. Pupils of all ages and abilities are highly motivated to engage in physical education and do their very best. More children are enjoying a much healthier lifestyle; pupil voice shows increased enjoyment and awareness of being active.