PE

Curriculum Intent

At St Bernadette’s Catholic Primary School, our aim is to ensure all children enjoy and are engaged in high quality Physical Education and Sport. Providing our children with the opportunities to experience a wide variety of sports and physical skills, we aim to enhance and support life-long fitness and healthier lifestyle choices.

Through Physical Education (PE) we aim to develop the children’s knowledge, skills and understanding, so that they can perform with increasing confidence and competence in a range of physical activities and competitive sports.

PE at St Bernadette’s is an imperative element of the curriculum, it can challenge and promote self-esteem and also create a positive mind set through the development of physical confidence and problem solving. Our curriculum teaches the children to cope with both success and failure in competitive, individual and team based physical activities and also the resilience to persevere with activities that they may be once have felt too difficult. We are passionate about the need to teach children how to cooperate and collaborate with others, work as part of a team and understand fairness and equality of play to embed life-long values. Children have equal opportunities to take part in a range of sports and physical activities within a supportive environment where effort as well as success is recognised.

Curriculum Implementation

PE at St Bernadette’s is taught by a combination of class teachers, PE specialists and also PE specialists.

Pupils at St Bernadette’s participate in two high quality PE and sporting activities each week covering two sporting disciplines each half term. Our PE programme, which is supported by GET SET 4 PE lesson plans and schemes of work, incorporates a variety of sports, skills and games to ensure all children develop the confidence, tolerance and the appreciation of their own and others’ strengths and weaknesses. Get Set 4 PE is planned so that progression is built into the scheme which ensures our children are increasingly challenged as they move up through the school.

Within EYFS there is a strong focus on fundamental movement skills, negotiating space safely with and around others and also learning how to handle and use different equipment. As they move into KS1, we continue to build on these fundamental skills and also ball skills in autumn term ready to use in spring and summer when understanding principles of defence and attack, using simple tactics and also control and flexibility is developed. By KS2 they further develop these skills by applying them into different situations and activities and are taught sport specific skills within the half terms. The teaching of dance and gymnastics allows our pupils to develop their flexibility, strength, technique, control, and balance as well as explore their personal and spiritual identity.

We provide opportunities for all children to engage in extra-curricular activities during, before and after school and these have become increasingly popular over the past few years as children have become more confident in their abilities and want to continue a healthy lifestyle whilst having fun with their friends. Children also partake in personal best competitions in addition to competitive and development sporting events supported by our SGO and School Games. This is an inclusive approach which endeavours to encourage not only physical development but also well-being for all pupils.

The long-term plan provision map sets out the PE units which are to be taught throughout the year and ensures that the requirements of the National Curriculum are fully met. Through our provision, the aim is to ensure that children flourish at sports in which they have a particular interest or flair for and create links with local community clubs. Children with additional needs are provided with appropriate support to enable them to take part and gain confidence in skills, understanding and motivation.

Children in KS2 attend swimming lessons at the local swimming pool where they are taught to swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of 25m using a range of strokes.

Curriculum Impact

Our curriculum aims to improve the wellbeing and fitness of all children at St Bernadette’s, not only through the sporting skills taught, but through the underpinning values and disciplines PE promotes. Within our lessons, we provide opportunities to acquire and 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 high levels of performance.

From our lessons, our children learn to take ownership and responsibility for their own health and fitness, many of whom also enjoy the success of competitive sports. We equip our children with the necessary skills and hopefully develop a love for sport.

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.

How we spend our PE & Sport Funding can be found here