Physical Education (P.E.) at Alexander First School

Vision

Physical Education at Alexander First School inspires learners to realise their potential and develop a lifelong interest in participating in physical activity and sport, whatever their ability in P.E.

Our P.E. curriculum is inclusive and ensures that pupils of all abilities access the range of activities that we offer and that they are physically active for sustained periods of time in order to encourage them to lead healthy, active lives.  Children will develop the fundamental movement skills (agility, balance and coordination) and take part in increasingly competitive situations, against themselves and others.  Whilst retaining its unique contribution to a pupil’s physical development and health and fitness, P.E. also has considerable potential to contribute to much wider areas of learning in terms of developing the whole child, including the development of physical, social, creative, personal and cognitive skills.

In addition to this, specialist coaches enhance the teaching and learning of P.E. within the curriculum and provide extra-curricular activities. Furthermore, participation in intra-school and inter-school competitions ensures maximum participation in physical activity outside of the P.E. curriculum. There is also the opportunity to take on leadership roles where the pupils build character and embed values such as fairness, teamwork and respect.

Regular participation in sport and physical activity helps to reduce the risk of heart failure, improve core physical fitness, help with weight management, promote good health, instil self-discipline, improve self-confidence, reduce stress and develop lifelong learning skills.

Physical Education Subject Lead Team

The P.E. subject lead team have the important role of monitoring and developing the teaching and learning of P.E. in order for the pupils at our school to make the best possible progress. They are also responsible for auditing resources and CPD requirements to ensure our resources and training are as up to date as possible.

The P.E. subject lead team recognise the importance of promoting and developing a healthy lifestyle and therefore aim to provide a high-quality, broad, rich and engaging curriculum through offering a variety of activities to enhance all skills.

We strive to inspire children to challenge themselves personally and academically through a cross-curricular delivery of physical education. Alongside lessons, we provide frequent opportunities for children across the school to participate in activities and events, building their resilience and actively embedding our core values. There are also a wide variety of school sports clubs run by both staff and external coaches for the children to attend.

To ensure standards are kept consistently high, we monitor the teaching and learning on a termly basis, giving feedback where necessary. We complete pupil interviews and monitor the termly assessments that are uploaded onto our school’s assessment system.

Teaching and Learning

The children in the EYFS are taught using the EYFS Curriculum. This covers a range of skills including dance, ball skills, climbing over, under and through equipment, jumping and moving confidently in a range of large and small movements.  The children in the EYFS are also taught to understand how to live a fit and healthy life.

Key Stage 1 and 2 follow the National Curriculum whose aims are to ensure that all pupils:

• develop competence to excel in a broad range of physical activities
• are physically active for sustained periods of time
• engage in competitive sports and activities
• lead healthy, active lives.

Pupils in Key Stage 1 are taught to

• master basic movements including running, jumping, throwing and catching, as well as developing balance, agility and co-ordination, and begin to apply these in a range of activities
• participate in team games, developing simple tactics for attacking and defending
• perform dances using simple movement patterns.

Pupils in Key Stage 2 are taught to

• use running, jumping, throwing and catching in isolation and in combination
• play competitive games, modified where appropriate [for example, badminton, basketball, cricket, football, hockey, netball, rounders and tennis], and apply basic principles suitable for attacking and defending
• develop flexibility, strength, technique, control and balance [for example, through athletics and gymnastics]
• perform dances using a range of movement patterns
• take part in outdoor and adventurous activity challenges both individually and within a team
• compare their performances with previous ones and demonstrate improvement to achieve their personal best. E.g. indoor rowing.

The contribution of Physical Education to teaching in other curriculum areas

English

At Alexander First School, everyone who takes part in sport at whatever level will use their literacy skills. Literacy in the curriculum is comprised of four aspects: Listening, Writing, Reading and Speaking. The most widely used skills in P.E. are listening and speaking. They are both crucial to teamwork and communication and therefore success in a sporting context. Reading and writing may be seen as not as important in Physical Education and sport. However, all four of these components can be covered in a team talk alone and for the pupils to be able to understand and correctly interpret the information been given can be the difference between success and failure. One example of when listening and writing skills could be used in a lesson is for the teacher to ask the pupils about the positions involved in that given sport (providing the sport has positions), this is done after the teacher has provided this information. The writing side of this task can be done on a whiteboard. Another example could be as small as communicating effectively with the pupils to making them write down and compare their athletics scores, as this combines both numeracy and literacy in one section of the lesson.

Mathematics

Mathematics and Physical Education have clear fundamental links that underpin these two areas of learning. Physical education at Alexander First School provides a range of opportunities for mathematical learning. One such example is when the children assist in the timetabling of sporting events, scoring of activities and comparisons of team results through the use of league tables (how many goals scored for and against; what is the total number of points scored?) as well as identifying trends and patterns in any of the data that has been collected. More complex examples would include using larger sporting events as a theme for statistical enquiry (such as intra/inter school competitions or experiencing complex problem solving in off-site activities and residential experiences. A physical education lesson focusing on children learning how to vary their throwing technique in order to hit different targets from varying distances would help to develop the children’s understanding of space, angle, direction, length and measurement. Another way of introducing physical education into lessons would be by focusing on exploring the dynamics of balance. The children investigate using different bases of support to see what provides them with more balance or less stability.

Personal, Social, Health and Citizenship Education (PSHCE)

PSHE is an integral part of everything that we do in order to ensure our children understand themselves physically, emotionally and socially. By providing an environment supportive to emotional health and well-being, Alexander First School aims to support our pupils to be motivated and equipped to be effective and successful learners, make and sustain friendships, deal with and resolve conflict effectively and fairly and solve problems with others or by themselves. They will also manage strong feelings such as frustration, anger and anxiety, be able to promote calm and optimistic states that promote the achievement of goals. They will be able to recover from setbacks and persist in the face of difficulties, work and play cooperatively, compete fairly and win and lose with dignity and respect for competitors.

SMSC

Spiritual education involves students developing a variety of skills, e.g. performing a sequence in gymnastics, which allows the students to express their feelings and emotions as well as be amazed by what their bodies can achieve. This happens at Alexander First School PE through a well-balanced PE curriculum where pupils are able to explore many activities and also take on many different roles within sport such as sports leaders. The pupils are able to feel the emotions and feelings that go with each role and activity.

Moral education in PE concerns students having the opportunity to understand how PE can influence their healthy living and lifestyle. PE highlights the advantages of health and lifestyle through team sports and health related fitness. Pupils are also able to understand the rules of activities and the reasons why they need to abide by them and understand what fair play is.  At AFS, pupils are challenged to increase their personal level of fitness and to understand the benefits of this. They are also taught about the importance of being healthy and active and how this plays a role in society as a whole. Each lesson pupils are reminded of the rules of all the activities they do and taught to abide by these rules. This is always linked to the community we live in and the rules which each citizen must live by.

Social education involves students having the opportunity to work as a team, as well as reflect on feelings of determination and enjoyment. Students are given the role of a leader to develop their social skills in cooperation, communication, commitment, loyalty and team work. Alexander First School provides a varied and balanced curriculum. This gives pupils the opportunity to work together as a team and work on communication and leadership skills. Pupils are always challenged to give 100% during PE lessons and AFS has a strong ethos of encouraging others during lessons.

Cultural education in PE means students are given the opportunity to learn games and dances from different traditions, including their own as well as being able to appreciate the differences between male and female roles within sport. The pupils at Alexander First School have the opportunity to learn many sports which originated from this country and also others. The students are often taught about the origins of a certain sport and also the countries around the world that excel at each sport. The students are given the opportunity to compete against other schools from around the country in a variety of sports. This often means the students are absorbing themselves in and learning respect for these cultures.

Geography

Geography is an area that links well with Physical Education and key geographical skills can be developed through the use of Physical activities. Many P.E lessons begin with warm-ups that involve the use of directional language and this can be further enhanced with map-reading games leading up to a more structured orienteering session outside in the school grounds. Key geographical language can be reinforced and linked to ongoing geography lessons.

Art and D.T.

Art and physical education are usually thought of as separate subjects, but integrating them can be of much benefit to children. Designing and then making an obstacle course is an excellent way of combining the two areas. The pupils will then have the opportunity to try out the course and adapt their designs where necessary. Another example of combining the two subjects would to show the children a piece of artwork and encourage them to replicate using their bodies. This could then be developed into a set of movements leading up to a dance.

Army PT Sessions

At Alexander First School we use the strength of our community relations and links to maximise PE opportunities and experiences for our pupils. This includes the unique opportunity to have highly skilled Army fitness trainers work with pupils from Reception to Year 4. We have bi-weekly physical sessions in which pupils work alongside PT experts to plan, organise and participate in physical activity sessions working on core Army skills of resilience, perseverance, team-work and self-belief. These sessions take on a different format depending upon the year groups (e.g. workout sessions, obstacle courses, games, outdoor learning etc.).  

P.E Competitions and Events

Competition and sporting experiences help our children to develop their skills and knowledge in different sporting areas, as well as enhancing their competitive spirit. Throughout the year pupils have the opportunity to take part in a variety of activities such as football tournaments, dance shows and sports day events. 

Assessment for learning 

Children demonstrate their ability in Physical Education in a variety of different ways and the staff at Alexander First School are experienced in using a number of methods to assess a child’s ability. The units in P.E. are generally taught on a half-term basis. Staff carry out initial assessments at the beginning and end of each unit as well as using ongoing observations, in order to track the children’s progress. The children also have a P.E. year overview with success criteria for each unit. This is reviewed by both pupil and teacher after each unit in order to monitor understanding and track progress. The children also have a self-reflection and evaluation sheet to complete at the end of each term (Autumn, Spring and Summer), in which they reflect upon and judge their performance and identify what they feel they still need to work on. Teachers use a traffic light system (on Otrack) to assess the children's learning throughout and at the end of a unit. In the EYFS teacher judgements, Tapestry and observation is used to assess the children against the Early Learning Goals.