St Joseph's Catholic Primary School

OUR INTENT for Physical Education at St Joseph's is:

to provide a PE curriculum for all children to participate in a range of activities that help them to develop their health, fitness and wellbeing. We intend to offer a high-quality physical education curriculum that inspires all pupils to succeed and excel in competitive sport and other physically demanding activities.

The National Curriculum for PE aims 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

In order to develop competence to participate every Scheme of Work is planned with the suggested three pillars of progression identified by Ofsted (March 2022).

• Motor competence - knowledge of the range of movements that become increasingly sport- and physical activity-specific.
• Rules, strategies and tactics - knowledge of the conventions of participation in different sports and physical activities.
• Healthy participation - knowledge of safe and effective participation.

Through the variety of opportunities that our curriculum offers, children can develop a sense of personal achievement, fair play, respect, teamwork and an understanding of the ways in which sport can transcend social and cultural boundaries. It promotes an understanding in children of their bodies in action and a positive attitude towards a healthy lifestyle. We always encourage healthy competition in and out of school highlighting the importance of team building and leadership through a variety of memorable learning opportunities such as sports day, inter-house and school competitions within the local area. This is an inclusive approach which endeavours to encourage not only physical development but also mental well-being and are very much enjoyed by the children.

OUR INTENTION for Physical Education at St Joseph's is:

The school has its own PE Scheme of Work, with the National curriculum as its basis. It is progressive and sequential. Each lesson, children are given the opportunity to practise skills in a variety of ways and each lesson builds upon the previous skills, allowing them time to embed it. As skills are developed over time and across the years, they are recapped to help children know and remember more. In addition, new vocabulary is explained to support their learning and to allow the children to understand the key concepts of each lesson. Each year group is allocated at least 2 hours of PE per week. Our school curriculum matches the breath and ambition of the National Curriculum for all children. It is carefully sequenced and teaches a range of different sports including swimming, OAA, dance and gymnastics.

In Early Years, and in following with the EYFS, children learn skills through Physical Development, where children are taught important knowledge about building their gross and fine motor skills. The development of fundamental movement skills influences cognitive skills, memory, attention and thinking skills. Physical Development brings a child into contact with new challenges that affirm or tests their self-esteem, providing them with opportunities to:

• Negotiate space and obstacles safely, with consideration for themselves and others
• Demonstrate strength, balance and coordination when playing
• Move energetically, such as running, jumping, dancing, hopping, skipping and climbing.

In Key Stage 1, the children develop fundamental movement skills, become increasingly competent and confident and access a broad range of opportunities to extend their agility, balance and co-ordination, individually and with others. The curriculum is grouped key areas to develop children’s skills and knowledge such as net and wall games, target games, striking and field games, invasion games etc…  They will be able to engage in competitive (both against themself and against others) and co-operative physical activities, in a range of increasingly challenging situations.

In Key Stage 2, the children continue to apply and develop a broader range of skills and learn how to apply them to more specific sports and link them to make actions and sequences of movement by building upon and retrieving pre-learnt skills in KS1/outside school. In lower KS2, children learn skills and tactics for a variety of games and begin to evaluate the success of them. Upper KS2, we aim to develop the children’s techniques. They will understand what makes effective performance and how they can apply this to their own and others’ performances. The children use the strategies they have learned and connect them to more complex games, dance activities, and gymnastics. Children are encouraged to learn how to evaluate and comment on skills, techniques and ideas through observation and how this can help to improve their work and performances. Throughout KS2, we develop children’s competence as we know this is fundamental in terms of children relationship to motivation, enjoyment and, subsequently, the potential to build their confidence and engagement in physical activity and sport (supported by Ofsted, September 2023, Levelling the playing field). We broaden children’s experience of PE by going above and beyond the National Curriculum expectations by introducing the children to different activities such as ‘Quidditch’. Furthermore, children are given the opportunity to become Sports Leaders for the school. They develop into sporting role models for the younger children, assisting with break and lunchtime activities and other sporting events throughout the year which recalls prior-knowledge and models appropriate skills and techniques promoting over-learning.

Swimming is provided by the local authority and is compulsory for our Year 5 pupils, who have swimming lessons for the first term to achieve their National Curriculum badge. These lessons replace a weekly physical education lesson for this year group. Any child unable to swim 25 metres by the end of the block lessons will return the following year in Year 6.

Every child at St Josephs has the opportunity to participate in physical education. We ensure that lessons are  accessible and that activities are modified and adapted for children with special educational needs through our  physical education curriculum. We also provide opportunities for those children who are gifted and talented; ensuring that they are given the correct challenge to suit their needs. We provide links to local sports clubs such as, School Sports Partnership, Aldershot Swimming Pool, Aldershot Cricket Club, Aldershot Football Club and Hampshire Cricket Club.

See HERE for the Curriculum Overview.

OUR IMPACT for Physical Education at St Joseph's is:

We want all pupils to feel they belong as part of a team, believe in their healthy potential and thrive physically, socially and emotionally. We do this by developing the attitudes, skills and knowledge required to be a leader and provide memorable experiences throughout their physical education journey at St Joseph’s.

We are confident that our extensive PE curriculum will help children discover their passion for sports and enjoy active, healthy lives far beyond their time at our school.

PE and Sports Premium 

Primary PE and Sport Premium is an initiative that aims to help increase and improve the PE and sporting opportunities for children. Further information about how we are using our PE and Sport Premium can be found below:

Our Year 5 and 6 sports leaders are brilliant role models to their peers. They are fantastic at encouraging them to be more physically active during break and lunch times, running fun fitness activities on the junior playground.