Physical Education

Physical Education Curriculum Intent, Implementation and Impact  

Intent  

Our intent at Thirsk Community Primary School is that our teaching of Physical Education will mould fit, active, and healthy children, who have a positive mindset towards being a team player and taking part in competitive sport. “We are Fit, Active, Strong Team players: FAST” (PE Subject Layering Long Term Plan). 

Implementation   

The National Curriculum provides an outline of skills to be taught in Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2. This has been mapped out in the PE Long Term Subject Layering Plan, which ensures a broad and balanced coverage across the areas. The plan is sequential, detailing every aspect of each Fundamental Movement Skill, which is then taught through the REAL PE approach. The school uses the REAL PE approach because of the levels of differentiation it offers within one lesson. The scheme works around Fun Stations, which are essentially challenge cards based on Fundamental Movement Skills. These cards are then colour coded in relation to age of pupil and stage of skill. The PE Long Term Subject Layering Plan shows the progression for each main area (agility, balance, or coordination) and then the progression of the exact skill within this. For example, to be able to skip, the pupil first needs to be able to stand still, stand on one foot, hop, then hop from one foot to the other, and then gallop. The REAL PE approach enables teachers to deliver all these skills in the same lesson, at the same time! The warmup and cool down are also linked to the specific skill being taught. The lessons are designed to be delivered at pace, with everyone being active for a whole 60 minutes. The school chose REAL PE as the method to deliver lessons because it allows for all needs and gaps in physical ability to be addressed within one lesson. It also ensures  that once a pupil has mastered a skill they can instantly be moved on to the next stage, without having to wait for the next lesson. Therefore, a level of challenge is always maintained, as well as ensuring all lessons are appropriate and relevant to all pupils. 

The PE Long Term Subject Layering Plan includes a range of sport and games that the pupils take part in at school, and sporting events/ competitions away from school. In Key Stage 1 the pupils have a 60-minute REAL PE lesson and a 60-minute Implement lesson a week. The REAL PE lesson focuses on mastering the focus Fundamental Movement Skill, the second lesson offers a genre to develop the same skill – for example Yoga, Dance, Gymnastics and Team Games. In Key Stage 2 the pupils have a 60-minute REAL PE lesson and a 60-minute Games lesson a week. Thus, delivering the National Curriculum content, 

“Pupils should be 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” 

As with the lower Key Stage, the older pupils have a focus skill in their first lesson and then the opportunity to apply this through a sport in their second lesson. By the time a pupil leaves us in Year 6, they will have played 14 different sports and been offered further adventurous activity! This also includes a catch-up swimming group for our Year 6 children who have not yet achieved the 25M swimming distance. By Summer 2019, 97% of Year 6 pupils could swim 25M. The PE Long Term plan has been carefully constructed to enable a robust and coherent scheme, with each lesson supporting and building on the previous one. The school takes the same approach with how it links PE lessons with wider sporting opportunities. The school sport event calendar is interconnected with the PE lessons. The school also places high regard on pupils becoming coaches. The school is proud to have sustained the impact of funding by the creation of young leaders or SSOC's (School Sports Organising Crew) who over the course of the year are trained and then lead their own sporting events. The school’s implementation of the Subject Layering plan ensures the following from the National Curriculum is met,  

“Children are taught to use running, jumping, throwing and catching in isolation and in combination, play competitive games, modified where appropriate and apply basic principles suitable for attacking and defending, develop flexibility, strength, technique, control and balance, 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” 

Impact   

The successful approach at Thirsk Community Primary results in children who are keen sports persons, who actively seek opportunities to represent the school. In Autumn 2019, 172 children attended a Sport Premium After School Sport Club.  The school follows a comprehensive and inclusive calendar of events covering over fifteen different sports through the Thirsk Cluster Schools Sporting Calendar. Over the year 2018/19 the school tracked the number of pupils who took part in competitions and at the years end this totalled 204, this means that almost the entirety of pupils in in Key Stage One and Two had an opportunity to represent the school. The impact of the Physical Education teaching is not just reflected in the schools sporting success, but also in the children’s attitudes towards Physical Education and Sport. 

PE Subject Lead Learning Walk / Observations – Pupil Voice Section 

Pupil voice shows that pupils are confident and able to talk about what they have learnt in Physical Education, and the impact that has had on their wider disposition to learning, especially in relation to perseverance. It also demonstrates that pupils really enjoy Physical Education and can evaluate their learning over time, they know what they can do and what they need to achieve next.  The core group of pupils whose physical skills are tracked demonstrates that progress is sustained across year groups, ability, and socio-economic background. It also highlights the rapid progress that many of the pupils make. Regular pupil voice is also used to further develop the Physical Education Action Plan, with the Physical Education Council and the subject lead working together to address next steps. The council are currently working on implementing a Scoot Fit initiative to ensure all pupils are active at lunch and break times, recognising that their peers should take every opportunity to be active. In Autumn 2020 the school began the Koboca Healthy lifestyle/ Happiness and Wellbeing survey, an online questionnaire for all pupils.  The results of this have made an impact on how the school targets key groups of children and has led to Koboca Club Friday, which focuses on health and wellbeing.