Physical Education
“To uncover your true potential you must first find your own limits and then you have to have the courage to blow past them.” – Picabo Street
Intent
At Ashton Vale we strive to give every child the physical literacy, emotional and thinking skills to achieve in PE, sport and life. We aim to create a culture which inspires a generation to enjoy being physically active, healthy, who encourage each other and achieve. We aim to do this by fully implementing the national curriculum for PE which aims to ensure 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
We want all children to have access to high quality PE teaching by ensuring that all PE lessons are fun, engaging and accessible to all children through an inspiring and progressive curriculum. Lessons teach physical skill development- which promote being physically active for sustained periods of time- but other important skills are also taught which consider the child holistically.
Furthermore, we encourage children to be more active during different parts of their day through cross curricular activities, active playtimes and dedicated outdoor learning days- ‘welly days’. We also offer children a broad range of physical activity and sporting experiences inside and outside of the school day. These experiences aim to further develop competition, a positive team ethos and encourage personal best. Pupils are also encouraged to participate in a range of inter school competitions.
Implementation
At Ashton Vale we use the ‘Real PE’ scheme (including Real Gym and Real Dance) alongside teaching of other sports based skills, outdoor and adventurous activities and KS2 swimming. In addition, Year 4 participates in chess lessons and Year 6 bowls lessons.
Our PE lessons consider five areas of children’s learning:
Physical
Social
Cognitive
Personal
Health and Fitness
Creative
PE lessons are delivered to pupils by class teachers and chess, bowls and swimming coaches work alongside teachers to deliver these specific lessons.
‘Real PE’ focussed lessons offer a unique child centred approach which engages and challenges every child. They develop the key abilities children need to be successful within PE and sport and across the curriculum. They focus on the development of agility, balance and coordination, healthy competition and cooperative learning. Every pupil receives one lesson of ‘Real PE’ a week. Children in KS1 will also receive a second lesson based on ‘Real Gym’ or ‘Real Dance’ a week.
Alongside ‘Real PE’, KS2 children will be taught a second lesson a week with more specific sports based skills. Children can use what they learn in these sessions, along with what they learn in their ‘Real PE’ lessons to begin their journey with learning the skills and rules of competitive games. Teachers have high expectations of pupils and offer appropriate levels of support and challenge to ensure that every pupil is able to succeed and be included in each PE session.
Each class receives delivery of these sessions by a qualified sports coach (Robin's) throughout the year, enabling children to access specialised teaching.
Children also participate in physical activity outside of their regular PE lessons. This involves all children participating in the ‘Daily Mile’, incorporating movements within lessons whereby the children can be active and regular outdoor learning days. Children experience outdoor learning ‘welly days’ in all year groups across the year. The focus for these lessons is on outdoor and adventurous activities and cross curricular learning. These lessons aim to improve the physical and mental health of pupils as well as teaching them outdoor specific skills.
KS2 children participate in an intensive block of swimming lessons led by swimming coaches where they are taught a range of sport specific skills, with an emphasis on life saving and swimming 25m unaided.
We are part of the Ashton Park Sports Partnership and we engage with a number of inter school sporting events and competitions – both in school and at out of school events. Recently, some of our older pupils have successfully qualified to be ‘Active Leaders’, whereby they offer their enthusiasm of physical activity at playtimes to inspire others. The Sports Partnership is also working with SMSAs to become play leaders to promote physical activity at playtimes.
Impact
Ashton Vale considers the impact of our PE curriculum through the following areas:
- Staff confidence- has a positive impact on the delivery of high quality lessons and promotion of physical activity at other times throughout the school day.
- Pupil engagement- children enjoy and achieve in PE lessons and physical activity in school. Participation is high across all implementation strategies. This includes pupils recognising and evaluating their own success and having the opportunities to take part in competitive sport.
- Pupil progress- children will better themselves on their own journeys with the following considerations, physical, social, cognitive, personal, health/fitness and creative aspects. This includes pupils combining physical skills with fluency and applying them in a broad range of physical activities and sports.
- Pupil health- children build a foundation for a physically and mentally healthy life now and for the future and understand why this is important.
