PE
At St Wilfrid’s Catholic Primary School, we endeavour to promote the importance of Physical Education and a healthy lifestyle to all children across the school. We have a ‘sport for all ethos’ and encourage participation via a wide range of opportunities. This includes our extracurricular programmes and also through the festivals and competitions we partake in throughout the year.
INTENT
PE is a vital part of school life and ultimately children’s future well-being. It is therefore our intent to provide an inclusive, broad and balanced PE curriculum that ensures all children will benefit, whether through enhancing existing skills, learning new skills or being introduced to new sports, clubs, teams and organisations. We offer a range of creative and exciting PE lessons, delivered by our well-trained teaching staff, giving the children opportunity to learn and try new activities, gain physical skills but also develop their skills of sportsmanship for future life. We strive to offer as many experiences to the children as possible, to ensure that they develop a passion for physical activity and a deep understanding of physical literacy and health and wellbeing.
IMPLEMENTATION
At St Wilfrid’s Catholic we believe that participation in sporting activity is a key element of developing a school in which pupils are proud of the community in which they belong. Therefore, great emphasis is placed upon additional sporting opportunities beyond the lesson within after-school clubs, inter-house and inter-school competition and festivals as well as directly trying to support the local clubs within the Burgess Hill area. We believe this links directly with our school’s sporting values and is another way in which we can positively engage with our local community and be active citizens within it.
Early Years Foundation Stage
Physical activity is vital in children’s all-round development, enabling them to pursue happy, healthy and active lives. Gross and fine motor experiences develop incrementally throughout early childhood, starting with sensory explorations and the development of a child’s strength, co-ordination and positional awareness through running, jumping, crawling, climbing and other play movement.
The EYFS lay strong foundation focusing on fundamental movements, fine and gross motor skills. The EYFS has one formal PE session a week alongside the environmental physical environment of the EYFS.
Key Stage 1
Our Physical Education curriculum encourages pupils to develop fundamental movement skills, become increasingly competent and confident and access a broad range of opportunities to extend their agility, balance and coordination, individually and with others. They are able to engage in competitive (both against self and against others) and co-operative physical activities, in a range of increasingly challenging situations. These include PE lessons, extracurricular activities and festivals where they can develop their resilience and ambition for sporting achievement.
Throughout our PE lessons pupils will master basic movements including running, jumping, throwing and catching, as well as developing balance, agility and co-ordination. Pupils will begin to apply these in a range of activities, they will also participate in team games, developing simple tactics for attacking and defending and perform dances and routines using simple movement patterns.
Key Stage 1 will also start to experience out of school sporting activities via our local schools sport partnership who provide opportunities for schools across Mid-Sussex. These will include activities such as fun fitness festivals, cross-country competitions and multi – skills events. Within school, pupils will also participate in our sports day events by competing in a range of different activities to earn points for their houses.
Key Stage 2
Our Physical Education curriculum enables pupils to continue to apply and develop a broader range of skills, learning how to use them in different ways and to link them to make actions and sequences of movement. They should enjoy communicating, collaborating and competing with each other. Pupils should develop an understanding of how to improve in different physical activities and sports and learn how to evaluate and recognise their own success.
Throughout our PE lessons, pupils will be taught to develop their 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.
Pupils will also develop flexibility, strength, technique, control and balance through athletics and gymnastics and perform dances using a range of movement patterns. Our curriculum also offers pupils to take part in outdoor and adventurous activity challenges e.g. orienteering, both individually and within a team. Key stage 2 pupils will also have further opportunities to represent St Wilfrid’s Catholic Primary via sporting teams. Across Mid Sussex, there are a large amount of festivals on offer both non-competitive and competitive, enabling pupils to challenge themselves at a higher level and compete to a high standard across all sports.
IMPACT
As children progress through St Wilfrid’s Catholic Primary School, our extensive PE curriculum will aim to impact greatly on our children’s ability to acquire the knowledge, skills and understanding needed to make appropriate choices about their physical and mental health. The curriculum will develop positive self-awareness in children as they become physically competent and maintain this into adulthood. They will also demonstrate a healthy attitude to competition, showing respect for individuals, teams, officials and coaches. The pupils will be guided by our sporting values we demonstrate and believe in.
Sport can create hope where once there was despair. It is more powerful than governments in breaking down racial barriers. It laughs in the face of all types of discrimination.
Nelson Mandela