Ambition

At St. Mark's, we recognise that Physical Education is a vital aspect of our everyday lives. It impacts all areas of learning across the curriculum and the general welfare of every child. As a school, we wish to promote physical health and wellbeing, preparing children for all aspects of future life. We are committed to providing children with the knowledge and skills they require to stay physically healthy and make the correct choices. We want to encourage children to challenge themselves both individually and as part of a team. Through PE lessons, children develop important life skills, such working as part of a team, showing respect and supporting others.They develop resilience skills to cope with new challenges and to set their own personal goals. They are encouraged to be proud of their own achievements and to celebrate and rejoice in the achievements of others.

We provide a PE curriculum that is challenging for all, promotes a love of physical activity and gives all children an opportunity to challenge themselves at all levels. Pupils are introduced to a wide range of sports that develop skills, including invasion games, dance, gymnastics, yoga and, at lower KS2, swimming. Through these activities, children build up a knowledge of how their body works, how we can strengthen and develop muscles and how we can make sure we treat our bodies with respect, preventing injury and promoting physical and mental health. Importance will be placed on setting their own challenges and goals to develop a strong sense of achievement and a positive attitude towards physical activity.

Through our core values, all children are taught to be resilient, enthusiastic, ambitious, motivated and have self-esteem when participating in sports. Through high-quality teaching, children in all year groups have the opportunity to excel in PE. We want all children to develop a love of sport and an enthusiasm to continue this outside of school life both through community activities and in the future. We want them to be knowledgeable about the benefits of a healthy lifestyle for their physical and mental wellbeing.

Implementation

Through using the Get-Set-4-PE scheme of work, alongside lessons by qualified coaches, we ensure children receive a varied and well mapped out PE curriculum. It provides the opportunity for progression across the full breadth of the PE National Curriculum for KS1 and KS2 for both indoor and outdoor PE. 

Children are taught the knowledge and skills from Early Years Framework and the National Curriculum for Key Stage 1 and 2. Teachers are informed by our skills progression maps  to teach fun and engaging lessons. Our PE curriculum is both sequential and progressive and our teaching approach is consistent across the school. Each year group follows the PE overview to ensure that children participate in a variety of sports to build on their skills and knowledge each year. Children participate in high-quality PE sessions twice a week and the children are privileged to be taught by a specialist PE teacher from First Class at Sport for one of these sessions. The children are also provided with opportunities every day to be physically active by our qualified Year 6 play leaders every lunch-time. 

We provide a range of  inter-school competitions and range of clubs. There are numerous opportunities provided for children to take part in a range of competitive activities, both as individuals and as part of a team or group. The various team activities available at the school help equip children with skills in communication, leadership, cooperation, how to be reflective and set and pursue personal goals. Our school is also linked closely with Uckfield College, who provide multiple sporting events led by student sports leaders and specialist P.E teachers. 

We welcome first class at sport who teach one to two P.E lesson per year group each week. P.E lessons are also taught and led by our experienced class teachers. 

How is PE taught in EYFS?

Children are provided with the opportunities to be active and interactive; they develop their co-ordination, control, and movement.

EYFS children develop:

• Understanding the importance of physical activity, and to make healthy choices in relation to food.
• Good control and co-ordination in large and small movements.
• Safely negotiating space. 

How is PE taught in KS1?

Pupils 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.

KS1 pupils develop:

•  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
• · Team games skills, developing simple tactics for attacking and defending · Perform dances using simple movement patterns.

How is PE taught in KS2?

Pupils will 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. Children will have the opportunity to communicate, collaborate and compete with each other. They will develop an understanding of how to improve in different physical activities and sports and learn how to evaluate and recognise their own success.

KS2 pupils develop: 

• Running, jumping, throwing and catching in isolation and in combination
• ·Play competitive games, modified where appropriate [basketball, cricket, football, hockey and tennis], and apply basic principles suitable for attacking and defending ·
• Develop flexibility, strength, technique, control and balance [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. ·
• Children in Years 3 and 4 participate in swimming lessons annually.

Challenge in PE

Many extra-curricular opportunities will be provided for pupils to compete in competitive events and for others to take part in non-competitive festivals in collaboration with other schools through the Uckfield College primary sports programme. 

Impact

Our assessment is embedded into every lesson, and as well as teachers assessing the pupils' progress, we allow for pupils to assess their own and others' progress in the lesson. At the end of each term, each child’s progress is assessed throughout all the units.

We highlight any pupils who require support such as  1-1 support, intervention, clubs or to further differentiate PE lessons and embedded challenge to enable our highest attaining pupils are challenged. 

We celebrate  sporting achievements weekly at our Friends and Family assemblies. 

• We are linked with Uckfield Community College and take part in tournaments with other Primary Schools throughout the year. This ranges from Football, Rugby, Running, Multi-Skills, Athletics and Swimming.
• We have a wide variety of afterschool clubs throughout the year. This includes yoga, dance, football, netball and athletics. 
• Celebrating sporting achievements during Friday Friends and Family assemblies.