Physical Education

PE at Eaton Park

Subject leader: Mr M Bell & Mr S Baskeyfield
Subject coach: Mr D Bell
Link governor: Mr Kelsall & Mr Law

Intent:

Eaton Park Academy’s philosophy for Physical Education is that the subject is an essential aspect of all children’s physical, social and emotional development. The subject provides children with the opportunity to access a wide range of activities that help to support and develop key motor skills, body awareness and physical development. Furthermore, the subject offers children valuable opportunities to develop socially and emotionally as individuals through innovative and creative group and individual activities outside of the conventional classroom, as well as the chance to plan, assess and perform activities and identify their strengths and interests.

Through PE and sport, children will be aware of their own personal strengths and capabilities as well as those of others. Accompanying this, children will also be able to assess and identifying ways to improve, develop and hone their skills further. The Academy firmly believes that each child is able to access all areas of the PE curriculum, regardless of ability, and that achievement at their particular level and skill set is to be celebrated in order to build confidence and self-esteem.

Physical Education also promotes valuable health and fitness for all children, and aims to provide children with an understanding of the many ways in which this can support both their education and personal development as they get older.

Aims

• To promote positive attitudes towards PE and a keen interest in health and fitness.
• To promote confidence and self-esteem for all children through a broad range of activities which develop the competence to excel at their current level and skill set.
• To provide children with engaging, creative and innovative sessions which promote active participation, interaction and accessibility at all levels across all areas of the PE curriculum.
• To encourage co-operation and social development through interaction as part of a team.
• To provide children with opportunities to participate in competitive activities to appreciate the positive experiences and spirit of competition.
• To encourage children to experience and access a wide variety of activities which cover all areas of the subject, through engaging lessons and extra-curricular activities.
• To encourage active leisure time and participation outside of school and beyond Key Stage Two.
• To enable children to identify and recognise the importance of being active but safe during activities.
• To promote and express the importance of team unity and teamwork.
• To provide children with the opportunity to express themselves through sport both as an individual and as part of a team.
• To develop and improve children’s self-esteem by offering a wide range of sports that increases the chances for those to shine who may not usually do so in the more ‘traditional’ forms of physical education.
• To promote and stretch those that are naturally talented in sport.
• To provide the opportunity to gain experience of competitive participation in inter-schools competitions.

The Subject Leader:

The role of the PE coordinator is to take a lead in developing the subject across the school through developing, establishing and updating the policy. It also entails producing, implementing and supporting schemes of work to ensure progression and ensuring practice is to a consistently high standard across the school through monitoring and evaluating planning, teaching and learning on a regular basis. The PE coordinator also oversees the effective use of assessment and recording across the subject and identifies and provides training for new initiatives and development areas which are beneficial to improving teaching standards.

In addition to this, they are responsible for the regular monitoring and assessing of equipment in order to identify and purchase new equipment to support and enhance the provision. The role also consists of forging links with the wider school community and other schools to provide children with the opportunities to experience and participate in a wide variety of activities and interest.

The Curriculum

Early Years Foundation Stage:
In our early years provision, all children access PE lessons weekly and begin to develop gross and fine motor skills through a range of activities. During PE sessions, children focus on developing their fundamental ‘ABC’ skills (agility, balance and co-ordination) along with moving of objects and learning how to work as part of a team. Assessment is at the forefront of sessions where children’s abilities can be identified and additional support is then provided in smaller groups.

Key stage 1
To further develop the skills children have acquired in EYFS, there is a heavy focus on mastering fundamental movement skills, including ball skills, in a competitive situation. During these games, children are able to identify the roles of defenders and attackers as well as developing understanding of how to be successful in both roles. In addition to learning these skills, children also gain the ability to work as part of a team and create tactics. Throughout the winter months, focus for children then turns to healthy lifestyles and gymnastics. The healthy lifestyles unit shows children ways in which to remain active whilst also embedding some skills from our assessment criteria. Gymnastics provides all children in KS1 with a chance to showcase their co-ordination, balance, strength and agility in a slightly different context than they have before. Children learn how to balance with a partner, to roll safely and effectively and then are able to put the two together to create a sequence. At the end of the gymnastic sequence, children apply their skills whilst using apparatus which further develops their strength and balance in a range of actions. During the summer months, children focus on developing the base for athletics skills in fun and competitive situations as well as having a multi-sports facet to the curriculum to introduce key skills that are sport specific such as football drills, striking and fielding drills and rugby drills in preparation for KS2.

Key stage 2
Throughout Key Stage 2, children access a wide variety of different sporting disciplines with the main aim for each sport being able to partake in a competitive situation. Invasion, net and wall, striking and target games form a large part of children’s PE experience in Key Stage 2 as children use the skills they have developed in the lower school, and then begin to use them in more match related practices. All elements of games are covered in a block of sessions with the ultimate aim being the children competing in a Level 1 intra-school competition. Upper Key Stage 2 children focus on tactical and match understanding to enable them to be successful whether that is offensively or defensively. Throughout the summer months, striking games are focused upon and children develop their fielding skills along with their striking ability. All practices are directly linked to a match situation in some capacity. In each academic year, all Key Stage 2 children partake in a temperature test to gauge their cardiovascular fitness levels. Following this assessment, the children have focus sessions of boot camp which shows many different ways in which children can be active and keep healthy. A really strong element to our PE curriculum is our athletics scheme which encourages all children to constantly strive for personal bests and develop a growth mind set. All children have their own assessment booklet in which there are 12 events that children record their times/distances in. As a result of this, every time the children complete an event their aim is to create a new personal best. This has seen a massive increase in children’s achievements in events. Gymnastics is a focus at some point in every academic year as children concentrate on heightening their skills in balancing, rolling, sequencing and apparatus use. Children work in groups to develop ideas and also analyse each other’s performances. Alongside this, children also have the opportunity to work collaboratively whilst performing for an audience of their peers.

Assessment for learning:

Continual assessment is carried out throughout each session by the class teacher or sports coach and is an integral part of every lesson. The assessment focuses on pupil skill and development, alongside the ability and understanding to apply different skills. It is also used to gauge attitude, achievement and impact on fitness and confidence. Questions and activities within each session provide the teacher with the opportunities to identify pupil’s responses, areas for development and support, and strengths which can be promoted and extended further to support each pupil’s growth.

The new assessment system provides the teacher and subject coordinator with greater detail of each child’s capabilities, with the skills covered and assessed more explicit to focus on six strands: games, athletics, gymnastics, dance, outdoor and adventurous activities and swimming. A collation of assessment data will be produced at the end of each half term to support future planning of lessons. Awards and rewards are given across different sports to record and promote attainment.

PE within other curriculum subjects:

SMSC – All PE lessons help children to develop their social skills whilst working together as part of a team in which they discuss tactics and team objectives during team games. Teams listen to all of their members to ensure that children develop the ability to listen to other people’s ideas/beliefs. Children are very morally aware of what is expected during PE and how all should abide by the rules of games.

Computing – Video and photography footage, through ICT resources such as I-pads, is a key necessity to certain strands of PE lessons. During gymnastics sequences, each balance and sequence is videoed and gives children the opportunity to analyse their own performance whilst also using scrubbing skills on the videos. I-pads are also used heavily in athletics through the same principle. Some team games are recorded show children the options that they have during a game and where they may be able to improve their position to become more effective.

Maths – Maths is an ever present in all PE lessons at Eaton Park Academy from Nursery all the way to Year 6. All PE lessons have some form of maths link in them. In foundation stage, PE lessons include counting and ordering numbers to further embed these skills with the children in a different setting. Place value, addition and subtraction knowledge is covered in PE lessons through a variety of fundamental retrieval and skills games. Athletics is used to develop children understanding of different ways of measuring physical activities. Measuring distance, time and quantity is directly linked in athletics sessions where children partake in various disciplines such as javelin throwing and 60 metres hurdles. Additionally, children collate data from their achievements against an assessment tool to understand what levels they have achieved.

Science – During lessons, children’s flexibility and understanding of their body is focused upon through warms ups and cool downs. Children discuss the impacts of their warms up on their heart and how they begin to feel. In KS2 cool downs consist of identifying different muscle groups and ways in which you can stretch them. To add to this, children also understand which physical activities impact on specific muscles.

English – During PE lessons, English is constantly linked whether it be directly or indirectly. Year bands focus on definitions of topic related words, chronologically ordering actions for events, analysing their own performance verbally and documenting areas for improvement. Those children that do not take part in PE lessons, who may be ill or injured, are still involved in the lessons as they take notes on what is being discussed and what they have learnt from the session despite not taking an active role within the lesson. Each year band has a writing focus based around a sporting action or event and this forms part of a writing sequence. Due to the fact children are constantly explaining the rules of games or how to complete an action, they write an explanation text linked to a sporting discipline. For those children who represent the school competitively, it is compulsory for them to complete a written evaluation form of their experience.

Enrichment:

Children are to be provided with an extensive range of extra-curricular activities which cover all areas and skills within the curriculum. The aim is to provide every child with the opportunity to access a multitude of sports and new skills, regardless of ability and understanding, to promote confidence, well-being and enjoyment.

Clubs will be provided on a changing timetable throughout the year, and are planned and coordinated well in advance and communicated to pupils, parents and staff. Information of each club and the activities involved will also be published on the Academy website to provide parents and pupils with an in-depth knowledge of what they entail.

Extra-curricular activities are provided and will be changing on a half-termly basis to provide a wider array of sporting disciplines. After school clubs will be provided by the sports coach who will provide a variety of high-quality opportunities for children in accordance to the skills within the curriculum.

Alongside these clubs, the Academy aims to provide more able and talented children with the chance to represent Eaton Park in an expanding range of competitions. The Academy aspires to promote competition and success in sports in order to raise confidence and self-esteem, encourage children to become more active and forge links with other schools. This is done through being active members of the Longton and City District Sports Associations, who organise various events and leagues throughout the school year. To develop this further, the Academy has created links with a pool of schools, with the proviso being to provide children with a greater experience of stimulating, enjoyable and rewarding competition across all sports.

Along with the Inter-school competitions, every Key Stage Two child has the opportunity to take part in inter-house competitive sporting competitions against their peers. The sporting disciplines range from athletics to football and provides all children the opportunity to develop as part of a team, using the sporting values.

Sports Ambassadors

As part of the Academy’s aim to provide children with as many opportunities as possible to participate in and embrace a wider range of sporting activities, the department has a number of Sports Ambassadors. These are children in Year 4-6 who have the skills and understanding across different sports to supply a variety of lunchtime activities to younger children throughout the school. As part of the interview process, children have to:
• Write an effective letter of application using their Literacy skills explaining why they would be suitable for the role.
• Take part in a short interview.
• Work in a small group to select equipment to plan an activity suitable for developing the skills of younger children.
• Set up, carry out and film their activity, analysing ways to improve it and cater for more and less able pupils.

In their role, Sports Ambassadors are tasked with:
• Having weekly meetings to organise grouping and planned activities.
• Work together to plan sessions for children in each Key Stage.
• Deliver effective tasks using different equipment, skills and sports to build and develop fundamental skills in younger children.
• Provide a voice for children throughout the school, gauging their ideas and opinions for clubs and future developments.
• Helping to set up, organise and facilitate clubs and competitions, including those involving other schools.

Pupil Voice:

Each academic year there are pupil surveys in which the children can reflect on the PE curriculum and the things that they enjoy and development points for the subject. This is used to give the children some ownership on helping to map out elements of the curriculum.

Bodhi in nursery – “Bodhi is in nursery and loves his PE on a Friday he always tells me what he has been doing.”

Ares in reception – “PE is fun in reception”

Shani-Jay in reception – “I like jumping and balancing because it’s my favourite.”

Freddie in year 1 – “I like keeping fit and having fun. I like everything we do.”

Imogen in year 1 – “I like PE at Eaton Park Academy because it is always so much fun.”

Bobby in year 1 – “I love dodgeball it’s my favourite activity. I love the afterschool clubs
with Mr Baskeyfield. PE day is my favourite day. I love everything we do.”

Evie in year 2 – “I like it because it’s fun to exercise and do a variety of different things”

Grayson in year 3 – “I like that you do different kinds of sports”

Jude in year 4 – “I like it because we have loads of sports and exercises”

Lyla in year 4 – “I like that we have fun playing lots of games and that Mr Baskeyfield makes us fitter whilst having fun.”

Megan in year 5 – “I like PE at Eaton Park as I like how it is fair, fun and it makes you fit”

Anna-Leigh in year 6 – “I love to run and do different sports, which I think we have a wide variety of at Eaton Park. I also enjoy leaning how to do new things and having a go.”

Connor in year 6 – “I enjoy doing various activities such as football, running and bench ball. I enjoy these as you learn new skills and you have to work as a team.”

Kian in year 6 – “PE helps you to stay fit and healthy and our mind-set can improve by exercising our body.”