Our definition for Foundation and KS1 – ‘Physical Education is educating the mind and body’
Our definition for KS2 – ‘Physical Education is learning new skills to help aid our understanding of how to improve performance.
Physical Education provides children the opportunity to develop physical competence and knowledge of movement and skills, placing children in co-operative, collaborative and competitive situations. It promotes skilfulness, physical development and knowledge of the body in action. This will help provide opportunities for children to develop their creative and expressive abilities and provide situations where children work independently, in pairs and in groups. It promotes positive attitudes toward healthy and active lifestyles. Pupils learn how to think in different ways to suit a wide variety of creative, competitive, cooperative and challenging activities. They learn how to plan, perform and evaluate actions, ideas and performances to improve their abilities and make choices about how they prefer to get involved in lifelong physical activity. As the children are exposed to a range of sports this allows them to pursue their favourite outside school or through school clubs. They also begin to understand what factors can affect health and well-being.
Intention
Physical Education
helps to create a healthy body but is also the key to a healthy mind – building
the foundation of dynamic and creative intellectual activity.
(John Kennedy)
Throughout our school, we believe that Physical Education should be taught thorough an exploratory-led approach. Children should be taught the new skills and concepts. They should then have the opportunity to explore how to execute these appropriately both independently and with their peers. They will then use these skills and apply them in a range of contexts and physical sports.
We are determined that our children
are going to to leave Bishop Alexander LEAD Academy being resilient,
responsible, respectful, aspirational, caring and independent (our school
values). We also want our children to maintain a fit and healthy lifestyle, and
understand what contributes to this. We want to inspire our children to enjoy
learning and make a difference in their lives to ensure that they achieve their
full potential, which in turn contributes to their future. Physical Education
supports these aspirations for our children in many different ways.
We aim to broaden our children’s knowledge, skills and understanding of
maintaining a healthy lifestyle through our Physical Education curriculum,
supported by the IPEP (Interactive PE lesson planner & Assessment)
software. It helps to develop children’s physical competence and confidence,
promoting physical skill, development and knowledge of the body, and provides
opportunities for children to be creative, competitive and to face challenges
as individuals, in groups and in teams. It is essential our children are being
exposed to and encouraged towards active and healthy lifestyles. Through
Physical Education, our children will learn how to plan, perform and evaluate
their work, supporting them to improve their performance. We also want children
to understand that it is not all about the physicality of the sport, but also
the mind. Therefore, we want the children to understand the psychological
effects Physical Education can have on an athlete.
We can do this through seven main concepts which fall within the IPEP planning;
Invasion, Net Games, Outdoor Adventures, Strike and Field, Athletics,
Gymnastics and dance. We ensure that the opportunity to widen children’s
Physical Education knowledge runs through all these concepts.
Through our teaching, we want to consistently aim to raise the awareness and profile of Physical Education as not only a subject but also as a potential career path for the future. The children will have the opportunity to broaden their knowledge, knowing what career prospects that can choose if they wish to carry Physical Education on.
Their starting points or life experiences will not limit our children. We will bring the experiences to them.
How do we teach Physical Education?
In EYFS Physical Education is taught for approximately 50 minutes a week and Year 1 through to Year 6 are taught twice a week for approximately 50 minutes, which equates to 9.5 hours a term roughly.
This is a table to set out what is being taught in each year group and sets out Year 1 through to Year 6 two sessions a week (Indoor and Outdoor sessions).
Lessons are taught with the support of the online resource iPep. Teachers can log into their personal account to access all teaching plans and children’s assessment. The units are planned by the Physical Education Lead to run alongside the schools Topic themes. This ensures clear and consistent coverage of topics throughout the two-year cycle. The lessons are structured with four columns, which are; warm up, main activity, linked games, next steps. Each column has a detailed explanation of what to teach the children. They also include pictures and videos for the children to access when appropriate. Within each column, there are three subheadings; Teacher Tips, Teaching Points and Progression. It is very clear for the teachers to follow ensuring consistency and progression at every stage of the session. Each plan also shows the objective, which is then broken down into different abilities so that the teacher can then pitch the sessions accordingly to the child’s ability. Under each column there are example objectives again linked to the children’s ability so the teacher can pitch each section appropriately. There is clear progression in each year groups planning, but also clear progression from one-year group to another, where they may be taught a similar skill but it has been adapted accordingly to ensure progress.
In every PE lesson, we would see teacher sharing the lesson objectives with the children. This will enable the children to have clarity for success and understand where there next steps are. Teachers are also expected to discuss and potentially display key vocab for that session where appropriate. This will enable children to use the correct physical education terminology and vocab throughout the session, and also seeing it displayed will support and develop reading skills. Additionally, teachers can share the session videos that are provided on IPEP if appropriate too.
The overall session would then consist of teaching the session following the format; warm up, main activity, linked games, next steps.