Physical Education

At Coltishall Primary School, Physical Education helps children develop the knowledge, skills, confidence and enjoyment they need to lead healthy and active lives.

We want every child to experience success in physical activity, learn how to improve their performance and understand the importance of being active throughout their lives.

PE also provides powerful opportunities to develop confidence, resilience, teamwork, cooperation and respect.

Our Approach

Every class receives two hours of high-quality PE each week.

Our curriculum combines teaching from class teachers with specialist PE provision and is supported by the PE Passport scheme alongside the National Curriculum.

Children are taught progressively so that they develop increasing competence, confidence and independence.

They learn to:

• develop and combine physical skills;

• practise and refine techniques;

• make decisions during games and activities;

• work individually, with partners and as part of a team;

• compete appropriately;

• evaluate their own performance and that of others;

• understand how practice helps performance improve.

A Broad Physical Curriculum

Children experience a wide range of physical activities as they move through the school.

These include:

• fundamental movement skills;

• athletics;

• gymnastics;

• dance;

• invasion games;

• net and wall games;

• striking and fielding;

• target games;

• outdoor and adventurous activity;

• health-related fitness.

Activities become increasingly challenging as children build upon previous learning.

This broad experience helps pupils discover different ways of being physically active rather than seeing PE as being limited to traditional team sports.

Fundamental Movement

In the early stages of PE, children develop strong foundations in movements such as running, jumping, throwing, catching, balancing and changing direction.

These skills are revisited and combined in increasingly complex ways.

Secure fundamental movement skills give children greater confidence to participate successfully in games, sport and other physical activity.

Learning Through Games and Competition

Children learn both to collaborate and compete.

Games develop tactical thinking, communication and decision-making alongside physical skill.

As pupils grow older, they increasingly learn how to select and apply skills within competitive situations, understand rules and tactics and contribute effectively to a team.

Competition is approached positively: children learn to enjoy success, respond appropriately to setbacks and understand the importance of effort, respect and fair play.

Improving Performance

We encourage children to think about how movement and performance can be improved.

Teachers model effective performance and children have opportunities to observe, practise, evaluate and refine their own skills.

As pupils progress through the school, they are increasingly expected to identify strengths, recognise areas for improvement and respond to feedback.

Swimming and Water Safety

Swimming is taught in Years 3 and 4.

All pupils take part in an initial block of swimming teaching, developing confidence, technique and water safety.

Following this initial provision, pupils who have not yet reached the expected swimming standard continue with additional swimming sessions so that teaching can be increasingly targeted towards those who need further support.

Children work towards being able to:

• swim competently, confidently and proficiently for at least 25 metres;

• use a range of strokes effectively;

• perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations.

This approach enables us to provide every child with swimming experience while directing additional teaching towards pupils who have not yet secured these essential life skills.

Physical Education in the Early Years

Physical development begins from the start of Reception.

Children have regular opportunities both indoors and outdoors to develop strength, balance, coordination, control and spatial awareness.

They run, jump, climb, dance, balance, throw, catch and explore different ways of moving.

Fine motor development is also an important part of Physical Development, helping children develop control when using tools and equipment and supporting later skills such as handwriting.

These experiences provide the foundations for more formal PE learning in Key Stage 1.

PE and Our School Values

Sport and physical activity provide important opportunities to live out our School Values.

Children learn to:

• work together;

• encourage others;

• show respect;

• accept responsibility;

• persevere when something is difficult;

• reflect on their performance;

• respond positively to both winning and losing.

We want children to understand that being successful in PE is about much more than simply being the fastest or strongest.

Beyond Curriculum PE

Our curriculum is complemented by a wide range of sporting and physical opportunities.

Children can represent Coltishall in inter-school and cluster competitions, experience additional sports and physical challenges and take part in whole-school events such as Sports Day.

Further information about these wider opportunities can be found on our Sport & Challenge page.

Our aim is for every child to leave Coltishall having found ways of being active that they enjoy and with the skills, confidence and positive attitudes needed for an active life.

Coverage

We use a variety of teaching and learning styles in PE lessons. Our principal aim is to develop the children’s knowledge, skills and understanding. Teachers draw attention to good examples of individual performance as models for the other children, and we encourage the children to evaluate their own work as well as the work of other children. Within lessons, we give the children the opportunity both to collaborate and to compete with each other, and they have the opportunity to use a wide range of resources.

In all classes, children have a wide range of physical ability. Whilst recognising this fact, we provide suitable learning opportunities for all children by matching the challenge of the task to the ability of the child.

We achieve this through a range of strategies:

- Setting common tasks that are open-ended and can have a variety of results (e.g. timed events, such as balancing on one leg)

- Setting tasks of increasing difficulty, where not all children complete all tasks (e.g. developing jumping and landing techniques, leading to long jump and triple jump);

- Grouping children by ability, and setting different tasks for each group (e.g. different games, additional rules);

- Providing a range of challenge through the provision of different resources (e.g. different gymnastics equipment). 

At Coltishall Primary School, we use the National Curriculum Programme of Study in conjunction with the PE Passport scheme of work.  Each class will have two hours of high quality PE lessons each week throughout the year. A specialist PE Coach will deliver one hour a week and the other will be delivered by the class teacher.

PE activities are built upon the prior learning of the children. While there are opportunities for children of all abilities to develop their skills, knowledge and understanding in each activity area, there is progression planned into the scheme of work, so that the children are increasingly challenged as they move up through the school. 

Swimming is taught in years 3 and 4 on an alternate half-termly basis. Children are transported to Broadland High School where the session is led by a qualified swimming instructor / lifeguard and supported by the PE Coordinator. In these sessions the children are taught to:

• swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres
• use a range of strokes effectively
• perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations

EYFS

In the Foundation Stage, we encourage the physical development of our children in the reception class as an integral part of their work. As the reception class is part of the Foundation Stage of the National Curriculum, we relate the physical development of the children to the objectives set out in the Early Learning Goals, which underpin the curriculum planning for children aged three to five years of age. We encourage the children to develop confidence, control of the way they move, and care in the handling of tools and equipment. We give all children the opportunity to undertake activities that offer appropriate physical challenge, both indoors and outdoors, using a wide range of resources to support specific skills; both gross and fine motor.

These include:

Physical Development ELG: 

Gross Motor Skills Children at the expected level of development will: 

- Negotiate space and obstacles safely, with consideration for themselves and others; 
- Demonstrate strength, balance and coordination when playing; 
- Move energetically, such as running, jumping, dancing, hopping, skipping and climbing. 

Fine Motor Skills Children at the expected level of development will: 

- Hold a pencil effectively in preparation for fluent writing, using the tripod grip in almost all cases; 
- Use a range of small tools, including scissors, paint brushes and cutlery
- Begin to show accuracy and care when drawing.