Physical Education

Physical Education at Heathmere

Intent

Statutory guidance in England makes Physical Education (PE) compulsory in all primary schools. Department for Education guidance states that all children and young people should live healthy active lives. Within this guidance, it is recommended that all children and young people should take part in physical activity for at least 60 minutes every day (including at least 30 minutes of daily physical activity at school). The PE curriculum at Heathmere allows all pupils to be physically active in a board range of activities; our carefully created PE offer leads to a healthy and active life for all pupils. In July 2023, the quality of our PE curriculum was recognised externally and we were awarded the Gold School Games Mark Award for our ongoing commitment to providing high quality PE, physical activities and sporting opportunities to all pupils in our school. This accreditation is a nationally recognised award that signifies that a high level of best practice in PE is maintained throughout the academic year and demonstrates how central PE is to the curriculum at Heathmere.

We also know that research demonstrates how physical activities has a wide range of benefits for pupils’ physical health and mental wellbeing. Our high quality PE curriculum, including the wide range of extra-curricular sporting opportunities we offer to all pupils, plays a vital role in making Heathmere a safe and happy school. Our aim at Heathmere is to help all pupils to start their life-long love of sport and exercise from a young age.

When creating our PE curriculum and skills progression, we looked for opportunities to draw links between skills taught and local competitions outside of school. The opportunity to take part in sporting competitions outside of school is integrated into each PE unit of work where possible. We believe that it is important that all pupils benefit from these opportunities and support the government’s encouragement of equal access to sport for all pupils. We also ensure the skills and sports we teach in PE are planned and taught using a progressive model across the school.

Implementation

At Heathmere we have Specialist PE Teachers and Sports Coaches who deliver our PE curriculum from the Early Years Foundation Stage through to Year 6. All pupils in Nursery to Year 6 partake in discrete PE lessons with these specialists throughout the school year. Within these lessons, pupils learn, practise and demonstrate key skills and concepts which are relevant to their developmental stage and age. These concepts recall and build on prior knowledge and skills and are integrated in a progressive manner across our PE curriculum to ensure they are secure in pupils long-term memory. The sequence of this delivery has been carefully mapped out (our PE progression map can be found below) to support all pupils across the curriculum and in their wider lives as they move through their primary school years.

The implementation of our PE curriculum encourages pupils to develop competence to excel in a broad range of physical activities and sports and to develop their self-confidence and self-worth at the same time. Our PE specialist teachers know how to adapt our PE curriculum and lessons when necessary to provide a fully inclusive and engaging experience for all pupils.

Our PE curriculum also focuses on encouraging all pupils to be active for a sustained period of time. Therefore, we teach all pupils the importance of being active in order to live in a healthy way and encourage our pupils to engage in a wide range of competitive and inclusive sports activities such as inter and intra school competition, the daily mile, after school clubs and links with external sports clubs.

Impact

The PE Lead at Heathmere monitors the impact of the PE curriculum, ensuring that all pupils successfully learn the curriculum through a range of monitoring arrangements including: curriculum progression and planning reviews, learning walks and pupil voice. Pupils’ progress in PE is monitored by our specialist PE teachers and class teachers as part of our termly assessment procedures.