Physical Education Curriculum Intent
At Kirkby Malham Primary School, we recognise how Physical Education impacts every aspect of daily life. High quality PE sessions promote the benefits of a healthy lifestyle; introduce children to the benefits and fun that can be had with participation in sport; provide opportunity for pupils to take part in competitive events and further develop the vital importance of working collaboratively or as part of a team. There are also significant opportunities within PE to directly promote strategies that develop a positive mindset, mental health and well-being.
In order to give PE prominence in school the class timetable is designed so that it has ‘Physical Education and Positive Well Being’ afternoons taking place for each class during the week for pupils Year 1 upwards. PE is delivered by 2 sports teachers on one afternoon per week. This enables quality sports sessions to be taught in reduced group numbers and for children to directly access 2 sports each session – increasing the potential range of sports that can be covered and the depth to which lessons can be taught and delivered.
Physical Education Implementation
Staffing
The school uses school staff with Sport expertise/coaching qualifications to deliver lessons. We also buy in sport expertise to strengthen and deliver specific sports that might not be otherwise covered in school. All teachers who deliver sport are confident in teaching general PE and some have a specific sports background. Non-teachers/coaches have direct expertise in specific areas.
Safeguarding
All staff including sports coaches and Positive Psychology Coaches are DBS cleared and have completed a safeguarding self-declaration and any new staff will be employed in line with our safer recruitment policy.
Planning and Resources
Lessons are planned by teacher and where they are planned by coaches, lessons are shared/discussed with the class teachers. Some lessons are based on specific plans taken from sporting governing boards (e.g. RUFC plans for teaching contact or non-contact rugby). Teachers/coaches are also given the flexibility to plan to their group’s needs and learning styles.
Lesson Structure/Key Elements of a Good PE Lesson
Positive Outcomes - In a good PE lesson at the school, all children are working towards the same outcome and how they achieve this is through effective differentiation. A pupil’s ability to achieve in PE is related to their emotional and mental capacity as much as it is their physical capacity and as such, when we organise PE lessons at the school, we include personal well-being and team-building activities to complement the playing of a physical sport or game. A good PE lesson is where we see that children are improving and making progress. Improvement does not just mean becoming physically more proficient but also meeting other areas of the national curriculum outcomes such as engaging in competition, working well with others and developing a deeper understanding of healthy active lifestyles.
Careful Structuring of PE and teacher-led time - Our PE afternoon structure allows us to stream pupils of similar ability over year groups into small groups with an increased adult to child ratio, but equally there are times when pupils working with mixed ability might be more appropriate. Spending sufficient time on an activity is essential when learning new skills, developing mindset and honing interpersonal skills. The way our PE activities are structured allows time to be focused on activity-based learning. Teachers need to take care that their teacher- led input does not take away from time spent on activity-based learning. To develop and master skills children must be able to try, fail, repeat and refine. Teacher intervention therefore should only be when necessary and to pupils who need it. Teachers and coaches at the school are advised to not interrupt practice if what they are about to say does not add to the child’s learning and to always strive with a few prompts to get the pupil to find out for themselves or through trial and error? We aim for 20% teacher speak and 80% activity time – this can be done by:
- Only stopping small groups at a time and allowing others to continue play/participation in an activity
- Through ‘Stop, stand still’ – making the learning point and allowing the class/group/individual to continue (without completely breaking up the whole activity or stopping everyone and sitting them down).
- Peer review with groups or pairs rather than have the whole class watching.
Physical Education Impact
Assessment and Progress - Progress in PE can be viewed by assessing progress against progress markers. The school have developed assessment/progress markers for a range of PE activities to guide the teacher and coach. It is important for those delivering lessons to consider what these progress markers look like over an activity, a lesson and in the longer term. Pupils must also be aware of how they can make progress and describe and show this to others. We want to encourage children to formulate their own questions about physical and mental health and well-being and foster strategies to learn how to win and how to lose with dignity and respect for self and others.
Using Physical Education to promote important life skills - A good PE lesson means that pupils can draw links to things that they have previously learnt. This might mean getting children to understand the importance of teamwork in all group activities or to have care for the safety of all individuals in lessons by developing knowledge of the hazards and control measures put in place or an awareness of how to use equipment responsibly and safely. When we assess pupils understanding it should not be limited just to ‘can do’ statements for a particular game or sport or a child’s ability to reiterate what they discovered the last lesson. If we are aiming for Good or better practice in a PE lesson then we should be expecting children to draw parallels in more sophisticated ways. Linking learning could mean making comparisons between activities such as discussing an aspect of defending in gameplay in both netball, tag rugby and football. The ability to link learning is a very important aspect of pupil learning as it allows children to acquire the knowledge they need to lead a healthy active lifestyle regardless of the game or sport that they have played. We want children to apply the learnt behaviour of their PE lessons into life skills (e.g. team work, resilience, eating healthy, learning how to win and how to lose etc.).