Physical Education (PE)
With God All Things Are Possible
At Benedict Biscop we want our children to learn that with God all things are possible. We want our children to aspire and to achieve highly.
We want our children to develop as active and healthy citizens, who develop a life long love of sport and exercise.
AIMS
The National Curriculum for Physical Education aims to ensure that all pupils:
- Develop competence to excel in a broad range of physical activities
- Are physically active for sustained periods of time
- Engage in competitive sports and activities
- Lead healthy, active lives
We believe that P.E. should develop children with the following essential characteristics:
- The ability to acquire new knowledge and skills exceptionally well and develop an in-depth understanding of PE.
- The willingness to practise skills in a wide range of different activities and situations, alone, in small groups and in teams and to apply these skills in chosen activities to achieve exceptionally high levels of performance.
- High levels of physical fitness.
- A healthy lifestyle, sustainable lifestyle
- The ability to remain physically active for sustained periods of time and an understanding of the importance of this in promoting long-term health and well-being.
- The ability to take the initiative and become excellent young leaders, organising and officiating, and evaluating what needs to be done to improve, and motivating and instilling excellent sporting attitudes in others.
- Exceptional levels of originality, imagination and creativity in their techniques, tactics and choreography, knowledge of how to improve their own and others’ performance.
- A keen interest in PE. A willingness to participate eagerly in every lesson, highly positive attitudes and the ability to make informed choices about engaging fully in extra-curricular sport.
- The ability to swim at least 25 metres before the end of Year 6 and knowledge of how to remain safe in and around water
Where does our curriculum start?
- Our early years curriculum is the starting point for all subjects within the National Curriculum.
- It ensures that all 7 areas of the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage are covered within each National Curriculum subject area and the Early Learning Goals within each of these areas are able to be achieved.
- Development Matters – Non-statutory curriculum guidance has been used to support the development of progression within our curriculum. Staff are able to use the observation checkpoints to help identify any child who is at risk of falling behind, so they can plan effectively to ensure they reach age-related expectations and end of EYFS.
- In the curriculum below learning objectives have been identified to support the development of key knowledge to ensure our children are school ready for Year 1.
- In order to challenge our pupils, we aim to provide a language rich environment, therefore subject specific vocabulary has been identified to support the development of communication and language across our full curriculum. Within EYFS we use the EEF recommended tiered vocabulary approach.
- Key texts have been identified through our reading spine and story cycle as a method for supporting our pupils to learn through stories.
The pillars of P.E.
Our curriculum is organised into three main strands, referred to as pillars. These are motor competences; rules, strategies and tactics and healthy participation.
These run through all of the P.E. units [see below for unit coverage across all year groups]:
| Year | Autumn | Spring | Summer | |||
| EYFS | How can I move my body? | How can I move my body to music? Can I use music to express how I am feeling? | How can I use apparatus? | |||
| Key Stage 1 | Dance | Gymnastics | Invasion Games (Benchball) | Net and wall games (Tennis Skills) | Striking and fielding (Football rounders) | Athletics |
| Three | Net and Wall games (Tennis) | Dance | Gymnastics | Invasion games (Hockey) | Striking and fielding games (Cricket) | Athletics |
| Four | Net and wall games (Volleyball) Swimming | Dance Swimming | Gymnastics Swimming | Invasion games (Tag Rugby) Swimming | Striking and fielding Games (Baseball) Swimming | Athletics Swimming |
| Five | Net and wall games (Tennis) | Gymnastics | Dance | Invasion games (Hockey) | Striking and fielding games (Cricket) | Athletics OAA |
| Six | Invasion Games (Tag Rugby) | Gymnastics | Dance | Net and wall games (Volleyball) | Striking and fielding games (Baseball) | Athletics OAA |
Our Early Years provision is language rich and has been carefully created to provide a range of opportunities both indoor and outdoor to help develop essential knowledge and skills to support speaking and listening and therefore the FOUNDATION of ALL LEARNING, including their physical development with both fine and gross motor control.
In Key Stage 1 and 2, pupils have a carefully mapped curriculum meeting the needs of the National Curriculum in core areas such as Dance, Gymnastics, Games, Athletics and OAA. Through each of these units the pillars of P.E. have been carefully mapped to ensure effective progression.
Swimming is taught in Year 4, however for pupils who do not meet the National standard of 25m. Pupils are given additional opportunities to reach this goal in Year 5 and Year 6, supported by our P.E. premium funding.
Enhanced sporting offer [clubs, competitions, sporting events and OPAL]
Children have access to a wide range of after school sports clubs from starting in Key Stage 1. Our clubs follow a number of curriculum areas such as athletics, football, tennis, cricket and tag rugby. As well as a number of specialist clubs including Karate and skiing.
Many of our children show interest in a new sport or activity from attending our after-school sports clubs. We have many links with local clubs and organisations around the City of Sunderland, having had many of our past pupils go on to compete at regional and national level in some sports. Our PE subject leader, Mr Holt, is always on hand to advise of any local clubs available for progress further in any sport.
Competitions/sporting events
Pupils at Benedict Biscop have access to a number of competitions, at various ability levels. All pupils compete in regular inter-house team tournaments within school PE lesson time.
We hold regular inter-trust competitions with our partner schools within Northern Lights Learning Trust, giving pupils an opportunity to compete in a wide range of sports against pupils from other schools. In the past, we have had much success in other local tournaments including, football, swimming, dodgeball and tag rugby.
When reaching year 5 and 6, pupils will have the opportunity to represent the school football team in the very competitive Sunderland Primary Schools Football league. In the past, this has also led to a number of students being selected to represent the City of Sunderland boys squad. From year 4 pupils have the opportunity to represent the school in the yearly Sunderland Schools Swimming Gala.
OPAL (Outdoor Play and Learning)
At Benedict Biscop we recognise the importance of play for children’s healthy development. Play promotes cognitive, physical, social and emotional well-being, offering the necessary conditions for children to thrive and learn. Through play, the child can experiment, solve problems, think creatively and cooperate with others.
From an early age in our Foundation Stage, our pupils are offered the possibility to experience several opportunities for unstructured play, in which our pupils can decide what to do, with whom and how. This helps to promote positive self-esteem, autonomy, and confidence.
In order to continue this journey throughout the school and build on the non-cognitive skills established within our Foundation, school have worked in partnership with OPAL to continue to provide pupils with these opportunities.
As Nationally, we have an increasing number of pupils leaving Primary school identified as obese, we believe providing children with the opportunity to be active for an increased time on a daily basis, will play its part in helping to combat this issue.
Pupil Voice
Our pupils were key in the decision making move to OPAL. Our Rights Knights School Council had shared with our Governing Body and Leadership team that they found playtimes boring. They felt that space was limited and that they would really like to have the opportunity to access more space and to be able to play with children in other key stages.
Our pupils love OPAL now and the amazing opportunities it provides. Feedback from pupils identified:
- An increase in enjoyment at playtimes. 96% of pupils said they preferred OPAL playtimes.
- 100% of pupils said they were much more active since the school introduced OPAL.
- 73% of pupils said they enjoyed having much more space to play.
- 93% commented that they felt they now had the opportunity to mix with children in other key stages.
How are we continuing to develop our OPAL curriculum
We have recently worked with pupils to identify what equipment and new areas they would like established within school. This is continuously changing and is reviewed regularly to make sure that pupils interests are catered for and our pupils are continuously engaged.
We now regularly allocate a proportion of our PE premium funding to help develop our OPAL areas.
How can you help?
We are constantly looking for donations of high quality resources that we can use in OPAL. The children love to den build and make obstacle courses – undamaged crates, pallets and durable containers are always welcome. As our mud kitchen is outdoors, if you have any metal or plastic pots and pans, wooden spoons etc. we would really benefit from your donations. We are also looking for local contacts in industry who might be able to help us replenish our supplies regularly….so if you know someone, please share with them what the school do.
Awards
Each year, we take part in a number of awards and accreditations, with the aim of providing as much physical activity and sporting opportunities as possible for our pupils. We are proud gold recognised holders of the Sunderland School Games and Active Sunderland awards. We are now working towards achieving platinum status.
Interested in finding out more?
If you would like to find out more about our curriculum. Please contact the school office by emailing BBinfo@nllt.co.uk and we will ask a member of staff to get back in touch a.s.a.p.
